Purchase orders overview [in-depth guide]

Guide contents: Workflow | Resources

This can be located in the system by going to Menu > Purchasing > Today purchasing > Views > Purchase orders.

Purchase orders can be created manually or by clicking on the Create PO button from an approved estimate. For more about estimates and their workflow, refer to the Estimates workflow [in-depth guide].

A purchase order is used to tell a vendor that you want to purchase some item; it acts as a contract with the vendor. It is helpful for tracking expenses incurred toward a project. It allows the company to set controls on things like who could purchase items or how much can be spent on something and therefore is good for budgeting & expense tracking purposes. You can also attach spec sheets from the project, and copy an order to recreate it exactly the same way for another project.

This also allows you to track the outstanding purchases that have not been invoiced to give you a better view of pending expenses on a project. They can also help ensure that you are not invoiced more than you should be by creating a tracking document that can be compared once the invoice comes in.

Workflow

Add new purchase order

A purchase order can be created that can be linked to several projects, or you can link it to just one. Each purchase order is entered against a specific vendor that must be set up in the contact management system.

Approval process

Each purchase order must be approved before it is sent to a vendor. If you print an unapproved purchase order, the system will place an unapproved watermark across the page. Each person is assigned a specific purchasing limit which allows them to approve purchase orders under that dollar amount. If you're purchasing limit is zero, you will not be able to approve any purchase orders. As you enter line items onto a purchase order, the system will try and determine if you have the right to approve the purchase order and that dollar limit. If you do not have the right, the system will try and find the person from the project on the header of the purchase order. If the AE has an approval limit greater than the amount of the purchase order, the system will automatically assign them as the approver. If the AE or the person entering the purchase order does not have sufficient limits to approve the purchase order, the purchase order will be assigned to no one. When a purchase order is assigned to no one for approval, anyone in the company with an approval limit above that of the purchase order will be able to approve it. When the purchase order is sent for approval, everyone with that approval limit will receive an email. Once the purchase order is approved, the person entering a purchase order will receive an email back.

Once a purchase order is approved, you cannot edit it. If you need to edit the purchase order, you will need to unapprove the purchase order. Doing so will increase the revision number on the purchase order. Once you have completed the revision of a purchase order, you will need to either approve it or resubmit it for approval. A vendor invoice can only be applied against approved purchase orders. Once a vendor invoice is linked to the purchase order, you will not be able to unapprove the purchase order. The Vendor invoices tab shows a list of the vendor invoices that have been applied to this purchase order.