CenterPoint® Accounting - Create a Purchase Order (with the Inventory module)

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The Purchase Order module is used to provide a printed purchase order for vendors and manage the orders you've placed. This topic provides step-by-step instructions on how to create a purchase order for customers who also have the inventory module. When an inventory item is selected on the purchase order, the Quantity On Order increases for this item. Both inventory and non inventory items can be added to the same purchase order. A purchase order will have no affect on a vendors balance until the items are received.

Prerequisite

You must have the Inventory and Purchase Order modules purchased and registered in the module configuration manager (File > Administration > Module Configuration Manager) prior to entering any purchase orders for inventory items.

Create a Purchase Order

  1. Select Processes > Purchases > Purchase Orders. Purchase orders can also be created from Processes > Purchases > Purchase Order Maintenance > New button.)

  1. Select an optional Vendor you are ordering the goods or service from. The vendor name and default terms are displayed. If you have the File > Preferences > Purchase Orders > Approval Requires a Vendor to be Selected preference set to Yes or Not Set:

  • In Processes > Purchases > Purchase Orders / Purchase Order Maintenance, when a purchase order is saved with an Approved By selection with no Vendor, a "You must have a vendor selected to continue." message displays and requires a vendor .

  • In Processes > Purchases/Expenditures > Receive Purchase Orders, when a purchase order is received, the default purchase order vendor entered in Processes > Purchases > Purchase Orders / Purchase Order Maintenance will display or the vendor can be changed/entered. When the purchase order is filled or posted without a vendor, a "You must have a vendor selected to continue." message displays and requires a vendor.

  1. The default PO # is displayed based on the current value in the "Last Used Sequence" field in the Sequence assigned to the purchase order number field. Use the system-supplied PO number or enter a new one. Messages will display when duplicate sequence numbers are found based on the Duplicates and the Check When fields in Setup > General > Numbering Sequence. The messages inform you if a duplicate sequence number was found and how the duplicate sequence number should be replaced with a new sequence number, automatically or manually.
  2. Specify the Date for the purchase order. The date field defaults to today's date but can be changed as necessary.
  3. The Date Required field is optional and is used to notify the vendor the date by which the goods/services need to be received.
  4. Select or enter the name of the person responsible for placing the order in the Entered By field. The list of names will include those marked as Purchasers in Setup > Names > Names. This field is optional.
  5. If the preference is set to No, select the name of the person responsible for approving the order in the Approved By field. This field is optional. The Approved By field lookup will provide you with a list of employees currently setup in CenterPoint. If you do not use CenterPoint Payroll but would like to track who purchased the items, they can be added by right-clicking in the Approved By field and selecting New.If the preference is set to Yes, The Approved By field will not be active and Processes > Purchases > Approve Purchase Order screen is used to approve purchase orders.
  6. The Status field will default to Open. This can be changed to Hold if the purchase order is not yet complete. A purchase order that is on hold cannot be received.
  7. Select the Shipping Method for shipping the goods being ordered. This is an optional field that can be printed on the purchase order.
  8. The Terms will be used to calculate a due date (and optional discount due date) when an invoice is created for the received goods.
  9. The Est Delivery Date field can be used to communicate with the vendor on when you would like to receive the goods, or can also be used to specify a date the vendor noted the goods would be delivered.
  10. Normally the Deliver To field is set to Company Address for a manually created purchase order, but there are three options available:
    • Company Address: The Delivery Address section of the purchase order will default to your companies location.
    • Customer: This option is used if you'd like to drop ship the order to a customer. When Customer is selected, you will then select the appropriate Customer to ship to.
    • Other: Allows you to manually specify an address to ship the order to.
  11. The Email and Print buttons will always be active if the File > Preferences > Purchase Order > Require Purchase Order Approval preference is set to No. If the preference is set to Yes, the buttons will be active only when an Approval Date is entered. The Email or Print Options selected on the Email/Print tab in Setup > Names > Names or Setup > Vendors will determine the default setting for thePrint (an image of a printer displays on the button) and E-mail (an image of an envelope displays on the button ) buttons (the selection can be changed on this screen). If the Print or E-mail buttons display with a red X, it means the purchase order will not be printed or e-mailed when the purchase order is saved. If the Print or E-mail buttons display with a green check mark, it means the purchase order will be printed or e-mailed when the purchase order is saved. To override the Print button default setting, click the Print button to display the Print Setting screen where you can override the Print Purchase Order setting for this purchase order only, select the printer to print the purchase order to, the number of copies of the purchase order to print, and the form the purchase order should be printed on. To override the E-mail button setting for this invoice only, click the E-mail button to display the Email Settings screen where you can override the E-mail Purchase Order setting and the default To, CC, BCC, From, Subject, Message, and form the purchase order should be e-mailed on. Individual and multiple purchase orders can also be printed/emailed from the Processes > Purchases > Print/Email Purchase Orders menu.
  12. The system will automatically bring you to the Order tab when you enter/tab off of the last field on the Select tab. Otherwise you can click on the Order tab manually or use the hot-key combination Alt + D.

