Key Step by Step Guidance
Configuration
Please see the Standard supplier checklist, a comprehensive reference guide of tasks suppliers should complete in order to be ready to transact with Alphabet / Google through Ariba.
Standard account functional trainingsStandard Account Functional Training Recording
- Go to Ariba Network page.
- Enter your Username and Password and then click Login.
- The Ariba Network Home page is displayed.
- The Home tab allows you to access functionalities available on the Home screen. You may notice that certain tabs are grayed out.
Since this is a Standard supplier account, the functionalities available are limited as compared to an Enterprise account. Since this is a free of charge Standard Account, you have the option to upgrade to a fee-based Enterprise Account at any point by clicking the Upgrade functionality.
Note: Enterprise accounts are fee-based. Make sure you understand the associated fees before upgrading. Go here for more information about upgrading your account.
- Click on WORKBENCH, the tiles indicate the number of:
- New Orders (Purchase Order is one that has not been invoiced against),
- Orders (all POs, both new and partially invoiced),
- Rejected invoices,
- Remittances,
- Early payment offers,
- Scheduled payments,
- Orders to invoice,
- Invoices,
- Pinned documents.
- If you don't see the document type you are looking for in the default tiles, click EDIT FILTER to Refine the search by:
- Customers,
- Order numbers,
- Creation date,
- Order status,
- Company codes,
- Purchasing organizations,
- Customer locations,
- Order type,
- Routing status,
- Min amount,
- Max amount,
- Currency.
- Click Apply. Once the Purchase Order has been located, it's important to note that suppliers with a Standard account can only invoice against the PO using an interactive email.
- Access the interactive PO email notification received in your inbox. The email will be sent from ordersender-prod@ansmtp.ariba.com.
- Scroll down on the interactive PO email notification. Click Process order to access the PO details.
- You can review the PO details under the Order Detail tab. If you want to review PO timeline Click Order History. You can track the real-time PO status updates there.
- Click Create Invoice to create an invoice against the PPO.
Finding an invoice follows a similar process to finding a Purchase Order. So let's have a look at how a supplier with a Standard account can find an invoice.
- Click on the INVOICES tile in the WORKBENCH.
- The relevant Invoices are displayed, along with the Invoice Status
- For the desired Invoice, select Send me a copy to take action from the Action dropdown
- Click Resend. The Invoice document is sent to the registered email ID.
- In case you wish to make changes to your email ID, account details or banking information, access Ariba Proposal and Questionnaires. Contact your account administrator for accessing Ariba Proposals and Questionnaires.
It's important to note that suppliers with a Standard account can check the invoice details only via an interactive invoice email.
- The email will be sent from ordersender-prod@ansmtp.ariba.com. Scroll down on the email notification. Click the View Invoice interactive link.
- The Invoice is displayed. Click the Detail tab to review the Invoice details. You can see the Invoice Status there.
- For additional details on invoice processing, click the History tab. You can track real-time Invoice status updates.
Below is a list of the most common Ariba Network statuses.
- SENT: The invoice is sent to Google but they have not yet verified it
- APPROVED: The invoice is sent to Google and has been verified
- REJECTED: Google has rejected the invoice due to missing / failed data validations
- PAID: Google confirms payment of the invoice amount
- CANCELLED: Indicates that the invoice has been cancelled at the supplier's end
- On the Detail tab, access the PO for this invoice by clicking Original Purchase Order.
The PO is displayed. Scroll through the document to review the details. You can toggle back to the invoice by clicking Related Documents.
With the video below you will learn how to navigate the Ariba Network using a free of charge standard account. In order to follow along with the video, please change the Ariba Network view to Classic View before proceeding.
Navigating through SAP Ariba Network Standard account
There are basic functions you need to know to be able to use Ariba Network efficiently.
If you want to update your Account Information on SAP Ariba, it means that you should have already completed the entire enrollment process for setting up an SAP Ariba Network Account. This means you should have completed steps 1 through 3:
- You should have registered an SAP Ariba Network account
- Filled out and the Registration Questionnaire
- Filled out the Tax Questionnaire
And should now be transacting with Alphabet/Google using the SAP Ariba Network.
