Purchase Order

This document explains how to create, release and print a purchase order.

A purchase order is an order to a supplier requesting material or services.

A purchase order is placed when a purchase from a supplier takes place. The purchase order can be sent to the supplier in different ways, for example by paper, fax, email, or EDI. In some cases, the purchase is made over the telephone and no purchase order document is sent to the supplier.

A purchase order contains a header and one or more lines. The order header contains information common to the entire order, such as supplier agreement terms. The lines contain the items or services to be purchased.

A purchase order can be created in two ways, automatically from a planned purchase order or manually.

Outcome

If agreed with the supplier, you wait for an order confirmation, a shipment advice, and/or a transport notification of the purchase order. This is reported into these programs:

  • 'Purchase Order. Confirm' (PPS250)
  • 'Purchase Order. Advise Shipment' (PPS260)
  • 'Purchase Order. Notify Transportation' (PPS270).

The next mandatory step is to receive the delivery of ordered goods to store them in your warehouse. This is done in 'Purchase Order. Receive Goods' (PPS300).

How the system is affected

These tables are used for purchase orders:

  • MPHEAD Purchase Order Header
  • MPLINE Purchase Order Line

Limitations

Many purchase order functions are available that are not described in this document. See the following list together with references to other material.

Agreements

A purchase order can be connected to an agreement through the rules set in the group profile connected to the agreement line. In this way, predefined values from the agreement, such as agreed prices and discounts, are proposed by default when the purchase order is placed. The reference to the agreement is printed on the purchase order document.

Read more in the Agreement documentation.

Costing

A purchase order is connected to a purchase costing model. This model can consist of elements that represent charges and internal costs in the purchasing flow.

When a PO is connected to a Grower Agreement, the costing model is sourced from the agreement line.

Read more in the Procurement Costing documentation.

Authorization

You can use authorizations on purchase orders to provide users with the authorization required to place purchase orders and limit the purchased amount on specific orders.

Read more in the Authorization documentation.

Monitoring (Confirmation, advice, and notification)

In the monitoring functions in M3, you can follow up on deliveries on placed purchase orders.

Read more in the Confirmation, Advice, and Notification documentation.

Before you start

Outline

Structure of the purchase order

A purchase order consists of an order header and one or more order lines specifying the items to purchase. The header information is valid for the entire order and consists of information mainly concerning terms and addresses. Several values on these panels are defaulted from the supplier files (CRS620-CRS624).

The order line information is only valid for each order line and consists of information about the item, for example, prices, quantities.

Each purchase order has status fields indicating how far in the flow the purchase order has come. The status consists of a highest and a lowest status and is displayed for both the order lines and for the complete purchase order.

PO statuses

As stated earlier, the status on the order tells us how far in the flow the order has come. Both the order header and the order line have a highest and a lowest status.

If an order has more than one order line, the lowest status shows the status for the line that has reached the lowest position in the order flow. The highest status consequently shows the status for the order line that has reached the highest.

Example:

A confirmed purchase order has two order lines. The entire quantity on the first line (line 10) is goods received. Only half of the quantity on the second line (line 20) is goods received. The statuses on the order line and order header are as follows:

Line/Order Lowest status Highest Status

10 50 50

20 35 50

PO header 35 50

After a Purchase Order is entered, its status is usually 15. If authorization is needed, the status is 12. After the Purchase Order document is printed, the status is 20.

Prices

The price is automatically defaulted to the purchase order line when placing a purchase order. The price should be considered together with the price quantity, the purchase price U/M, currency and discount. The purchase price quantity represents the quantity of the item for which the purchase price applies.

Example:

If an item has a purchase price of $150 and the purchase price quantity is 10, then the purchase price per purchase U/M is 150/10 = $15.

The Purchase Price U/M is the unit of measurement for which the price is expressed.

The purchase price is defaulted from these places and in this order:

  • Agreement (PPS100)
  • Item/Supplier (PPS040/F)
  • Item (MMS001/H)

If no price is collected to the order line the price must be entered manually. A price text can also be used instead of a purchase price.

Texts

This chapter describes some ways to print text on the purchase order documents. Pre- and a post texts for the header can be defined in 'Purchase Order. Open' (PPS200). By pressing F19, Pre text and/or F20, Post text on any of the detail panels in (PPS200) the text written will come out on the PO documents.

A line text can be attached by pressing F6 in 'Purchase Order. Open Lines' (PPS201).

A more firm post text can be put on all purchase orders. This can be used to inform the supplier of a change of address, for example. The text is placed in 'General Text. Open' (CRS950) and connected to the parameter 13 in 'Settings – Purchasing' (CRS780).

It is also possible to put in longer item texts in 'Items. Open' (MMS001) and write this information on the Purchase Order as a line text. The item number and item descriptions may not be enough to describe the requirements for a specific item to the supplier. The text is placed under the Text function (F6) in (MMS001) and is connected to a purchase order type in 'PO type. Connect Text'(PPS096).

The same functionality exists for the Suppliers and the Item/Supplier combination.

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