SAP Procure-to-Pay (P2P) Process Flow

Prepared by Harshvrdhan Rathore

The complete purchasing cycle — from a department's requirement, through quotations, the purchasing info record, purchase order and approval, to goods receipt, quality check, invoice verification and vendor payment. Solid boxes are the main flow (number = sequence); dashed boxes are master data, supporting or automatic SAP steps. Hover over a box to see details.

Requisition→ RFQ / Quotation→ Info record→ Purchase order→ Approval→ GRN→ Invoice (3-way match)→ Payment

Main process step (number = order) Supporting / master data activity Document flow Input / support

Department-wise role

Step-by-step flow

#	Department	Activity	What happens	Output

Key P2P concepts

Purchasing info recordStores the agreed price and terms for one vendor + material combination (per purchasing organization and plant). Types: standard, subcontracting, pipeline, consignment. It is the default price source for every new PO.

Source listLists which vendors may supply a material and for how long. Made mandatory, it stops POs to unapproved vendors.

Release strategyApproval rules for PRs and POs based on value, document type, plant or purchasing group. Unreleased documents cannot be processed further.

Three-way matchInvoice verification compares PO (price), GRN (quantity received) and invoice (amount billed). Only matching invoices are paid without manual review.

GR/IR clearing accountA bridge account: credited at GRN and debited at invoice posting. Open balances show goods received but not invoiced, or invoiced but not received.

TolerancesAllowed differences in quantity, price and delivery date at GRN and invoice. Outside tolerance, SAP warns, blocks or stops the posting.

Note: if a valid contract, scheduling agreement or info record already exists, steps 4–7 (RFQ, quotation, comparison, new info record) are skipped and the PO is created straight from the requisition. Gate entry is usually a custom development; quality inspection applies only to materials set up for incoming inspection.