How to Set Up and Test Punch-In with Amazon

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Use Cases
• How to Set Up Amazon Punch-In:
  • 1. Create a Group within your Amazon Business Account.
  • 2. Turn On the Procurement System Integration in the Created Group.

  • 3. Go to Precoro and Copy the Credentials There.

  • 4. Add or Update your Locations in Precoro.

  • 5. Add the Created Locations in Precoro to Amazon.

  • 6. Add the Payment Method to the Group.

  • 7. Add Users Who Should Have Access to Your Group.

  • 8. Make Sure to Remove the Requisitioner Role.

  • 9. Place Your Test Purchase Order.

  • 10. After the Successful Testing, Switch to Active Mode.

  • FAQs

Use Cases

• Most popular: You want to select either to place a PO on Amazon in Precoro with approval or without approval.
  You need to have groups on Amazon: one for direct purchases on Amazon and one for Punch-in. When placing a PO, you will be able to select one of these groups. You need to complete all the steps from this article to set up your Amazon account for this case.
  
  
• Most restricted: You want to proceed with approval in Precoro for all the purchases made on Amazon.
  Skip the next step and start setting up your Purchasing System for this use case.
  
  

How to Set Up Amazon Punch-In:

1. Create a Group within your Amazon Business Account.

To create a new Group, please follow these steps:

1. Open your Amazon Business Account and proceed to your Account Details → Business Settings.

2. In the Members section, click on the Groups:

3. Give your group a recognizable name (e.g., Punch-In Purchasing), select the Shared Payment Methods and Shared Addresses in the settings, and click the Add Group button.

2. Turn On the Procurement System Integration in the Created Group.

Make sure you are setting the purchasing system inside the needed group.

You can view and switch between the groups on the Bussiness Settings page:

To set up the purchasing system:

1. Find and open the group you have created.

2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Purchasing System under the System Integrations section.

3. On the Set up your purchasing system page, type in Precoro as your purchasing system, and click Save if you are using the app.precoro.com server.

4. You will be provided with automatically generated data: "From Identity" in cXML, "Shared Secret" in cXML, Punchout URL, and Purchase Order Request URL. Press the Save button below.

3. Go to Precoro and Copy the Credentials There.

1. Go to Precoro and open the Amazon Setup page. Copy and paste the generated data from Amazon into the corresponding fields.

 Fill out all the required fields in Precoro to finish the setup:

• Supplier — select Amazon Business as the supplier. If you do not have Amazon on your Supplier list yet, you can create an Amazon Business Supplier using the Add New Supplier button. By default, when the Purchase Orders are created, the selected Supplier will be displayed in the documents.
• Location — the selected location will be applied in case there is a system error while matching the addresses from Amazon Business to Precoro. By default, when the Purchase Orders are created, the selected location will be displayed in the documents. Please see the next step in this article on how to update your location.

• Legal Entity — by default, when the Purchase Orders are created, the selected Entity will be displayed in the documents.

• Automatically Add Items to the Catalog — if activated, items added to the Purchase Orders will be added to the Catalog. This function can help save time on routine tasks and eliminate potential manual errors.

4. Add the Created Locations in Precoro to Amazon.

1. In Amazon Business, make sure you are operating within your created group. Go to Business Settings → Billing & Shipping → Addresses and delivery preferences. You need to add the same address you have added in Precoro to Amazon Business in the Shared Address Book section.

2. Click the Actions on the right and select the Add an address option. 

3. Fill out all of the required fields in the exact way you did in Precoro. Please note that Amazon Business will not allow you to save the location without entering a phone number.

Also, if you click on the options below, Can you accept weekend deliveries? Some of your orders might be delivered over the weekend.

4. Once you have filled out the necessary fields, click Add an address and repeat for all necessary locations.

Alternatively, you can choose to upload your addresses in bulk if you have a lot of different locations to add. For this, instead of selecting Add an address, select the Upload addresses for the current group option. Then, you will be prompted to download a templated Excel file where you can fill out the necessary fields in the file following the instructions and then upload it back to the platform.

