Purchase Orders

You can create and modify purchase orders for purchasing goods. For example, if you run out of inventory, you can perform the purchase order procedure to replenish stocks. You can also use the purchase order procedure to purchase, for example, services. After confirmation, a purchase order is a legal obligation to supply items according to certain terms and conditions, including specific prices and discounts.

After an order is processed, the information is used by different departments in the company, such as planning, production, distribution, finance, purchasing, and marketing.

  • Purchase order procedure
    The normal purchase order procedure includes the creation, approval, printing, release to warehousing, receipt, payment, and processing of purchase orders.
  • Purchase order commingling
    To reduce the number of purchase orders and obtain the best available prices and discounts, you can commingle purchase orders. Commingling enables you to group various purchase orders that originate from different sources into a single purchase order.
  • Additional information fields
    You can use additional information fields to specify additional information on purchase orders. These fields are used throughout the process. For example, they are used in the project contract, the purchase order, the warehouse order, and the receipt process in Warehousing.
  • Direct delivery
    On a sales order or service order, you can indicate whether you want the sold goods to be directly delivered. In case of a direct delivery, a sales order or service order results in a purchase order. Because the buy-from business partner delivers the goods directly to the sold-to business partner, Warehousing is not involved.
  • Cross-docking orders
    To fulfill an existing sales order for which no inventory is available, you can take inbound goods immediately from the receipt location to the staging location for issue. To initiate this process, you must generate a cross-docking order.
  • Purchase orders for subcontracting
    In Procurement, various purchase documents for subcontracting can be created. To start the subcontracting process, a purchase order is always required. Purchase orders can be created for these types of subcontracting: operation subcontracting, item subcontracting, unplanned subcontracting, and service subcontracting.
  • Customer furnished materials
    To call off customer furnished materials required by a production order to produce a customer item, you can use purchase orders of the Customer Furnished Materials type.
  • Purchase backorders
    If a final receipt is made for a purchase order (detail) line and only a part of the goods or none of the goods are received, a backorder is created. Backorders can be manually or automatically confirmed.
  • Printing reminders
    You can print reminders to inform business partners of undelivered purchase orders.
  • Printing claims
    Occasionally, during the receipt process, the quantity received does not match the packing slip quantity. If suppliers ship less than what is on their packing slips, claim notes can be printed.
  • Purchase return orders
    A return order is a purchase order on which returned shipments are reported. A return order can contain negative amounts only. With a purchase return order, you can return inventory units or rejected goods to the supplier. Usually, these goods are rejected during inspection.
  • Changing prices or discounts after receipt or consumption
    You can change prices or discounts for purchase orders after receipt or consumption.
  • Printing purchase invoices
    You can print purchase invoices to compare the data in your system with the data (invoices) you get from the buy-from business partner.
  • Purchase order history
    You can use purchase order history to track creations and modifications to purchase orders. You can keep certain information after the original purchase order is removed.
  • Consignment
    You can use consigned inventory, for which inventory ownership and storage are handled by different parties, and choose between a basic or extended consignment setup.
  • Supplier stage payments
    Supplier stage payments enable customers to pay suppliers before or after the ordered goods are actually received for a purchase order. The payments are spread over a period of time and the amounts must be paid to the supplier on specific dates. The purchase order item's invoice flow is separated from its goods flow.
  • Integration procurement and freight
    Freight is the package that handles transportation requirements. If Procurement is responsible for the transportation of goods and must consequently collect goods from a supplier, you can generate a freight order from the purchase order.
  • Integration procurement and service
    With Depot Repair and Field Service you can maintain, repair, or upgrade parts. An integration is available between Service and Procurement to buy parts or to subcontract the maintenance, repair, or upgrade.
  • Price stages
    You can link a price stage to a purchase order line. The blocking definition that is linked to the price stage determines the phase at which the purchase order must be blocked or a signaling message must be displayed.
  • Material price information
    You can link material price information to a purchase order line. As a result, the (document line) price on the purchase order line includes material prices.
  • Import compliance for purchase orders
    If global trade compliance is applicable for import documents, purchase orders are validated to ensure that the import compliance information is valid and the required licenses are available.
  • Import letter of credit procedure
    If payment is to be made through a letter of credit (L/C), an import or domestic purchase letter of credit must be linked to a purchase order or purchase order line.
  • Blocking purchase orders
    If order blocking is enabled, purchase orders and purchase order lines can be blocked. Consequently, the order procedure cannot continue until the block is released.
  • Project pegging
    To identify costs, demand, and supply for a project, you can peg project costs for purchase order lines.
  • Change requests
    You can use change requests to update purchase orders in a controlled manner after their initial approval or printing. If this functionality is applicable for purchase orders, a change request is required to update the purchase order and its related data.
  • Copying purchase orders
    You can copy existing purchase orders to new ones from the actual orders or the order history.