Purchase Orders

Purchase orders enable you to acquire inventory for your organization when you use an Internal Purchase Order. Purchase orders can be created to fulfill sales orders, production orders and to acquire capital equipment to be used in your organization. Purchase orders can be shipped to a warehouse in your organization or they can be drop shipped to a location outside your organization. In addition, you can create a purchase order from a requisition.

Purchase Order Types

There are two basic types of purchase order:

  • Internal purchase order - The item will be added to the company inventory. This purchase order type is also known as an inventory purchase order.
  • Drop ship purchase order - The item will be shipped directly from a supplier to the customer.
Purchase Order Record Types
Purchase Order Type Description
Approved Drop Ship Purchase Order A Drop Ship Purchase Order that has been approved.
Approved Internal Purchase Order An Inventory purchase order that has been approved.
Drop Ship Purchase Order A Drop ShipClosed A retail supply chain management technique where the seller does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer or wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. purchase order is shipped directly from the supplier to a location, the drop ship customer address rather than a company address or warehouse.
Internal Purchase Order An Internal purchase order is an inventory purchase order that is shipped to an address or warehouse belonging to the company.

Purchase Order Line Types

There are several types of purchase order lines that you can add to a purchase order depending on the type of item or service being purchased.

The purchase order line record types that would normally require a receipt are indicated in the Receipt column. The purchase order line record types that don't have an associated inventory position are indicated in the Inventory Position column.

Purchase Order Line Types

Purchase Order Line Type

Description

Receipt Required

Inventory

Position

Blanket Order Use the blanket order line type to create a purchase order line based on an existing agreement with a supplier. Yes Yes
Capital Equipment Use the capital equipment line type to purchase capital equipment for use in your organization. The incoming items go through a receiving process, but they do not become part of inventory. Yes No
Category Use this record type for purchases based on categories. You can associate the goods or services that you are purchasing with a category such as software, food and drinks, or office supplies. Category lines can be received either by quantity or amount.

No

Note: This type of purchase order lines can be received although they do not require a receipt.
No
Contractor Use the contractor line type to purchase a contract type service. For example, software licensing, advertising, repair services or another service required by your company. Contractor purchase order lines do not require a receipt as services are not received into warehouses. No Yes
Description Use the description line type for an item that has no item master set up or an item that will not become part of your capital equipment portfolio. This type of item will be consumed or utilized by your organization and won't be subject to depreciation. This line type can be received as required. Description lines can be received either by quantity or amount.

No

Note: This type of purchase order lines can be received although they do not require a receipt.
No
Item Use the item line type for inventory and drop ship purchase order record types. There will be an item master associated with the item or service that is the subject of the purchase order. Yes Yes
Logistics Use the logistics line type to enter a purchase cost incurred in association with a specific item or items (for example: special handling charge for refrigeration or fuel excess fees). They must be created as a separate line item on the purchase order. No Yes
Misc. Charge

Use the misc. charge line type when there are miscellaneous charges applicable that cannot be categorized by one of the other line types.

No Yes
Service Use the service line type for a service type purchase order where one or more items are shipped out for a service and received back into inventory following the service. Yes Yes

Indirect Procurement Based on Categories

Indirect Procurement Based on Categories enables you to make indirect purchases based on predefined categories. Your administrator can define these categories for you by marking product groups as categories. For more information, see Marking Product Groups as Categories for Indirect Procurement. This makes the product groups display as categories that you can select when creating purchase order lines of type Category. In order to create category purchase order lines, you must use the Category record type. For more information on how to create category purchase order lines, see Creating Purchase Order Lines.

Amount-Based Receiving for Category and Description Purchase Order Lines

Unlike other purchase order line types which can only be received by quantity, purchase order line items of type "Category" and type "Description" can be received either by quantity or amount. Amount-based receiving enables you to receive based on the value of the goods or services being purchased.

Note:

Only purchase order line items of type "Category" or type "Description" can be received by amount.

When a purchase order line is received by amount, both the Amount and Quantity fields on the related receipt line are populated. Many related Order and Inventory Management processes are quantity- based, so once you provide a receiving amount for the purchase order line when creating the receipt, we also calculate the quantity in order to ensure all these processes work consistently and accurately. The Quantity field is calculated by dividing the received amount by the unit cost indicated on the purchase order line. For example, if you have a purchase order line with a unit cost of 10 and you are receiving an amount of 150 for this purchase order line, the Quantity field on the receipt line will have a value of 15.

For more information about how to receive purchase order lines by amount, see Creating Purchase Order Lines with Amount-Based Receiving and Creating a Purchase Order Receipt.

Recurring Purchase Orders

Creating recurring purchase orders manually can be a time-consuming task. The recurring purchase order feature enables you to easily generate recurring purchase orders from:

  • Approved purchase orders, whether they are internal or drop ship purchase orders.
  • Active purchase agreements.

To create a recurring purchase order from an approved purchase order, you must complete the fields in the Recurring Settings section of the purchase order page at the time you are creating the purchase order or after the purchase order has been approved. To create a recurring purchase order from an active purchase agreement, you must use the New Recurring Purchase Order action on the purchase agreement record. The recurring purchase orders generated either from a purchase order or a purchase agreement have a status of "Approved" by default.

When you create recurring purchase orders from a purchase agreement, the Purchase Agreement field on the purchase orders and the Purchase Agreement Line field on the purchase order lines are automatically populated with the values of the originating purchase agreement and purchase agreement lines.

For more information, see Creating a Recurring Purchase Order.

One-Off Lines

You can include one-off lines when creating a recurring purchase order from a purchase agreement. The lines that you define as one-off are only included in the first created purchase order. This enables you to reflect one-off purchases that are within the terms of your purchase agreement.

Note: The option to include one-off lines is only available when you create a recurring purchase order from a purchase agreement by using the New Recurring Purchase Order action.

For information about how to include one-off lines in a recurring purchase order, see Creating a Recurring Purchase Order from an Active Purchase Agreement.

Recurring Purchase Orders Associated with a Purchase Agreement

The line items of the recurring purchase orders that you create from an active purchase agreement are automatically updated when you modify their associated agreement lines by applying a change request. The changes applied to the purchase agreement lines are automatically reflected on their associated purchase order line items as long as they belong to a recurring purchase order.

The following considerations apply to the update of recurring purchase orders associated with a purchase agreement that is modified with a change request:

  • You must have permission to edit purchase order line items in order to apply the change request. Contact your administrator if you don't have the required permissions.
  • Only purchase orders with a date of today or after are updated. This means that, to be updated, their purchase order date must be equal to or later than the date when the change request is applied. Purchase orders with a date in the past are never updated.
  • To be updated, a purchase order line item:
    • Must have a status other than Closed, Cancelled, or Partially Received.
    • Must belong to a recurring purchase order with a status other than Closed, Cancelled, or DissApproved.
    • Must be associated with the purchase agreement line being modified.
  • Only the following fields can be updated: Quantity, Unit Cost, and Ship to Warehouse.
  • Blank values are ignored in the update process. The Quantity and Ship to Warehouse fields of the purchase order line items are never updated with a blank value. If any of these fields is updated with a blank value on a change request line, the corresponding purchase agreement line is updated accordingly after the change request is applied. However, these fields remain unchanged on the associated purchase order line items. The Unit Cost field is required for purchase agreement lines so you can never leave it blank on a change request line.

Rebates

When you create a purchase order if the purchase order is eligible for rebates they are applied to the purchase order automatically.