In this section you can understand how to update your account information using the Google Registration Questionnaire.
You can update your account information for a number of different reasons. For example:
- if you need to update the pre-existing Business or Contact Information
- if you need to add information or payment sites to your existing supplier account
- or if you need to update information on a pre-existing payment site.
Please note that updates made in an existing Ariba account are sent for approval and verification before they are reflected in the record.
- To begin, make sure the Ariba Proposals & Questionnaire screen is selected from the dropdown menu on the left-hand corner.
- Scroll down, and you should see two forms in the Registration Questionnaires section.
Note the Status field on the right. Currently, the status says Registered. This indicates that the supplier record is registered with Google and has been in use for transactions. After you complete updating the record, the status will change to reflect the next step in the process.
- To make changes to the supplier record, click the Registration Questionnaire.
- Then click Revise Response to make edits.
- Review the pop-up confirming your request. Click OK to confirm that you would like to edit your submitted form.
- On this form, you can edit basic Business, Contact and important Payment Site information.
- Since you are a supplier who has been doing business with Alphabet/Google using SAP Ariba, your questionnaire will be pre-populated with your original information. You can revise any of this information and then re-submit the questionnaire to make updates.
- Click Select and choose the relevant commodity for your business.
- Click Done to update the Type of Good or Service field.
- You can update the Primary contact information like first and last name, job title, email and phone number as required under the contact section.
- You can also update the Company registered information fields, like Address, City, Town, State, and Zip code as required.
- When you are done making the updates to these sections, click Submit Entire Response to save these updates.
- You will see a confirmation pop-up message. Confirm the submission by clicking OK.
- You will see a confirmation message displayed on the screen, stating that your revised form has been submitted for approval and validation to Google.
- To add a new paysite to the supplier record, click the Registration Questionnaire.
- Then click Revise Response.
- Review the pop-up confirming your request. Click OK to confirm that you would like to edit the submitted form.
- To add a payment site, click Add Payment Site Location.
- You will be redirected to a new screen where you can enter your payment site information.
Please note that the number in brackets represents the number of payment sites Google already has for you. This number is very important while updating the Location Name field.
Even though the Delete button is available, please do not use it to delete any payment sites that are not in use.
If you want to delete a site, please contact the Google P2P Help Desk using the Contact Us button below. Remember to check with your AP/AR team before adding or making changes to pay sites, as it could lead to payment disruption in case of any error.
- Click Add an additional Site to add a new paysite
- Click the drop down associated with the Location Name field. It will open up a list of Location Nickname numbers.
It is important to make sure that the Location Nickname number corresponds to the Site number. While adding a new payment site, please make a note of the location names of existing or already added sites, and select the next value from the location dropdown in the new site. The Location Name values should not be repeated in more than one payment site.
- Add the other important required details.
- There are a few important contacts you will be asked to provide. The first is the remittance email. This is where you will enter the email address for the individual who handles day-to-day processes and payments for your organization.
- Add the required banking details.
- The second point of contact required here is the beneficiary name, which is the name of the individual account holder.
- Add the bank account details as required.
Please note that the system has built-in validation rules to ensure bank account fields have the appropriate characters. You may receive an error message if your entry doesn't match the system configuration.
- The next important field is the Ariba Network Account Administrator Email. This email is used to establish the initial trading relationship with Alphabet/Google. Once the Ariba Network Administrator is confirmed, this individual can then configure Purchase Order routing and add users to ensure POs go to other users at the organization moving forward.
If you don't know who your Ariba Network Administrator is, you can leave this field blank.
- Finally, enter the Payment Authorization contact details. This is the individual Alphabet/Google will contact to validate payment information if needed, and serves as the AP/AR point of contact for authorizing payments. For some organizations, this individual could be the same as the individual entered as the remittance email contact. You can have the same individual listed for the different contacts at your company if needed.