5. Add or Update your Locations in Precoro.

 

To add new or update the existing Location in Precoro, follow these steps:

1. Open Location Management, click Add Location to create a new one, or select an existing one and press the Edit Action button.

2. Press the Marketplace Shipping address button below and enter the needed information into the corresponding fields.

Please note that when you enter information in the Location address field, it is searched in Google Maps, and you receive prompts for selection. When you select a prompt, the data is automatically entered into the corresponding fields.

6. Add the Payment Method to the Group.

In Amazon, first, ensure you add the payment methods in the needed group.

Go to the Business Settings → Billing & shipping → Payment methods. There you can select and add the most preferable methods for your company so the users would be able to place orders.

If you are using the Invoice line, it will have been automatically added to your group.

If you are using a credit card, click Add payment method and follow the instructions. Once you have filled out the card information, click Save.

7. Add Users Who Should Have Access to Your Group.

In Amazon, first, ensure you add people to the needed group.

Go to the Business Settings → Members → People → Add People button.

You can select the most preferable option from the available ones: Invite by email, Upload a spreadsheet, or Share an Invite link.

Let’s go ahead and select the Invite by email option:

1. Enter the relevant email addresses of the users you would like to have access to the integration. Please make sure to separate the email addresses by pressing Enter on the keyboard.

2. Unselect the Buyer (Requisitioner) role, and make sure to select the Punchout Buyer. Then, select other relevant accesses that you would like your users to have.

3. Click Invite people.

Alternatively, you can choose to upload your users in bulk. For this, select the Upload a spreadsheet option instead. This will prompt you to download a template Excel file. Fill it out following the instructions.

Important to note:

• If your users already have an Amazon Business account, they will not receive an email inviting them to join the group. They will simply be added to this group.
• If your users do not yet have an Amazon Business account, they will receive an email inviting them to join your Amazon Business account. They will only appear as the member of the group once they accept the email invitation and register on the platform.

• The users have to have both an Amazon Business account and a Precoro account under the same email address. For example, it is not possible to utilize a general Amazon Business account (e.g., accounting@company.com) if the same email address is not registered as a corresponding Precoro user.

8. Make Sure to Remove the Requisitioner Role.

Go to the general group and remove the Requisitioner role from the users who will be using the integration. Having both the requisitioner role on the general level and the punch-in buyer role on the group level does not work together. 

1. Go to your company account business settings by clicking on your company name on the left. You will proceed to Business Settings → Members → People.

2. Check the assigned roles for each user. If you find users with a Requisitioner role, click on Actions on the left, and then click Edit role. 

3. Unselect the Buyer (requisitioner) role and click Save.

Now, the settings are done. Your Punch-In settings are in test mode, and you are ready to place a test Purchase Order.

9. Place Your Test Purchase Order.

Make sure the entered Location in Precoro is the same as in Amazon.

Congratulations! You are almost done. Now, you need to test whether the integration has been set up correctly. As a reminder, while your account integration is in the test mode, your orders will not be fulfilled and/or charged to your account. 

To test the integration:

1. Add any item to your basket and click Proceed to checkout.

If your user has access to any other groups in your Amazon Business account, you might need to select your Punch-In Group. Otherwise, it will be selected automatically. 

2. Fill out all of the necessary fields to complete the order. Once done, you will see the warning message stating that this order requires approval. This means that everything has been integrated correctly. Please click on Submit order for approval to proceed with the testing process. It means that your Purchase Order will be sent for approval in Precoro.

3. Submit your Purchase Order, and you will be redirected to Precoro. Your order should have a Draft status in Precoro. Please make sure that the address selected in Precoro is the same as the one you selected on Amazon Business. If the addresses do not match, please make sure they are identical both on Amazon Business and Precoro.

4. Press the Edit Purchase Order button on the right action panel in Precoro, where you need to fill out the required fields: department, budget, location, and chart of accounts.

