Entering a Purchase Order

You use the P/O Purchase Order Entry screen to enter, edit, and post purchase orders, including active, blanket, future, and standing purchase orders.

  • If you require requisitions for purchase orders, add the requisitions first using the Requisition Entry screen.
  • Make sure you have full information for each purchase order, including vendor number, purchase order number (if you enter your own document numbers), requisition number (if required), your company's shipping and billing locations or addresses for the purchase order, arrival date and type of purchase order, and the vendor's address, contact, phone numbers, tax group, and terms code.
  • For each item on the order, find out the item number, unit of measure, quantity to order, and location (if you use Inventory Control). For items for which no record exists in your system, you also must have turned on the Allow Non-inventory Items option and know the general ledger expense account for each detail.
  • For each drop-shipment, find out the address and customer number or inventory location (if applicable, and you have Inventory Control) for the shipment.
  • If you use multicurrency accounting, find out the rate type, rate date, and exchange rate to use for each purchase order.
  • If the purchase order is job-related, get (for each item detail) the contract, project, category, resource (if applicable), billing type and rate, and A/R item number.

To create a new purchase order:

  1. Open Purchase Orders > P/O Transactions > Purchase Order Entry.

  2. Press the Tab key to accept *** NEW *** in the PO Number field, and let Purchase Orders assign a purchase order number when you post the purchase order.

    If you do not want Purchase Orders to assign the number, type the new number in the PO Number field, and then press the Tab key.

  3. In the Vendor Number field, type the vendor number or select it from the Finder.
  4. If your company uses templates to fill in default field entries, select the code in the Template field.
  5. To select one or more requisitions from which to issue the purchase order, click the Zoom Zoom button button beside the From Requisition field. More...

    In the Create PO From Requisition screen, click the Finder to display requisition numbers for the selected vendor. You may have to press the Insert key first if you are adding a requisition to an existing purchase order.

    You can select a single requisition number. You can also select several requisition numbers to create a purchase order that includes details entered on the selected requisitions for the vendor and, if you wish, any detail lines that do not include a vendor number.

    Tip: Skip these fields if you are creating a purchase order without referencing a requisition.

  6. If you use the Project and Job Costing module and this is a job-related purchase order, select the Job Related option. More...

    If the purchase order is job-related, all items must be for particular contracts, projects and categories in Project and Job Costing. Posting the purchase order updates committed quantities and amounts for the jobs.

    Also, you cannot add serialized items or items assigned to lots to job-related purchase orders. Instead, you must order them on a non-job-related purchase order, receive them into inventory, and then use the Material Usage screen in Project and Job Costing to move them from inventory to jobs.

  7. Use the remaining fields in the top part of the Order tab to enter general information for the purchase order.

    Note: If you want to change the vendor account set, you can choose only from account sets that use the vendor's currency.

  8. Tab into the detail entry table (or click the table), and then enter purchase order details. (You may have to press the Insert key to start a new line.)

    Tip: You can click the Item/Tax button or press F9 to display a separate screen that lets you view and edit all the information for a single detail, including tax information.

    1. If this is a job-related purchase order, double-click the Contract field and then type the contract number, or use the Finder to select it.

      You must also enter or select the project and category to which you are allocating items.

    2. Double-click the Item Number field, and then enter an item number.
    3. Enter a quantity in the Quantity Ordered field.

    For information on other detail fields, see P/O Purchase Order Entry Screen

  9. Use the remaining tabs to complete the information required for the purchase order.
    • To check or edit vendor's tax group or tax classes, click the Taxes tab.
    • To add optional field information for the order, click the Optional Fields tab.
    • To change currency exchange rates in a multicurrency system, click the Rates tab.
    • To check the totals for the order, click the Totals tab.
  10. Click Post.

You can print the purchase order immediately after posting.

You can also print the purchase order later, using the Purchase Orders screen in the P/O Forms folder.