Details: Purchase Order

The fields on the top-left of this page provide general information about the vendor and buyer.

• Vendor: Vendor ID and name, listed directly below the ID.

• Description : An additional description for the purchase order that may be helpful for identifying the item in searches. This field is displayed in the Expanded Purchase Order List and Search page. By default, the field is populated with the vendor name, but can be overwritten as needed.

• Buyer Information: The name and company of the buyer. For manually created purchase orders, the buyer company is typically populated by default, based on a defined purchase order preference. The buyer is populated based on the user that created the purchase order.

  If the purchase order was created as part of the Order Items feature, the buyer and buyer company will be populated based on the default values defined for the stock room (stocked items) or repair center (direct issue items).

• Repair Center/ Customer/ Department/ Account: Organizational attributes of a purchase order. Repair Center is populated by default, based on a defined purchase order preference.

The status of the purchase order, displayed in the upper-right hand of the page, indicates its current state. There is also a Sub-Status field directly below the Status field. Sub-status options are defined by your organization and typically include options to further clarify the status, or indicate an update on fulfillment from the vendor.

Depending on the process used at your organization, constraints may be placed on changing status until a purchase order has been approved. You may not be able to issue a purchase order until it has received required approval.

The status of the purchase order is changed by selecting the Action menu next to the Status label or by using the buttons at the bottom of the page. The options at the bottom of the page depend on the current state of the displayed work order.

The status is automatically changed upon selecting a new value from the Action menu. It is not necessary to save the change. To learn more about changing the status of purchase orders, see our Change Purchase Order Status article.

• Requested: A purchase order is automatically set to Requested status upon creation. Purchase orders in this state are waiting to be acted upon. They are typically either issued or denied.

• Issued: Purchase orders are typically changed to Issued status to indicate that they are in progress. In most organizations, changing the status to Issued indicates that the purchase order has been issued to the designated vendor. Purchase orders that have been previously canceled, denied, or placed on hold can be reissued.

• Denied: Purchase orders can also be denied, indicating that the buyer does not want to complete the order. A common example of this might be a circumstance in which another purchase order that has been issued would address the need.

  Changing a purchase order to denied places it into a general closed state. Once a purchase order has been denied, it can be accessed at a later date and reissued.

• On-Hold: Purchase orders in Requested or Issued status can be placed on hold. This status is similar to denied, although it keeps the purchase order in a pending state, indicating that the buyer may want to reissue it at a later date. Once a purchase order has been placed on hold, it can be accessed at a later date and reissued.

  On-order quantities listed for items on purchase orders placed on-hold are not affected. Purchase orders must be canceled or denied to have on-order quantities decreased.

• Canceled: Purchase orders that have been issued can be canceled, indicating they no longer should be acted upon. Changing a purchase order to Canceled status places it into a general closed state. Once a purchase order has been canceled, it can be accessed at a later date and reissued.

  On-order quantities listed for items on a canceled purchase order are decreased to indicate that the items are no longer on order.

• Closed: Purchase orders that have been completed are changed to a status of Closed. Purchase Orders cannot be closed unless all items on order have been received.

• Deleted: The Delete option does not just change the status of the purchase order; it permanently deletes the purchase order. This option should only be only used when a purchase order is created in error.

  Deleting purchase orders removes all items listed on the order from inventory. Purchase orders with received inventory should not be deleted.

The Approval area of the Purchase Order Details page is displayed directly below the status. Depending on the business process used at your organization, purchase orders may require approval before being processed or issued. If no approvals are required, the words Not Required will be listed in the Approval section.

Purchase order approvals can be based on the amount of the purchase order or the permissions of the user creating the purchase order. The Purchase Order Details tab behaves differently depending on the process chosen.

More than one level of approval may be required. The number of approvals required from different users or administrators is listed beneath the Approval header.

If the purchase order does not require approval, the column in the Purchase Order List is blank and the Approval area of the Detail page indicates approval is not required. If approval is required, the current approval state is listed in the Approval area of the Detail page.

Once the purchase order has been approved, the date of approval and initials of the individual who approved are listed in the Approval section.

If approval requirements are based on the amount of the purchase order rather than the permissions of the individual making the request, an additional Approval Status section displays, specifying the levels that have been approved and the levels that still require approval.

The Action button to the right of the Approval label is used to approve or reject a purchase order request. Clicking the Action button displays the Approval Action menu.

You must be a member of an access group with permission to approve purchase orders to process approvals.

The following approval actions are available:

• Approve: If authorization/approval is required, selecting Approve from the Action menu approves the purchase order. It is not necessary to click Save after processing an approval, the approval takes effect automatically.

• Reject: If authorization/approval is required, selecting Reject from the Action menu rejects approval of the purchase order. It is not necessary to click Save after processing an approval, the approval takes effect automatically.

• Un-Approve: Once purchase orders have been approved, line items cannot be altered. If changes need to be made to an approved purchase order, a user with permission to modify the approval status must use the Approval Action menu to unapprove the purchase order.

For further information on Purchase Order Approval, see the Approve Purchase Order article and the Approvals: Repair Center article.

The Dates and Priority pane of the Purchase Order Details page contain the following fields:

• Order Date: The date on which the purchase order was created.

• Ship Date: The date on which items designated on the purchase order were shipped by the vendor.

• Follow-Up Date: The date on which follow-up for the purchase order should take place. The date defaults to one week after the purchase order was created.

• Priority: The priority of the purchase order. This value is used for reporting and search. The default priority can be set as a Purchase Order module preference.

The Tax/ Shipping/Discountsection of the Purchase Order Details page lists invoice information, including costs, tax, and shipping. The costs displayed reflect anticipated costs, based on amounts entered on the Line Items tab, rather than actual costs entered on the Receipts tab.

• Budget and Currency: The budgeted amount for this purchase order, along with the designated currency.

• Invoice #: The invoice number provided by the vendor.

  Multiple invoices can be entered and tracked on the Receipts: Invoices sub-tab.

• Line Items Subtotal: The total for all items included on this purchase order, excluding tax and shipping. This amount is automatically retrieved from the Line Items page. If discounts have been applied to individual items, they will already be reflected in this field.

  You can overwrite the value in this field. However, if costs are changed on the Line Items page, the newly calculated values will be populated back onto this Details page.

• Discount % and Amount: Any discount applied to the complete order. Discounts applied to individual items are reflected on the Line Items page and included in the Line Items Subtotal above. However, if a discount is to be applied to the complete order, instead of (or in addition to) line item discounts, it can be entered in this field.

  The discount amount is automatically calculated upon exiting the Discount % field.

• Subtotal: The subtotal after applying any defined discount to the Line Items Subtotal field.

• Shipping Cost/Tax: The shipping cost, as provided by the vendor. The tax amount is retrieved from the totals displayed on the Line Items page.

• Total: The total for the order. This field's value matches the total listed on the Line Items page, if no additional discounts have been applied.