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Purchase Orders List

The Purchase Orders list window is the purchase order control center. From within the Purchase Order list window you can create, modify, cancel, receive, print, and email purchase orders. You can also use the Purchase Orders list window's QuickSearch to filter the list of purchase orders.

In e-automate, purchase orders can have different statuses. You can create your own statuses for use on purchase orders, or use the statuses that come standard with the software. These pre-configured statuses are system statuses, and e-automate can change these statuses based on actions performed in e-automate. A purchase order can have a Status of Open, Canceled or Completed. The different statuses are used by e-automate to tell you about your purchase orders and the items associated with them.

For example, a purchase order with a Status of Open has at least one remaining item that has not been received or canceled. A purchase order remains open until it is completely received, or the remaining items on it are canceled. You can filter out all canceled and completed purchase orders by using the [Search] button or by configuring your own QuickSearch. If a purchase order has a Status of Canceled, all items on the purchase order have been canceled. If even one item remains uncanceled on the purchase order, e-automate considers the purchase order to have a Status of Open. Finally, a purchase order with a Status of Completed is a purchase order for which all items on the purchase order have been received or canceled. At least one item on the purchase order must be received for the purchase order to be completed.

For purchase orders with a Status of Open, the system provides additional detail in parentheses regarding line items on the purchase order. The following are possible detail line item statuses for items on purchase orders:

Open

Open +

Canceled

When a purchase order line item detail Status is Open (Open), none of the items on the purchase order have been received. If a purchase order is partially received, the detail Status is Open (Open+). This means that at least one item has moved beyond the Open detail status. The lowest status associated with the line item detail is always displayed by e-automate. For example, if there are ten items on a purchase order and all are received except one, the detail Status would be Open (Open+).

Purchase orders are numbered by e-automate based on the administrator-seeded number entered in Options under Purchasing. Unlimited editing of a purchase order is allowed by e-automate without affecting the purchase order number until the purchase order is locked. Purchase orders in e-automate can be locked by:

Manually locking the purchase order from the purchase order list

Partially receiving the purchase order

Printing the purchase order (this is an administrative option that must be turned on)

When a purchase order is locked, you cannot make changes to the purchase order without affecting the revision number portion of the purchase order number; making any change increments the revision number.

You use a purchase order to purchase items to satisfy a variety of needs. These items may be sold through Sales, used to complete service calls, needed to stock your warehouses (tech or main), or are simply items you deem important. You use e-automate to record these needs as sales orders, service calls, restock levels, inventory requests, etc. Because these transactions are, or can be recorded in e-automate, you can link these transactions to purchase orders in e-automate. Linking a transaction to a purchase order allows purchasing and receiving personnel to know which transaction received the intended inventory. Using a purchase order also allows e-automate to change the statuses of different transactions based on purchase order receipts.

You can manually link transactions to e-automate when you create a purchase order, or automatically link transactions through a variety of actions. For example, using the Inventory Logistics Console is one way you can batch link to transactions as well as batch create necessary purchase orders. Another method is by using the Inventory Management Task available in e-agent, which automates the purchase order creation process and transaction linking without human intervention. The Inventory Management Task can be run on a schedule you determine and can automatically add transaction links to your locked purchase orders. The task can also add items and quantities to unlocked purchase orders, as well as create purchase orders based on your transactional needs.

Getting to the Purchase Orders List WindowGetting to the Purchase Orders List Window

From the Purchasing menu, select Purchase Orders to open the Purchase Orders list window.

Purchase Orders List Window ToolbarPurchase Orders List Window Toolbar

To begin an activity related to a specific purchase order on the list, select the purchase order and click the applicable icon on the toolbar. Only the icons that can be used with the purchase order you selected are active. Right-clicking on an order also gives you several options similar to the toolbar. Below is a list of these right-click options:

New: Create a new purchase order.

Edit: Edit the selected purchase order.

Cancel: Open the Cancel Purchase Order window. This window allows you to cancel one or more items off a purchase order, or to cancel the entire order.

Copy: Copy the selected purchase order. When selected, this button opens a new purchase order window with the items of the selected purchase order already populated. You can add, remove or edit quantities before saving the copied purchase order. Use this feature if you create similar purchase orders on a regular basis.

View: View the selected purchase order. While viewing a purchase order, you cannot make any changes but you can review the purchase order line item details.

Print: Send the selected purchase order to a system printer.

Email: Generate an email containing the selected purchase order as an attachment. The format of the attachment is configured by your system administrator.

Notes: Add company notes to the purchase order.

Export: Export the purchase order to a format that can be imported into a vendor’s order system.
Note: This functionality is only available for participating vendors and requires setting up a PO export module. For information, see the Setting Miscellaneous Options topic.

Lock and Unlock: Lock or unlock the selected purchase order.

Approve and Unapprove: Approve or unapprove the selected purchase order.

Receive Purchase Order: Open the Receiving window for the selected purchase order. The Receiving window containing any open, unreceived items on the purchase order waiting to be received is displayed.

Reassign Vendor: Reassign the selected purchase order to a different vendor. Use this button if you created and received the purchase order in association with the wrong vendor. This button reassigns both the purchase order and the receipts associated with the purchase order. You can change the vendor on purchase orders and receipts until the purchase order receipts have been linked to an accounts payable purchase order invoice.

Export: Export the purchase order to an Excel spreadsheet.

Refresh: Refreshes the list of purchase orders.

Close: Close the Purchase Orders list window.

Purchase Order QuickSearchesPurchase Order QuickSearches

To assist you in quickly finding purchase orders with specific statuses, we have added pre-created QuickSearches to the Purchase Orders list window. These searches are accessible from the [Searches] button. The right-hand side of the [Searches] button displays a drop-down menu. Use the drop-down menu to access the list of pre-created QuickSearches. You can also click [Searches] to open the Purchase Orders Searches window and select a search.

The following pre-created searches are available:

Canceled: A list of all purchase orders that have all items canceled.

Open: A list of all purchase orders that have at least one item on the purchase order that has not been received.

Open – Approved: A list of all approved purchase orders that have at least one item on the purchase order that has not been received.

Open – Unapproved: A list of all unapproved purchase orders that have at least one item on the purchase order that has not been received.

Received: A list of all purchase orders that have been completely received.

In addition to accessing a search via the [Searches] button, you can use the QuickSearch functionality to define your own searches. For more information, see the Using the QuickSearch topic.