Purchase Order Communication to Suppliers

In a business climate that is more global and electronic everyday, enterprises are being asked to produce procurement documents in a variety of different formats. Oracle Purchasing supports the following methods of communicating purchase orders:

• Print

• Facsimile (fax)

• Electronic mail (e-mail)

• Extensible Markup Language (XML)

• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

• Online Viewing

You can print, reprint, e-mail, or fax purchase orders as often as you want using the Submit Requests window (See: Submitting a Request). You can choose from the following options:

• Print all new and changed purchase orders

• Print all changed purchase orders

• Print all new purchase orders

• Print a particular purchase order or range of purchase orders

• Print a test purchase order

• Landscape or portrait format

The communication method normally used by Oracle Purchasing is determined by the selection of Notification Method in the Supplier Site window and your application configuration. See: Setup Purchase Order Communication to Suppliers

Print Purchase Orders

The traditional way to communicate purchase orders to your supplier is by printing them and sending a copy to the supplier in the mail. Your purchase order can be printed using text or PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) formatting. If you use the text format, you can print at the time you approve the purchase order or when you submit the Printed Purchase Order and Printed Change Order reports. If you choose the PDF format, you can create the PDF at the time you approve the purchase order, from the Purchase Order Summary window, or the PO Output for Communication process. See: Purchase orders in PDF.

See: Printed Purchase Order Overview.

You can send facsimiles of purchase orders using text or PDF formatting. If you choose text format you can fax at the time you approve the purchase order or when you submit the Printed Purchase Order and Printed Change Order reports. If you choose PDF format, you can fax at the time you approve the purchase order, or from the Purchase Order Summary window. See: Purchase orders in PDF.

E-mail Purchase Orders

You can send e-mail copies of purchase orders using HTML or PDF formatting. If you are using HTML format, you can e-mail at the time you approve the purchase order. For the PDF format, you can e-mail at the time you approve the purchase order or from the Purchase Order Summary window. Note that the PDF format purchase orders are sent as attached files. See: Purchase orders in PDF.

XML Purchase Orders

Purchase orders and change orders can be communicated to the supplier using XML if the Oracle XML Gateway is implemented. Your XML documents are sent at the time you approve the purchase order.

EDI Purchase Orders

Purchase orders and change orders can be communicated to the supplier using EDI if the Oracle e-Commerce Gateway is implemented. Your EDI documents are sent at the time you approve the purchase order.

Online Viewing

Purchase orders and change orders can be viewed by suppliers through the Oracle iSupplier Portal application. This application enables suppliers to view and take action on their purchase orders through a secure, Internet-based portal.

Purchase Orders in PDF

Purchase orders can be viewed, e-mailed, and faxed to suppliers in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). A style sheet template is specified to control the appearance and layout of the formatted PDF file. If you have implemented Oracle Procurement Contracts, there is a separate style sheet template which controls the appearance and layout of the contract terms as part of the purchase order PDF file. These templates are managed using Oracle XML Publisher. See the Oracle XML Publisher User's Guide.

Purchase orders in PDF can be viewed online by buyers from the Enter Purchase Order window, the Purchase Order Summary window, and the PO Output for Communication report.