- It is also required to list your point of contact at Google. Now, this must be an email that ends in @google.com.
- When you've finished, click the Save button on the top right.
- You will be redirected back to the questionnaire.
- Once you've added all the required information, click Submit Entire Response.
- You will see a confirmation pop-up message. And go ahead and confirm the submission by clicking OK.
- You will see a confirmation message displayed on the screen, stating that your revised form has been submitted to Google for approval and validation.
Please note, the Remittance Email is contacted for validation of every bank detail updated.
- Once you click the Registration Questionnaire, you will be redirected to a new page.
- Click Revise Response to make edits.
- Review the pop-up confirming your request. Click OK to confirm that you would like to edit your submitted form.
- To edit an existing payment site, click Add Payment Site Location.
- You will be redirected to a new screen where you can enter your payment site information. Scroll to the required Site # and make the desired updates just the way we saw in our previous scenario, keep in mind the key fields and callouts that we called out earlier.
Please note that Location Name is an important identifier of the payment site linking to our backend system, and it should not be changed for any of the existing payment sites as shown in the form.
- Make the edits to the fields as required.
- When you've finished updating the fields, click Save on the top right.
- You will be redirected to the questionnaire.
- Once you've updated the required information, click Submit Entire Response.
- You will see a confirmation pop-up message. Confirm the submission by clicking OK.
- You will see a confirmation message displayed on the screen, stating that your revised form has been submitted for approval and validation to Google. The Remittance Email is contacted for validation of every bank detail updated.
And with that, that's how you can make updates and changes to your account information.
For more details, visit the Google Suppliers Help Center or the Ariba Help Center.
With the video below you will learn how to update your account information in the Ariba Network. In order to follow along with the video, please change the Ariba Network view to Classic View before proceeding.
Mismatched or outdated supplier account info is the top reason for purchase orders and invoices not being submitted successfully/being rejected. This can lead to payment rejections.
- If you are a supplier who was doing business with Alphabet / Google before the transition to Ariba, your questionnaire will be prepopulated with your original information on file. You can revise any of this information and then re-submit the questionnaire if you need to make updates. See following steps.
- If you have additional questions about updating your account information, please connect with the Alphabet/Google team by clicking contact us below.
- Click on the initials on the Top Right Corner.
- Click on Users > Click on “+” on the bottom right.
- Create Role > Enter New Role Information.
- Select all relevant Permissions (Page 1 & Page 2) > Click Save
- Click on Manage Users > Click on “+” on the bottom right.
- Create User > “New User Information” and “Role Assignment” > Check the box > “Done”
- Click on the initials on the Top Right Corner
- Click on Users
- Click on Manage Users tab. Select the user who is to be made the administrator by checking the box against their name.
- Click on Actions and select Make Administrator from the drop down
- When redirected to a new screen, check the box again to select the user and click on Assign.
With the video below we are going to take a closer look at how your company's Ariba Network Administrator can add users to your account. In order to follow along with the video, please change the Ariba Network view to Classic View before proceeding.
Managing Account Admin & Users Standard Account
Why is this important?
Make sure the right person at your company is designated as the Ariba Network Administrator to:
- manage your company's account information (e.g. updating bank accounts), and
- ensure the right team members are set up as 'Users' who are able to process POs and create invoices.
Key Takeaways
- Identify who your organization's Ariba Network Account administrator is.
Note: there can only be one Ariba Network Account administrator for an account (it's a very important role!). - Your Ariba Network Account administrator has the ability to: add users, grant user accessibility permissions, and control which users can access and take action on POs and Invoices.
- Anyone who needs to take action on POs or invoices must be added as a user and assigned a role by the account administrator. The account administrator can add up to 250 users for one account.
PO & Invoice Management
Receiving Your First PO and Creating an Invoice
In this section we will be reviewing receiving your first Purchase Order email from SAP Ariba.
Let's take a look at an initial Purchase Order you may receive from Alphabet/Google and the steps you need to take against it to register or log in with an existing Account.
