The Supplier Merge Program is a utility you can use to maintain your supplier records. You can use it to merge duplicate suppliers into a single, consolidated supplier. You can use it to merge transactions within the same supplier from one supplier site to a different supplier site. You can choose to merge all transactions for a supplier into a new supplier, or you can just choose to merge unpaid invoices. This option is useful in the case of an acquisition. In that case, you might want to leave all of the transaction history with the original supplier and only merge unpaid invoices to the new supplier who now wants to receive the payments.

When you merge supplier information you have different options. You can choose to merge both invoices and purchase orders. If you choose to merge invoices, then you can merge all invoices or just unpaid invoices. When you choose to merge all invoices, any associated payments are merged as well. The unpaid option will not transfer partially paid invoices or partially applied prepayments. If you have invoices with these conditions, then you must choose the option to merge all invoices. Alternatively you can complete payment of the invoices or application of the prepayments.

The Supplier Merge Program updates all information related to the transaction you choose to merge, depending on the other Oracle products you are using. If you choose to merge invoices, other information that is updated with the new supplier information is recurring invoice templates, accounting entries, project cost lines, fixed asset invoices, and inventory movement statistics. If you choose to merge purchase orders, then all related purchase order information is updated with the new supplier information. This includes information like receipt transactions, requests for quotations, supplier schedules, sourcing information, approved supplier lists, and MRP information.

Payables will not transfer invoices if the merge would create a duplicate invoice for the new supplier. We recommend that you review the invoices for both the old supplier and the new supplier before a merge so you can identify and resolve any duplicate invoices.

You can run the Invoice History Report for each supplier to get a listing of all invoices. If you find a duplicate invoice situation you need to decide what you want to do with the duplicate record. You can leave it under the old supplier. If you want to merge it to the new supplier, then you need to alter the invoice number so the merge does not recognize it as a duplicate. If the invoice is unpaid, partially paid and not fully accounted, then you can adjust the invoice number, merge, and then proceed to cancel the invoice or take whatever action is needed. If the invoice is accounted or has any posted distributions, then you cannot modify the invoice number.

When a primary pay site is merged with another site of the same supplier then the destination site becomes the primary pay site. When you use the Copy Site option to merge a primary pay site with a separate supplier that already has a primary pay site, then the primary pay option becomes disabled when the site becomes a site of the destination supplier.

Alternate Pay Site information is only copied when merging sites for the same supplier. If you are merging two different suppliers, then the Alternate Pay Site information is not copied to any new site or the destination site.

Selling Company Identifier is not copied from one supplier to a new supplier as this could result in a duplicate record.

As part of the merge program, Payables makes inactive any supplier sites from which you choose to merge all transactions. If you choose to merge all transactions for all sites, Payables automatically makes inactive the supplier as well.

After the Supplier Merge Program completes, it automatically produces the Supplier Merge Report as an audit trail of your supplier merge activity. The report lists all invoices and purchase orders updated by the merge. It also lists duplicate invoices that it did not merge. This information is not available online. If you need to retain this audit trail you should keep this report.

Prerequisites

• Identify duplicate suppliers. See: Identifying Duplicate Suppliers.

• If you merge invoices, the consolidated supplier site must be a pay site. See: Entering Supplier Information.

• If you merge purchase orders, the consolidated supplier site must be a purchasing site. See: Entering Supplier Information.

• Submit Payables Open Interface Import for any invoice records that are in the Payables Open Interface tables for the duplicate supplier. The merge does not update any information in these interface tables since it has not yet been validated and created as invoices. Also, after a complete supplier merge, the supplier will be inactive, and you cannot import invoice records for inactive suppliers.

To initiate a supplier merge:

1. In the Supplier Merge window, select which invoices to transfer to the new supplier and site: All, Unpaid, or None.

2. If you want to transfer all purchase order information to the new supplier, select PO.

3. Enter the supplier name and site from which you want to merge information. Enter the supplier name and site to which you want to merge information. If the supplier you want to transfer from has multiple sites that you want to merge, you must enter a row for each supplier and site combination.

   • If you are merging supplier sites for the same supplier, then enter the same supplier for both the From and To Supplier Names.

   • If you want the merge to automatically create an existing site belonging to the old supplier for the new supplier, along with merging information in that site, select Copy Site. When you do this you will not be able to enter a site in the To Supplier Site field.

4. Choose the Merge button. Payables submits a concurrent request to run the Supplier Merge Program.

5. Review the Supplier Merge Report after the request completes.