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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2023-06-23
Setup Considerations: Purchase Items with Supplier Information

Setup Considerations: Purchase Items with Supplier Information

You can use this topic to help make decisions when planning your configuration and use of purchase items with supplier information. It explains:
  • Why to set it up.
  • How it fits into the rest of Workday.
  • Downstream impacts and cross-product interactions.
  • Security requirements and business process configurations.
  • Questions and limitations to consider before implementation.
Refer to detailed task instructions for full configuration details.

What It Is

Purchase items with supplier information enable you to:
  • Define generic purchase items with specific supplier details for procurement, such as unit of measure (UOM) and pricing.
  • Maintain supplier catalog items on purchase item tasks.
  • Use primary supplier information on procurement transactions.
  • Configure advanced price rules for the supplier information based on a company, supplier contract, ship-to location, and period of time.

Business Benefits

When you set up your purchase items with supplier information, you can:
  • Consolidate and minimize data entry for item maintenance.
  • Reduce the amount of catalog loads your business requires.
  • Control UOMs and pricing on transactions to maintain consistency.
  • Click a button to automate data entry.

Use Cases

Role
Use Case
Item Administrator
Enter item data for ordering, issuing, and stocking on purchase item tasks.
The item administrator can bypass catalog loads by entering supplier information for purchase items directly on the
Supplier Information
 tab on purchase item tasks.
Requestor
Requestors can see a separate purchasing option on the
Search Catalog
 task for each unique supplier entry on purchase items.
You can control how supplier information displays for requestors on the
Edit Company Procurement Options
 task.
Buyer
On purchase orders, buyers can select supplier information associated with the selected purchase item.
Inventory Specialist
On par transactions, inventory specialists can select just-in-time supplier information associated with the selected purchase item.
AP Specialist
On invoices, AP specialists can select supplier information associated with the selected purchase item.

Questions to Consider

Questions
Considerations
Do you have existing supplier catalogs in use?
At the tenant level, you can enable the editing of catalog item information on purchase item tasks. Then you can maintain supplier catalogs while also maintaining catalog items on purchase item tasks.
Workday synchronizes catalog item information whether you make updates with purchase item tasks or catalog load tasks.
How does your company track and select suppliers for procurement items?
You can mark suppliers with a sourcing priority. Workday populates primary supplier information values on valid spend transactions. For each primary and secondary supplier, you can keep a list of the ordering UOMs, just-in-time UOMs, and prices that the suppliers accept.
For special offers or discounts, you can use the
Advanced Pricing
 table to set up additional price rules for supplier information.
Workday prioritizes advanced pricing lines with defined ship-to locations first, enabling you to differentiate unit price and contract sourcing by locations.
When you select the Calculate Price Based on Conversion Factor option, Workday uses any advance pricing lines with a configured UOM. When you don't select this option, Workday only uses lines with the default UOM.
If you create a requisition with a different ship-to address than your advanced pricing grid, Workday doesn't default the supplier contract. Workday only defaults when a ship-to address matches what you select on the requisition.
If you have a preferred supplier contract selected, then advanced pricing isn't considered.
How does your company requisition?
For each unique supplier entry on a purchase item, Workday displays a separate purchasing option on the
Search Catalog
 task so users can add them to requisitions.
Workday overrides requisition sourcing rules when a purchase item has primary supplier information.
How consistent is your UOM information?
This feature performs best when you have accurate and consistent item UOM information. For items associated with a supplier, Workday validates when you have different conversion factors for the same item UOM, or the same UOM marked active for stocking and inactive for ordering.

Recommendations

Link and edit catalog items on the purchase item task to consolidate item maintenance. Workday populates primary catalog item information on transactions when you add the associated purchase item.
Workday synchronizes catalog item information whether you make updates on supplier catalogs or purchase item tasks.

Requirements

To edit catalog item information on purchase item tasks, an administrator must opt in for catalog item data on purchase items on the
Edit Tenant Setup - Financials
 task.

Limitations

  • For a supplier with no catalog items, you can only add 1 entry of supplier information. You can update the supplier information already in use.
  • For all suppliers, you can't enter more than 1 contract for the same company with overlapping time periods.
  • When you don't want to display supplier information as separate procurement options on the
    Search Catalog
     task, all supplier information entries on the purchase item must have a sourcing priority of zero.

Tenant Setup

Select the
Enable Catalog Data and Pricing for Purchase Item
 check box on the
Edit Tenant Setup - Financials
 task to edit catalog item information on purchase item tasks.

Security

Configure these domains in the Procurement functional area for purchase items:
Domains
Considerations
Set Up: Purchase Item
 domain
You can set up purchase items and view related reporting.
View: Purchase Item
 domain
You can view a specific purchase item.

Business Processes

When you use the
Import Supplier Items
 web service, Workday initiates the
Update Supplier Items Event
 business process to route approvals for updated supplier information on purchase items.

Reporting

You can use the
View Purchase Item
 report to view purchase items and associated supplier information.
Use these report data sources in custom reports:
  • Catalog Item
  • Item
  • Purchase Item
  • Unit of Measure Conversion Factor
Use the
Supplier Item Import Request
 report data source in custom reports for supplier item web services.

Integrations

You can use these web services to update supplier information on purchase items:
  • Import Supplier Items
  • Get Supplier Items
Workday uses the
Import Supplier Items
 web service as the initiating action on the
Update Supplier Items Event
 business process.
When you update purchase item pricing with a web service and you select the
Calculate Price based on Conversion Factor
 check box, Workday recommends that you:
  • Submit just-in-time and ordering pricing for only default UOMs. Workday calculates the price for other UOMs based on the new conversion factor.
  • Use the
    Exclude Pricing Calculated by Conversion Factor
     and
    Only Default UOMs with Calculate Price Enabled
     filters for the
    Get Purchase Item
     and
    Get Supplier Items
     web services.

Connections and Touchpoints

Purchase items with supplier information interact with these other areas in Workday:
Features
Considerations
Inventory
You can use purchase items with just-in-time supplier information on inventory transactions, such as a just-in-time replenishment requisition.
Supplier Accounts
On supplier portal tasks, suppliers can pick from a list of UOMs you set up in your tenant for invoice documents.
Workday offers a Touchpoints Kit with resources to help you understand configuration relationships across your tenant. Learn more about the Workday Touchpoints Kit on Workday Community.