Below is a Purchase Order email you will receive from Alphabet/Google. Your email notification will contain all of your Purchase Order details. You'll be able to process and invoice the order directly from the email. If this is your first time connecting to the Ariba Network, you'll need to create a new standard account for your company. It takes just a few minutes and the account is completely free of charge. If you have an existing standard account you will be able to log in with your existing credentials once you click the Process order button.
- Before you proceed please take a moment to review and verify the orders details. If everything looks correct then you can proceed by clicking the Process order button.
- When you click the button you can see some of the benefits of a standard account at a glance. You will also see a pop up on your screen that will allow you to review potential Ariba network accounts your company may already have registered.
- If you're unsure if your company has an existing account you can click Review accounts.
- If your company's address or information matches any existing accounts on the Ariba Network, you will see them displayed on this page. You can either reach out to the administrator on the account by going to Actions > View Profile. If none of the accounts look familiar you can go ahead and click the Go back to the previous page link at the top of your screen.
- At this time we're going to go back and exit out of the pop-up.
- Please note that you have two options now on your screen. You can either Sign Up for a new account or you can Log In to an existing account using the login credentials you already have.
Let's see the instructions on how to sign up as a new supplier and create an account.
- Click Sign Up.
On the registration page you'll see some basic profile information about your company. Some of which may already be filled in based on the information you once provided to Alphabet/Google.
- Review any pre-filled information to make sure it's accurate.
- You'll also need to provide some basic information about yourself including your:
- first name,
- last name,
- an email address.
Please note that the box below is checked saying use my email as my username. This means that your username will also mirror your email address. If you uncheck this box you can make the username appear to be anything you want it to, but do note that the username must be in the form of an email address. It does not have to be valid but it must look like an email address.
- Next you will need to provide a password for the account.
After entering a password you'll notice below there is an email address listed to which email orders will be sent. Please take a moment and verify if this email address is accurate. If it does need to be sent somewhere else, please go ahead and update it at this time.
- Finally you'll need to scroll down and review and accept the Terms of Use and SAP Ariba privacy statement.
- Once those have been completed go ahead and click Register.
- Then it will be an additional potential existing accounts pop up showing up on your screen. Click Review Accounts.
- If once more none of these accounts look familiar, please click the Continue Account Creation hyperlink up at the top of your screen. This will allow you to continue and create your account.
With the video below there will be reviewing receiving your first Purchase Order email from SAP Ariba. In order to follow along with the video, please change the Ariba Network view to Classic View before proceeding.
Receiving your First PO & Registering Standard Account
Why is this important?
It is important to you as a supplier. The first Purchase Order email you will receive contains the link to register your SAP Ariba Standard Account. There is also confirmation of your trading relationship with Alphabet/Google.
Key Takeaways
- Your Purchase Order email will be coming from ordersender-prod@ansmtp.ariba.com. Please ensure this email address is whitelisted at your company so you are able to receive Purchase Orders from Alphabet/Google.
- You can process and invoice the Purchase Order directly from the interactive email you receive. You can first click the process order button directly from the Purchase Order email and then you will have access to create the invoice.
- If you access a Purchase Order on your standard account dashboard, you will need to resend the Purchase Order to your inbox to take action on it and invoice Alphabet/Google.
In this section you will find steps describing how to create a PO invoice via PO flip.
Header LevelTo create PO invoice in Ariba at the Header and Line level perform the following steps:
- The Ariba Supplier Network login screen is displayed. Log in with your valid credentials.
- Click on Workbench > Orders > Edit Filter > Creation Date > Last 365 Days
Once the purchase Order reflects, you'll need to click on it. - Click the Create Invoice drop-down menu. Select the Standard Invoice option.
- The Create Invoice screen is displayed. Here, populate the following fields:
- Invoice number
- Invoice Date
- Supplier Tax ID
- To add tax to the Header level (Applicable only for US based suppliers):
- Select the Header level tax radio button.
- From the Add to Header drop-down menu, select the Tax option.
