What are Punchouts?
Punchouts are a standard e-procurement connection between Stampli and your supplier, such as Amazon Business. Instead of shopping in a separate browser tab and pasting links or screenshots into a request, your requester clicks into Amazon Business from inside a Stampli purchase request, shops via the real storefront (live pricing, live availability, Prime delivery estimates, your organization's negotiated pricing), and then sends the cart back into Stampli automatically.
Once the cart returns, the purchase follows your normal Stampli process: coding, budget checks, approvals, PO creation, and — where applicable — invoice matching.
Key things to know:
Nothing is ordered on Amazon until your Stampli request is approved. Amazon's checkout button says "Submit order for approval," but in a Punchout session that only sends the cart back to Stampli — it does not place the order.
Cart lines return locked. Quantities, item descriptions, and rates are provided by the vendor and cannot be edited in Stampli. If something needs to change, the requester must return to the vendor and submit a new request.
Tax is called out separately. Amazon calculates tax at checkout; it shows up as its own line on the request and the purchase order, distinct from the item cost.
Invoicing depends on your payment method. If your Amazon Business group pays by card, Amazon charges at fulfillment and there's no vendor invoice to match. If your group uses Amazon's Pay by Invoice option, invoices are delivered electronically and matched against the PO — enabling full three-way match.
How it works
A Punchout purchase moves through four stages:
1. Start the request in Stampli
The requester opens a purchase request in Stampli and selects Shop vendor sites.
Amazon Business appears as one of the connected vendor tiles. Starting from a request form is what keeps the resulting cart tied to a coded, approvable document.
2. Shop and submit the cart on Amazon
Stampli opens an authenticated session directly on Amazon Business, scoped to your organization's Punchout group. The requester shops normally then proceeds to checkout and selects Submit order for approval. This hands the cart back to Stampli; it does not yet place an order.
3. Complete and approve the request
The cart returns into the original Stampli request as one or more structured lines, each carrying the item description, quantity, rate, and tax. The requester fills in anything Amazon can't supply — like the budget line and business justification — and submits.
From there, the request follows your organization's normal approval and budget-check workflow.
4. PO, order confirmation, and invoicing
Once approved, Stampli generates a purchase order and sends it to Amazon Business. Amazon validates the PO against the original cart and places the order.
Setting up Punchout
Setup happens on two sides: your Amazon Business account and your Stampli account. Here's the rough shape of what's involved:
On Amazon Business
An administrator on your Amazon Business account will need to:
Create a dedicated Punchout group under Amazon Business Settings.
Choose a payment method for the group (credit card or Amazon's Pay by Invoice) — this decision determines whether your team will three-way match invoices in Stampli later.
Configure a purchasing system connection, which generates the credentials Stampli needs: a system login, a shared secret, a Punchout URL, and a purchase order URL.
Set shipping addresses and checkout defaults for the group.
Test the connection in test mode before switching to active/production mode.
For detailed, step-by-step instructions on the Amazon side (including screenshots), Amazon Business publishes its own setup guide. Reach Amazon Business support directly for help with account-side configuration.
On Stampli
Your Stampli implementation contact will work with you to:
Set up the Amazon Business vendor record in your Stampli account.
Configure the Punchout connection using the credentials generated on the Amazon side, so Amazon Business appears under "Shop vendor sites" on purchase requests.
Confirm coding defaults (company code, budget lines, and any other fields your requests require) and your approval workflow for requests and purchase orders.
Walk through a short test plan with you — placing a few test carts and confirming they return correctly, reconcile on totals, and route through approvals as expected — before moving to production.
Where to get help
Stampli-side questions (setup, approvals, budget lines, PO behavior): contact your Stampli implementation or support contact.
Amazon Business account questions (credentials, groups, payment methods, order safeguards): contact your Amazon Business Customer Advisor, or Amazon Business customer service.
Order-level issues (missing shipments, returns, refunds): contact Amazon Business customer service directly — Stampli reflects order and invoice status but order fulfillment is handled entirely on Amazon's side.
Have questions about whether Punchout is right for your organization, or want to get started? Reach out to Stampli Support.