During last week’s AOP Live session with Joe Payne and Jennifer Ulrich from Corcentric, I asked Joe to define the ‘Source to Cash’ (S2C) process and explain how it differs from the more commonly referred to Source to Pay (S2P) process.
Based on what Joe told us, it comes down to the difference in perspective between buyer and supplier:
- S2P is focused on the buyer’s perspective of a transaction or relationship. Source to Pay includes everything from running a sourcing event to select one or more suppliers through paying for the good or service that you went out to market for.
- S2C reflects the fact that suppliers look at that same process or transaction as order to cash. It starts when their customer places an order and ends when they are paid for the good or service.
If procurement wants to approach the S2P process more holistically, especially in light of trying to be perceived as a customer of choice, we should expand our point of view to become Source to Cash. In order to execute effectively against that objective, we will need to close the operational gaps between our processes and technologies and those used by AP and Treasury. It is as important from a cash flow perspective as it is in terms of the supplier experience we ultimately create.
If you would like to hear more from Joe Payne on Source to Cash in his own words, you can watch the video replay of his explanation:
