Creating Multi-Site Purchase Orders with the Purchase Order Builder

Use the Purchase Order Builder form to create purchase orders for multiple sites.

There are several advantages to doing this:

A person at one site can set up a Builder purchase order that encompasses purchase orders to be created remotely at multiple target sites.
A Builder purchase order can take advantage of quantity breaks from the vendor for items that are required at multiple sites. Items on a Builder PO may be subject to a Master Buy Agreement (defined on the Vendor Contracts form). This option accumulates quantities of like items from one vendor, to determine the best quantity break available.
You can create printed documentation that groups purchase order information from various sites.

Requirements

The following must match in the target sites and the site where the Purchase Order Builder is being run: base currency, currency and quantity formats, terms code table, tax system setup, tax parameter setup, tax codes assigned to vendors, and tax codes assigned to items.
On each purchase order related to the same Builder PO, the system assumes that the same terms code, buyer, Remit To address, vendor contact, and LCR number are used.
Vendors must be set up to use the same currency in both the target and the PO Builder sites.
The target sites must have the same U/M conversion factors as the PO Builder site.
The PO Builder site and the target sites must all be replicating the Purchase Order Builder replication category to each other.
In order to access PLN data from another site, the PO Builder site and the source site must be set up as linked servers, and they must be on the same intranet - so when using PLNs, transactional replication is required. Using the Builder PO Report also requires transactional replication.

Creating a Builder Purchase Order

The Purchase Order Builder form contains header fields and two tabs:

Use the header fields to specify the vendor from whom the items will be purchased, and the status (planned or ordered). Specify the type of PO (regular or blanket) and, for blanket POs, specify whether to create just blanket lines, or releases as well as lines. Specify the terms code.
If you select a vendor whose pricing is calculated by PO line due date (as indicated in the Vendor Contract Pricing field on the Vendors form), a warning message will display. You can select this vendor, but the system will ignore the setting from the Vendors form. The PO Builder always calculates costs using the PO order date.
Use the Item tab for manual entry of items to create PO Lines, specifying the target site where the PO line will be created.
Use the Planning tab to select existing PLN's from target sites that may be added to the PO as additional lines. Click Load Planning Detail to display a filter where you specify the criteria for sites and items whose PLN's should be loaded into the grid. (Replenishments cannot be loaded.) Once the PLN's are loaded into the Planning tab, you can then select which PLN records you want to firm into PO lines.

When you click Process:

One purchase order is created for each unique site in the Item and Planning grids.
If you selected a PO Type of Regular, the system creates a PO line for each row in the Item grid and each selected PLN in the Planning grid. Records are combined into one PO line when the item, U/M and costs are the same.
If you selected a PO Type of Blanket and set Create As to Lines, the system processes each row in the Items grid and each selected PLN record, creating one PO blanket line record per site for each unique item, U/M and cost combination.
If you selected a PO Type of Blanket and set Create As to Releases, the system processes each row in the Items grid and each selected PLN record, creating one PO blanket line record per site for each unique item, U/M and cost combination. It also creates a new PO blanket release for each row. For example, if you have a unique combination of item, cost and U/M (an order for 25 of item CP-10000), and you select Blanket as the type and Create As Releases, the system creates a blanket line with a quantity of 25 and a blanket release of with a quantity of 25.

Maintaining Builder POs

After processing, the POs must be maintained within the individual sites. If you change the vendor number, the Builder PO Number and Originating Site will be removed, and that PO will no longer be part of the Builder PO.

Once the PO has been printed with the Builder Purchase Order Report, you can no longer change the vendor. The PO must remain linked to the Builder PO after printing.

You can add more lines to an existing Builder PO through the Purchase Order Lines form. These new lines will also be considered part of the Builder PO. However, updating the existing lines will not take into consideration the Master Buy Agreement.

Printing Builder POs

All POs created though the Purchase Order Builder must be printed with the Builder Purchase Order Report form.

See Printing Builder Purchase Orders for additional information.

After printing the PO, standard system functionality is used throughout the remainder of the purchasing and receiving process.

Notes

Each site should use a separate Builder PO Prefix (defined on the Purchasing Parameters form). This helps distinguish the source of the data if a vendor invoice only includes the Builder PO number and does not include the originating site.
Data in the Purchase Order Builder is not persistent. When you close the form, any unprocessed data is removed.
The PO Builder site is used to determine the cost of an item, even if the item will be created in another site.
PO landed costs are not set up in the PO Builder. They can be set up for each purchase order in the target sites after the Builder PO is created.
Notes are not set up in the PO Builder. They can be added to POs, PO (blanket) lines, and PO blanket releases in the target sites after the Builder PO is created. See also the information about printing notes in Printing Builder Purchase Orders.
If you change the U/M for an item, the record is not combined with other like item records for quantity breaks.