2.1 Supplier Master Data: Profile, Addresses, Sites and Site Assignments
Key Takeaways
A supplier site is created in a procurement business unit and represents that BU's business relationship with the supplier.
Every supplier site needs an active site assignment before purchase orders or invoices can be created against it.
Only Client BU and Bill-to BU are required on a site assignment; the Bill-to BU assumes the liability, and its allowed values come from the Intercompany Transaction Flow setup.
The site assignment holds the liability, prepayment and bills payable distributions, the withholding tax setting and the default distribution set for the client BU.
Site purposes include Purchasing, Pay, Procurement Card, Primary Pay and Sourcing Only, and they default from the address purposes; a site you invoice and pay needs the Pay purpose.
The supplier master is shared by Procurement and Payables. Payables reads the supplier profile, the supplier site and the site assignment whenever an invoice is entered, imported or created from a scanned image. The published objective is to describe the Supplier Master Data. Expect hands-on items where you inspect a supplier's site and site assignments and predict the default liability account, payment terms or withholding behavior.
The four levels of supplier data
| Level | Owned by | Typical contents |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier profile (header) | The enterprise | Supplier name and number, supplier type, business relationship (prospective or spend authorized), tax organization type, taxpayer ID, Income Tax tab (federal and state 1099 reporting), transaction tax profile, default payment method |
| Address | The enterprise | Physical location and address purposes, such as ordering, remit-to and RFQ or bidding |
| Site | A procurement business unit | Purchasing, receiving and invoicing controls for that procurement BU's relationship with the supplier |
| Site assignment | The site, for a client business unit | Which client BU may transact with the site, the bill-to BU, and accounting and withholding defaults |
Supplier sites
Oracle describes the site as the business relationship between a procurement business unit and the supplier. Sites are created in a procurement BU and let it set terms, controls and policies for its client BUs. A site's tabs include:
- General: customer number, alternate site name, tax reporting indicator.
- Purchasing: communication, self-billing, freight and purchasing hold controls.
- Receiving: over-receipt and early-receipt tolerances, receipt routing.
- Invoicing: invoice and payment currency, invoice-related holds, match approval level, payment terms, pay date basis and third-party payment relationships.
- Payments: supplier bank accounts, preferred payment methods and other payment attributes.
- Site Assignments and Qualifications.
Site purposes decide what the site can be used for: Purchasing, Pay, Procurement Card, Primary Pay and Sourcing Only. New sites take their purposes from the address purposes. For example, an address that is both RFQ and Ordering maps to the Purchasing purpose. A site you want to invoice and pay needs the Pay purpose.
Site assignments
Site assignments decide which client BUs can transact with the site. Oracle is explicit: every supplier site must have an active assignment to create transactions against the site, such as purchase orders or invoices. If the assignment is missing or inactive, the site doesn't appear for that business unit.
| Assignment field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Client BU (required) | A requisitioning or invoicing BU serviced by the procurement BU that owns the site |
| Bill-to BU (required) | The BU that assumes the liability for purchases made for the client BU. The allowed values come from the Intercompany Transaction Flow setup. If a separate bill-to BU processes invoices, it needs its own assignment. |
| Ship-to and bill-to location | Defaults for purchasing documents |
| Inactive date | When the assignment stops being usable |
| Withholding tax | Whether withholding applies for this assignment and the withholding tax classification (group) to default |
| Liability distribution | The liability account for new invoices |
| Prepayment distribution | The prepayment account for new prepayments |
| Bills payable distribution | The account for future-dated payments |
| Distribution set | The default distribution set for unmatched invoices |
You can create assignments one client BU at a time or use the autocreate option. Autocreate builds assignments for the client BUs serviced by the site's procurement BU.
Where invoice accounting defaults come from
The default liability and prepayment distributions come from the site assignment when it has a value. If it doesn't, they fall back to Manage Common Options for Payables and Procurement for the business unit (section 3.1). There is no separate accounting tab on the supplier header. So when a hands-on item shows two client BUs that need different liability accounts for the same supplier, look for one site with two assignments, each with its own liability distribution, rather than two sites.
| Attribute | Default source order |
|---|---|
| Liability, prepayment, bills payable distributions | Site assignment, then Common Options for Payables and Procurement |
| Payment terms | Identifying PO on the invoice, then supplier site, then Manage Invoice Options |
| Hold unmatched invoices | Supplier site (Yes, No or Default from Payables Options), then invoice options |
| Withholding tax classification | Site assignment |
Prospective versus spend-authorized suppliers
The supplier's business relationship controls what can be done with it:
- Prospective suppliers come from registration requests and can take part in sourcing activities.
- Spend authorized suppliers can be used on purchase orders and invoices.
You promote a prospective supplier by submitting a spend authorization request. The request goes through the supplier spend authorization approval workflow. Section 2.2 covers registration, income tax details and holds.
Loading suppliers at go-live
Conversions usually load suppliers with file-based data import, using separate import processes for each level:
- Suppliers (profiles)
- Supplier addresses
- Supplier sites
- Supplier site assignments
- Contacts
Order matters. A site can't load before its address exists, and an invoice can't be entered until the site has an active assignment for the invoice business unit.
A common go-live defect is to load sites but forget the site assignments. The suppliers look complete in the Suppliers work area, but no invoice business unit can use them. When you review a converted supplier in a hands-on item, follow the chain: profile, then address purposes, then site purposes (Pay), then active assignment for the client BU.
A centralized procurement BU owns supplier site DALLAS. Invoices for client BU North must default liability account 10-000-2100, and invoices for client BU South must default 20-000-2100. What is the right design?
Create a separate supplier for each client BU, each with its own liability account on the supplier profile
Keep one site and give each client BU's site assignment its own liability distribution
Enter the liability account in Manage Invoice Options for the procurement BU so both client BUs inherit it
Define two distribution sets and assign them to the supplier profile so the liability account varies by BU
A clerk in the Canada business unit can't select supplier site TORONTO when entering an invoice, although the site is active in the procurement BU. What is the most likely cause?
The supplier's address lacks the RFQ or bidding purpose
The Canada business unit hasn't opened its next Payables period
No active site assignment exists for the Canada business unit on the TORONTO site
The payment method on the supplier profile is set to Check instead of Electronic
Which two fields does Oracle require when creating a supplier site assignment?
Liability distribution and prepayment distribution
Ship-to location and bill-to location
Withholding tax classification and distribution set
Client BU and bill-to BU
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.