What is the difference between Mark Ordered and Force Order? Which permissions/groups can perform these actions?

The key difference is that Mark Ordered is part of the workflow which moves the purchase order (PO) to Ordered state while Force Order means to abruptly terminate the workflow as there is no way forward with the PO.

Mark Ordered:

• When a purchase requisition (PR) is created containing items from a supplier that is not registered on SAP Business Network, the PO to that supplier must be handled manually.
• For this case, when the PR is approved, the PO remains in Ordering status until a Purchasing Agent opens the order and clicks Mark Ordered.
• The Purchasing Agent must then manually submit the PO to the supplier (for example, via email, fax, or messenger service).
• If the order uses a purchasing card (Pcard), the PCard information must be communicated to the supplier by a representative of the company placing the PO.
• Groups allowed to perform this task:
  • Purchasing Agent
  • Purchasing Manager
  • Procurement Agent
  • Procurement Manager
• Manual order processing can be extended to more users.

Force Order:

• The Force Order option is used to manually change the PO status in Ariba Procurement when there is a discrepancy in the ordering flow and there is no other way to resolve the problem.
• Groups allowed to perform this task:
  • Purchasing Manager
  • Receiving Manager
  • PCard Manager
  • Procurement Manager

To learn more about when to use the Force Order option on a PO, see this article.

Purchasing > Purchase Orders