Many companies have agreements with suppliers to receive discounts and special prices when employees order items from the supplier’s PunchOut catalog. If you need to make changes to any PunchOut items, you must return to the supplier’s website to do so, since the changes might affect the discounts or special pricing applied to the final order.

You can only edit and delete PunchOut items on a request if the supplier has configured its PunchOut catalog to support those actions. Otherwise, you might be able to only view descriptions of the items. Ariba Buyer displays a message if you try to return to a PunchOut catalog that does not support it.

If Ariba Buyer determines that a PunchOut supplier must be added to your configuration, it displays an invalid supplier warning and sends a notification message to the Supplier Manager to create the new supplier.

“Punch out” refers to the process of accessing a supplier's catalog on the supplier's website, while creating a purchase requisition, to select items to add to the requisition. Users typically punch out when they cannot find an item in the catalogs in the Ariba Buyer database.

The PunchOut process involves these basic steps (see the process flow diagram for a detailed description of the process):

1. A user clicks the Buy from Supplier button for a PunchOut item in the Ariba Buyer product catalog.
2. Add items from the supplier's website and check out. Upon returning to Ariba Buyer, the request is updated to include the supplier's PunchOut items.
3. Complete and submit the request for approval, following the purchase requisition process.

To edit a PunchOut item (available only if a supplier's catalog supports it):

1. The user must withdraw the request and then edit it.
2. Select and edit the PunchOut catalog item to return (or re-punch out) to the supplier’s website.
3. Change the item quantity or add other items, as needed, and then check out. Upon returning to Ariba Buyer, the request is updated to include the new and changed PunchOut items.
4. Complete and submit the request for approval.

To delete one or more PunchOut items (available only if a supplier's catalog supports it):

1. The user must withdraw the request and then edit it.
2. Select and edit the PunchOut catalog item to return (or re-punch out) to the supplier’s website.
3. Change the item quantity to 0 (zero), and then check out. Upon returning to Ariba Buyer, the request is updated to include the changed PunchOut item.
4. Complete and submit the request for approval.

To delete all PunchOut items from the same supplier: The user must withdraw the request and then edit it, selecting all line items for the supplier and then clicking Delete.