• 1 Introduction
• 2 Procurement
  
  • 2.1 Getting started guide in Product Manager
  • 2.2 Share agent agreements and framework agreements in groups
  • 2.3 Tactical dynamic procurement system
  • 2.4 Change purchase order sending method to suppliers for individual orders
  • 2.5 Purchase Professional Tools granular user rights
  • 2.6 Recently used purchasing categories added to dropdown in Purchase Professional Tools
  • 2.7 Update purchasing categories using Excel import
  • 2.8 View purchase orders’ invoiced total in Purchase Professional Tools
  • 2.9 Contract details view in Purchase Professional Tools
  • 2.10 Show contract spend in contract search results
• 3 AP Automation
  
  • 3.1 Separately configure fields and field order for list views in AP Pro
  • 3.2 AP Pro Manual Matching - Allow approvals based on the deviation amount, not the row/invoice sum
  • 3.3 Validate cumulative difference on order row level for sum-based matches
  • 3.4 Search and select a spend plan row or reference on an invoice
  • 3.5 Validation for plan reference field on invoices
• 4 Analytics
  
  • 4.1 Change all references to “payment plans” to “Spend Plans” in Analytics

Module(s): Marketplace
Feature ID: ALUSTA-83231
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Feature is in use automatically

When logging into Basware Marketplace for the first time after the 21.8 upgrade, buyer and supplier users with access to Product Manager are now greeted with a new tutorial. The tutorial walks the user through the Product Manager interface and guides them through the most important steps to setting up catalog content. The tutorial helps orient new users to the application and helps them quickly realize the value of the Marketplace service. 

The tutorial is only shown once to each user, but users can access it again if needed by clearing their cooking for the website. After completing the tutorial, users have a brand new dashboard with quick links to the most important areas of Marketplace. There is a different dashboard for buyers and suppliers. 

More enhancements are coming soon to make these pages even more effective for all users!

Dashboard for buyers: 

Dashboard for suppliers:

Module(s): Marketplace
Feature ID: ALUSTA-87635
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Feature is in use automatically

It is now possible to also share agent agreements and framework agreements within groups of buying organizations in Marketplace. The types of agreements that can be shared are: 

• Organization agreements: agreements in which the supplier provides and maintains the price list. 
• Agent agreements: agreements in which the buyer organization maintains all catalog items. 
• Framework agreements: agreements with content from several suppliers. All items must go through the quick quote process before they can be purchased. 
• Punchout agreements: agreements that set up a punchout connection to a supplier’s own webshop. 

After one organization in the group creates an agreement and shares it, all other organizations can use the items in the agreement in their own catalogs. By joining groups and sharing agreements, buyer organizations benefit from a wider choice of catalog items and less maintenance work in Product Manager. 

Module(s): Marketplace
Feature ID: ALUSTA-87634
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Consultant & Customer

Do you feel that your global agreements for indirect materials and services don’t respond exactly to the actual business needs?  They might fit a larger strategy, but when it comes to specific services, work, or goods, businesses tend to prefer local suppliers. This can create conflict, as business units end up requesting quotes by email, approving them, and starting the collaboration with their chosen supplier outside of your organization’s procurement system. When the invoice finally comes in, it is possible that the supplier is not even in your ERP system. 

We believe that creating a balance between global and local needs ensures a winning procurement scenario. Because the bottom-up approach is known to be the key player in any change management program, you can now allow your buyers to select the suppliers with whom they want to deal, without putting your business at risk. As a procurement organization, you will provide the framework you want your company to operate within and gain upfront visibility on the suppliers your business prefers to use.

But how can you be sure that the local suppliers your business prefers follow your organization’s terms and conditions?

With Marketplace’s new Tactical Dynamic Procurement System (TDPS), we create a bridge between the global procurement organization, the local procurement organization, and even with local buyers. We also support your Corporate Social Responsibility program by offering local suppliers a new channel to inform you about their goods and services. It is now possible to source locally and find that unique startup that will exactly resolve a business need while staying within approved procurement processes. As supplier diversity is now an important topic, and anti-bribery policies are commonly used, procurement functions have now a tool to support the whole organization becoming more compliant.

Our tactical dynamic procurement solution is in practice a dynamic purchasing system (very often used by the public sector). In order to join a dynamic purchasing system, suppliers follow a two-step process.

1. First, they must answer a “registration” or “qualification” questionnaire, that can be set up in Marketplace Product Manager by, for example, the global procurement organization.
2. The dedicated procurement professional then accepts the suitable company, if there are specific requirements. Alternatively, the approval can be also automated.  When the first qualification step has been approved, the supplier can answer an “item-level questionnaire”.

