The Force Order command is available only to authorized users, and only for direct orders that have a status of Ordering. If a request is being transmitted to an ERP system, it cannot be forced manually.

If you use this command but never actually transmit the order to the supplier for some reason, you might experience problems if you later try to change the order.

Use the Force Order command to manually force a purchase order through Ariba Buyer when there has been an interruption in the ordering process and there is no other way to recover from the problem.

For example, if Ariba Buyer tries to fax an order to a supplier and the fax transmission fails, the order is stalled with a status of Ordering. The Force Order command enables you to move the order status from Ordering to Ordered, after which you can transmit the order to the supplier by phone, for example.