- Select the relevant entries in the following fields:
- Category
- Rate (%)
Note that the tax amount reflects automatically in the Tax Amount field.
- To add shipping at the header level, select the Header level shipping radio button. You can also view or edit your addresses by using the View/Edit Addresses link.
- The VIEW/EDIT ADDRESSES screen is displayed. Once you’ve made the required updates, click the OK button.
- If there is any shipping cost and you want to add it to the Header level:
- From the Add to Header drop-down menu, select the Shipping Cost option
- Enter relevant details in the Shipping Amount and Shipping Date fields
- From the Add to Header drop-down menu, select the Shipping Cost option
- Notice that the terms of the payment are reflected under Payment Term. This is not editable.
- To add any special handling expenses to the Header level:
- Click on the Add to header drop-down menu
- Select the Special Handling option
- Enter the required details in the relevant fields within the Special Handling section
- If you have any discounts to show to the Header level:
- Click on the Add to Header drop-down menu
- Select the Discount option
- Enter the required details in the relevant fields within the Discount section.
- To upload attachments at the Header level, from the Add to Header drop-down menu, select the Attachments option.
- The Attachments screen is displayed. Here:
- Click the Choose File button to select the relevant file.
- Once selected, click the Add Attachment button.
- To add shipping details at the line level:
- Select the Line level shipping details radio button and navigate to the Line Items section
- And for Line level tax, select the relevant line item and choose Tax from Line Item Actions drop down menu (Applicable for APAC and EMEA based suppliers)
- Select the Line level shipping details radio button and navigate to the Line Items section
- In the Line Items section:
- Select the item you want to add tax and shipping for at the line level.
- Select the relevant tax category from the drop-down menu in the Category field.
- Enter the tax rate in Rate (%) field.
- The tax amount automatically reflects in the Tax Amount field.
- Click the View/Edit Address link to perform the relevant action.
- The VIEW/EDIT ADDRESSES screen is displayed. Once you’ve made the required updates, click the OK button.
- Populate the relevant details (if any) in the Shipping Cost section.
- To upload any attachment(s):
- Select the item for which you want to upload an attachment.
- Click the Arrow icon. From the drop-down menu, select the Attachment option.
- The Attachments screen is displayed. Here:
- Click the Choose File button to select the relevant file. Note that only PDF files can be uploaded within 100 MB.
- Once selected, click the Add Attachment button. The uploaded file is reflected here.
- Click the Next button to proceed.
- Click the Submit button to submit the invoice.
- Your invoice has been submitted. You can either print a copy of the invoice or exit the invoice creation screen.
If you are logged into an Enterprise Account the BPO is going to be flipped in your inbox. If you have a Standard Account you can still take action against the BPO, but you must access it through the interactive email order you receive from your buyer.
- Let's flip the BPO here. You will see the BPO looks just like a normal purchase order until you click on the BPO number.
- Here you will see there are few differences. At the right hand side it will show a blanket purchase order. Below you may also see the effective and expiration date of the BPO.
- When you scroll down to the line item section, it will show as a blanket item and it will only have a total price listed, rather than the quantity and unit price as you see on a normal purchase order.
- To create an invoice is very similar. Go to Create Invoice > Standard Invoice.
- As usual enter in an invoice number and any additional fields that are marked as required.
- When you get to the line item section you will notice that it is not editable. Since this is a blanket item, you will actually need to add your line items to the invoice. Do this by selecting the appropriate line on the BPO. Click Create and select either Goods or Service.
- On the next page provide the appropriate Quantity and Unit Price for which you are invoicing.
- Once all the necessary information has been filled out, go ahead and click the Create button on the right top side.
- As you can see on the screenshot, this line you just created will appear as a subset of the line item showing here as 10.1. If you need to make any corrections to the line you created, you can either edit it on this page or select the line item and click Edit. If adding this line item was a mistake all you need to do is select the line item and instead click Delete.
- Everything looks fine here, so go ahead and click the Next button.
- This will take you to a summary page where you can review all the details to ensure they are correct. Once you've verified that everything looks good, click Submit.