For public sector procurement, the customer cannot limit the number of suppliers who answer the qualification questionnaire. This is for now similar to the tactical dynamic procurement system we have in place for the private sector. However, enhancements could be done base on feedback. In our TDPS solution, suppliers can join at any time while the system is open for them.

As a procurement organization, you can create as many TDPS surveys as you wish, such as one TDPS per procurement services sub-category (i.e. marketing agencies, cleaning services, IT consulting services, etc..).

Each TDPS can be searched in the Marketplace catalog by the buyers and the journey to find the right supplier can start. In Marketplace, TDPS results have the action View.

After clicking Select Suppliers, the buyer can view all suppliers who have qualified for the TDPS, and filter on their needs. The filters reflect the questions to the suppliers and answers they provided during the “item-level questionnaire” phase.

Depending on how the TPDS has been set up, the buyer can either select an item that has a price already or request a quote from their chosen supplier.

The TDPS feature is enabled using a toggle. If you do not have sufficient user rights to manage your organization’s feature toggles, request for the new feature to be enabled through the Basware Support Portal.  

A good thing to remember is that Marketplace still supports also framework agreements. In such agreements, buyers can purchase only from suppliers that have been pre-approved for the duration of the framework agreement.

Module(s): Purchase
Feature ID: ALUSTA-80435
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Feature is in use automatically

Now it is possible to change the sending method for an order if the supplier’s default sending method is not suitable for the particular purchase order. This allows users to change the sending method from a Network purchase order to an email purchase order. This can be useful if, for example, the item is a free-text form item that requires additional communication with the supplier. Changing the sending method can also be useful if it is necessary to send a blanket order to a supplier that, by default, receives Network orders. 

The action to change the sending method is in the Purchase orders panel:

A user can select Change sending method, then select the preferred method and provide the supplier’s email address if it is not already available in the P2P Admin tool. Multiple email addresses can be added to the supplier’s email address field.

The user can also choose if the order will be sent as a self-service order. Self-service orders are used when the ordered items should be picked up from a store instead of the supplier delivering the ordered items. The order can be sent either to the supplier and other email recipients or only to the other email recipients. If the self-service order is handled by the purchase requisition owner, there is a shortcut for adding the owner’s email address. Multiple email addresses can be added to the email field.

Module(s): Purchase
Feature ID: ALUSTA-57169
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Feature is in use automatically

Earlier there was only one user right which granted access to Purchase Professional Tools. With this user right, professional users could manage all document types freely. Now we have introduced a more granular set of professional user rights. With these user rights, administrators can allow partial access to Purchase Professional Tools to even more users. Users can benefit from the efficiently designed professional user interface, while only being able to view and act on selected documents. For example, a user role could be configured to manage purchase requisitions but only view purchase orders. 

Module(s): Purchase
Feature ID: ALUSTA-79476
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Feature is in use automatically

When a user is editing item categories on a purchase requisition in Purchase Professional Tools, the dropdown now includes a list of that user’s recently used categories. For users who frequently order items in the same categories, this enhancement speeds up requisition management, because the user does not need to search for the category every time. 

Module(s): Purchase
Feature ID: ALUSTA-77784
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Feature is in use automatically

Now in Edge Data Management, it is possible to update the purchasing categories and their data via an Excel spreadsheet. This enhancement makes it quicker than ever to make many changes to purchasing categories at one time. Changes take effect for the selected organization and all child organizations.

To use this feature, the category manager first uses Export to get all category data in the correct template. Then, the manager can make changes to the data and set the changed rows’ Action to “UPDATE” or deleted rows’ action to “DELETE”. Finally, the manager uses Import changes to import the changes in the system. 

For detailed instructions on how to use the template to make changes to purchasing categories, see the self-service instructions in ServiceNow. 

Module(s): Purchase
Feature ID: ALUSTA-79827
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Basware consultant work is needed

Now it is possible for buyers to get an overview of the invoiced total on purchase orders. This makes it easier to track the status of purchase orders that are open for a long time and that will be invoiced in parts, such as blanket purchase orders. The net and gross invoiced totals are available after an invoice has been linked and matched to a purchase order. The invoiced totals will be shown in the purchasing currency.

Buyers can see the invoiced net and gross total in the purchase order document view.

The invoiced net and gross totals are also available in the Purchase Professional tools list view for purchase orders.

The invoiced sums will only be available for purchase orders that are automatically or manually matched after the 21.8 release. For purchase orders that were fully matched before the 21.8 release, the sums will not be updated.

Also, users will be able to see the order type for purchase orders in the Purchase Professional tools list view and use the order type for sorting or pivoting the purchase orders.