  1. In the Account field, select the first Item to be purchased by either typing in a portion of the item abbreviation or description, or click on the lookup button to display a list of items and accounts.

Note: If a non-inventory item is being purchased, an account should be selected in the Account field, instead of an item.

  1. The Description will automatically be displayed for inventory items, but can be overwritten. Use the Notation field to specify additional details regarding this item.
  2. Specify the Quantity Ordered. If the account selected is in the Inventory or WIP account category, a positive quantity must be entered.
Note: If you have the Show Information Grid on (Options button > Show Information Grid), you will see that when entering items on purchase orders, the Quantity Assigned, On Hand, Available and On Order reflect changes currently in process for the current transaction and others within the system that have not yet been saved.
  1. Specify the appropriate Unit of Measure. The default purchasing Unit of Measure for this item will be displayed. Click on the lookup button to view a list of all units of measure assigned to this item.
  2. Specify the appropriate Unit Cost. The last cost for the item will be displayed. If the item has never previously been purchased, the cost will default to .01. You can override the unit cost. If you change the unit cost, it is not recalculated.
  3. The Amount will be calculated automatically (Quantity Ordered * Unit Cost). If the account selected is in the Inventory or WIP account category, a positive amount must be entered.
  1. The Vendor Part # will display from the Setup > Sales > Items > Purchase Information tab or Setup > Inventory > Items > Purchase Information tab.
  2. Continue entering additional lines for each item that is being ordered from this vendor.
  1. If you want to reorder the lines you entered on the transaction in a particular order, include the Line Sequence column in your data entry grid. Each line will automatically be assigned a line sequence number. The first line is assigned 10, the second 20, and so on. To reorder the lines, change the sequence number to the order in which you want the lines to print or display. For example, if you want the second line to print before the first line, change the line sequence to be 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9. To view the reordered lines, click Options, and then select Refresh.
    2. Note: It is not necessary to view the lines, if you click Save after the transaction is complete your lines will be reordered. When you assign a line sequence number, it will automatically be renumbered after the lines are reordered back to 10, 20, and so on to make it easy for future reordering.
  1. If you need to change the default Accounts Payable, Freight, Sales Tax or Prepaid Vendor Purchase accounts (set in File > Preferences > Vendor Invoices > Default Accounts) or the Reserve for Encumbrances (set in File > Preferences > Transactions > Encumbrances) accounts for this purchase order, click the Accounts button, change the account, and then click OK.
Note: If you want to attach a document to this transaction, see the Attach Documents to Transactions topic for detailed information. If the Attachments column is added to the Purchase Order Maintenance List tab, the number of attached documents for a saved purchase order will display.
  1. Verify the information for accuracy and click Save to complete the order. The order will be printed if the Print button displays with a green check mark or e-mailed if the Email button displays with a green check mark.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can a purchase order be canceled or closed?

A: Yes, from the List tab, select one or multiple purchase orders, right-click, and chose either Cancel Order or Close Purchase Orders, enter a Close Date (the date will default to the system date), and then click Yes or select a purchase order, click Edit, in the Status box select Canceled or Closed, click Save, enter a Close Date (the date will default to the system date), and then click Yes.

Document: 3196

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