- If you need to print a copy of your invoice you can do it at this time or you can go ahead and click Exit invoice creation.
- You've now successfully submitted and invoiced against a blanket purchase order.
With the video below you will learn how to submit invoices in the Ariba Network. In order to follow along with the video, please change the Ariba Network view to Classic View before proceeding.
Blanket Purchase Order Invoicing Overview
For a step by step guide on how to invoice via PO flip, please navigate here.
You want to make sure you know how to flip a Blanket Purchase Order into an invoice and how to create a PO invoice via PO flip. It is possible to create a PO invoice in Ariba at header and line level.
- BPO is a type of purchase order issued to a supplier for multiple purchases of specific goods or services for a specific time period and a not-to-exceed, predetermined amount. The blanket order allows purchases, within the terms of the order, to be charged to that specific blanket order.
- There are two types of BPOs your buyer may send you.
- BPOs you can directly invoice. Depending on the type of BPO, item level, supplier level, catalog level or commodity level and your buyers configuration, you can either use PO-flip invoicing within your Ariba Network account, or you can punch-in to your buyer’s Ariba Procurement Solution from your Ariba network account to create the invoice.
- BPOs that require a release order, or purchase order. The BPO serves as information only, and your buyer will send you a PO for you to invoice.
- Go to your company settings and select Electronic Order Routing underneath the network settings header.
This will load a page, where you can set all of the different preferences you would like to have, when a new purchase order is posted. Under New Orders there's a section that says Routing Method. This applies to all the items under this section. Currently you can see the routing method is set to Email. Any email addresses you input to the field to the right, will receive a notification, when a new purchase order is posted to your Ariba network account.
In this field you can enter up to five email addresses, separated by a comma. Please be sure to identify the proper contacts or group within your organization, who should be receiving purchase orders. If a purchase order should be sent to a group of people, you can enter in a distribution list as one of the email addresses to ensure POs are being received by the proper contacts.
If you need to receive a notification, when a new purchase order comes into your account, but your company also has a team of seven people, who also need to be notified, you can enter in a distribution list to ensure everyone can receive the notifications.
How do you have your routing configured here?
With your email address and a distribution list, there will actually be eight people notified whenever a new purchase order is sent to the account.Please note just because someone is receiving notifications of new purchase orders coming into the account, does not mean they will be able to take action against the purchase order. To take action against an order an individual must be added as a user on the account.
- You will notice there are different types of orders and documents you can configure routing for. If you are not sure which types of documents you will be receiving or if you know the same team handles all incoming documents, you can default the routing to the selection you made for new orders without attachments. If needed you do have the option to configure them to be different.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page. There you will see additional notifications related to orders. There you can choose to be notified of purchase orders that are: failed or undeliverable to your account. You have the option to enter up to 3 email addresses, or distribution lists separated by a comma.
- When you are done reviewing all order routing and notifications, as well as making any changes needed, click Save.
- If you need to configure custom routing for specific buyers on your account, go to your Company Settings and Customer Relationships. To the right-hand side there will be an action link to click and then, select Override Routing to configure custom routing for that buyer.
- On the top of the page choose the Electronic Invoice Routing section.
- In the Notifications part, you have the option to be notified of invoices that are failed or rejected or receive notifications when the status of your invoices change.
For these general notifications you can add up to three email addresses or distribution lists separated by a comma.
With the video below lets see how to Flip a Blanket Purchase Order into invoice. In order to follow along with the video, please change the Ariba Network view to Classic View before proceeding.
How to Configure Purchase Order Routing
You want to make sure the correct team members in your organization can:
- receive notifications of new purchase orders,
- take action and invoice against those POs.
- To ensure team members receive PO notifications, you need to add their email address to the 'Order Routing' field.
- If you have more than 5 team members who need notified of POs, you should add a distribution list or alias to the Order Routing field.
- To ensure team members can take action and invoice against POs, you need to add them as a user within the Account Settings, and add their email address to the Order Routing field.