5. Fill out the GL codes by editing individual item lines.

6. Once done, click Confirm, and if you have approval, your PO will go through the approval process and then be confirmed on Amazon. If not, it will automatically be approved on Amazon and canceled in a few hours because of testing. Amazon would start processing your order if the integration was live at this stage.

You can cancel your PO in Precoro once it is canceled on Amazon.

10. After the Successful Testing, Switch to Active Mode.

Once you have checked that everything works correctly, you can switch to active mode:

1. Open the Business Settings → System Integrations → Purchasing system.

2. Press the Switch to Active Mode button, which will put the integration into live mode. 

Now, all of your purchases on Amazon will be processed through Precoro approval. In case you would like to have an option of purchasing outside of Precoro approval processes (not recommended), please contact our Amazon Business Integration Specialist, Megan Pavlenko (megan@precoro.com).

FAQs

1. Which use cases are best for the Amazon Business integration?

The integration works best for companies that often order to a few recurring locations instead of many one-off purchases (e.g., employee home deliveries). For the integration to work correctly, the order location must exist both in Amazon Business and Precoro at the time of PO creation, which can be inconvenient to companies that make many one-off purchases to new locations.

Please note that integration requires one Precoro business entity to be integrated with one Amazon Business group. This means that you can integrate multiple Precoro entities into the same Amazon Business account by creating multiple Amazon Business groups. However, you cannot integrate multiple Amazon Business accounts with one Precoro entity.

2. Can the same user (email address) exist in two Amazon Business accounts simultaneously?

No, the same user (email address) cannot exist in two Amazon Business accounts at the same time. If you want to transfer your user from one Amazon Business account (e.g., one company entity) to another one, you will have to delete their user from the current account and add them to the new one.

3. Why doesn’t my PO form in Precoro when I send it for approval in Amazon Business?

If, after sending the PO for approval on Amazon Business, it doesn’t appear in Precoro or is not editable, please check the following:

- Is the user who created the order on Amazon Business registered in Precoro under the same email address?
- Has the user who created the order on Amazon Business been added to your Punchin Purchasing group on Amazon Business?
- Does this user have a PO creation/PO editing role in Precoro?

If, after checking these questions, you are still experiencing the same issue, please contact our Amazon Business Integration Specialist, Megan Pavlenko (megan@precoro.com).


4. Can you start the integration with a PR?

Currently, the integration is only available starting with the PO step.


5. How to delete the Pay by Invoice option?

• Go to the Business Settings.
• Click on Pay by Invoice (it can be under payment methods).
• Under Invoice Templates, click Manage.
• Click on the invoice template name in blue.
• On the right, click Remove Groups.
• Check the group to remove Pay by Invoice.
• Click Remove Groups.
  
  

6. What if my location doesn’t show up on Google Maps?

You can enter and select the street or city of your needed location and then manually edit the Country, State/Province, City, Postal Code, and Address fields.

7. Why do the users I invited to the group not show up in the group members?

Only the users who have accepted the invitation to join your Amazon Business account will be shown in the group.


8. What if a user lost/didn’t receive/accidentally deleted the invitation to join the Amazon Business Account?

1. Go to “Invitations” under the “Members” block in your group settings.
2. Find the necessary user.
3. Click on “Actions” on the right, and then click “Resend.”


9. We don’t currently have a Pay by Invoice option, but we would like to know more. Who should we contact?

Please request an Amazon Business Customer Advisor by filling out this form. They will reach out to you within 2-3 business days and help set up the Pay-by-Invoice function.

You can learn more about Pay by Invoice here.


10. Are tax values populated into the PO from Amazon Business?

No, tax values are not automatically populated due to the Amazon Business order policy. For US businesses, we recommend setting up the tax values in Precoro and applying the tax to relevant POs/individual items.

You can learn more about the Precoro tax module here.

11. Is there a guide on using the integration I could share with our users?

Yes, please feel free to share this guide with your users.