If you are interested in viewing the invoiced net and gross totals for purchase orders, request for the new feature to be enabled through the Basware Support Portal.

Module(s): Purchase
Feature ID: ALUSTA-82700
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Feature is in use automatically

Contract documents can now be seen in Purchase Professional Tools in the details view. Double click any contract in the list to see its details. The contract also shows whether spend is collected for this contract in field Collect spend for orders.

There are also usability improvements for contract spend visibility:

• When listing the orders for a contract, the order’s supplier is displayed
• When listing the orders for a contract, a quick filter helps find specific orders easily
• The total sum of orders using this contract is shown in the contract’s Header data tab
• It is possible to export the order list to Excel
• The order list is limited to the latest 500 orders for a contract, to ensure good performance

Module(s): Purchase
Feature ID: ALUSTA-84351
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Feature is in use automatically

Contract document search In Purchase Professional Tools, contract document search now shows the amount of spend that has been ordered for a contract in the column Order spend. The amount shown is gathered from all purchase orders that reference the selected contract number. For more information on this feature, see Show contract spend for purchase orders in Purchase Professional Tools in our new features for 21.6. 

Module(s): Invoice Automation
Feature ID: ALUSTA-84024
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Feature is in use automatically

In AP Pro, it is now possible to define different fields and field orders for the following list views in invoices: Received, Matching, Workflow, Transfer, Search, and Activity Center. It is also possible to define different fields and field orders for the following list views in spend plans: Received, Workflow, Approved, and Search.

Earlier, it was possible to define only the same order of fields for different document processing phases.

Module(s): Match Orders
Feature ID: ALUSTA-81829
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Basware consultant work is needed

Earlier, a user was required to approved the full invoice coding line sum or the full invoice sum if matching resulted in a deviation. Now, it is possible to configure Basware P2P so that the approver only needs to approve the deviation sum, not the sum of the entire coding line or invoice. This feature is supported in automatic and manual matching. 

For example, Paul Smith has an approval limit of 300 euros. An invoice of 12538 € is matched to a purchase order of 12288 €, with a resulting deviation of 250 €. With this new feature enabled, Paul can now approve these coding rows because the deviation is within his 300 € approval limit.

To implement approval for the deviation sum for your system, request for the new feature to be enabled through the Basware Support Portal.

Module(s): Match Orders
Feature ID: ALUSTA-81569
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Consultant & Customer

Now it is possible to add price validation rules for blanket purchase order lines without receipts. The validation rule will fail when the cumulative matched sum exceeds the ordered sum.

Updated basic validation rules:

• Price validation between invoice and order line of matched items with absolute tolerance
• Price validation between invoice and order line of matched items with percentage tolerance

Purchase order line types, where the change in the updated validation rules can be seen:

• Blanket purchase order lines without receipts

Activation

If you are interested in applying a price validation for blanket purchase order lines, request for the new feature to be enabled through the Basware Support Portal.

Module(s): Spend Plans
Feature ID: ALUSTA-79538
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Feature is in use automatically

In AP Pro and Professional invoice details view, users can now search active spend plans from an invoice’s plan reference field and select the correct spend plan reference or row. 

By default, the user can select the spend plan row. If the user prefers to only select the plan reference, they can do that as well. The system will remember their selection for future invoices. 

• If the user selects a row from the dialog, the system will associate the invoice with the selected row during the automatic spend plan matching.
• If the user selects only the plan reference, then the system will select the spend plan row automatically during the automatic spend plan matching.

The selection is available for all AP Pro users that with the professional “View spend plans” user right. It is also available for personal users who use professional invoice details view in Edge. 

There is also a new user right available for personal users called “Search for active spend plans from invoice”. With this user right, personal users can search for all active spend plans. Without this user right, personal users can search only for active spend plans on which they have completed a review or approval task.

Module(s): Spend Plans
Feature ID: ALUSTA-82047
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Basware consultant work is needed

Now it is possible to have a validation on the plan reference field on an invoice. The validation checks that:

• A spend plan is found with the plan reference
• The found spend plan is active
• The found spend plan has a validity period started and validity period end date is not in the past
• The found spend plan and the invoice have the same organization and currency

This validation is disabled by default. To implement this validation for your system, request for the new feature to be enabled through the Basware Support Portal.

Module(s): Analytics
Feature ID: ALUSTA-83071
Release: P2P 21.8
Feature Implementation: Feature is in use automatically

In Basware P2P Analytics, payment plans are now referred to as “spend plans.” This aligns our terminology after introducing spend plans to Purchase-to-Pay in release 21.1. For more information about spend plans, see the most recent new features here.