Purchase order (PO)

Owned by Timothy Hitchcock
Last updated: Oct 19, 2023 by Chris Phillips
3 min read

There are multiple ways to create a purchase order. Any of these methods ultimately end-up in the same place, on a Purchase Order in Purchasing. However, depending on the situation at hand, one way may save you time over another.

Create POs from Parts List

  1. From your Parts List you can select one or more items

  2. Enter a quantity in the ‘Order’ column (or click the ‘Bring to Max’ button to update the ‘Order’ column for all rows)

  3. Click the ‘Create POs’ button.

     

Create a PO from the MR Queue

Items requested for procurement for a particular project end up in the MR Queue. From the MR Queue, these items can be allocated from Stock, allocated from inventory, or they can be placed on a purchase order.

  1. From the MR Queue tab on the Purchasing form, you can select any row and right click to open a pop-up context menu.

  2. Choose ‘Add to Current PO’, or ‘Add New PO’.

 

Create a New PO (Blank)

Creating a new blank PO is used often for ad hoc orders. You know what you need, and you simply need to get it on a PO without going through any other formal process such as creating a Material Request and processing it through the MR Queue.

Here is how to create a PO directly:

  1. Navigate to the Purchasing (POs button in the ribbon menu)

  2. Click the ‘New PO’ button.

  3. Select the vendor this purchase order is going to.

  4. Click ‘OK’

     

  5. Select the ‘Items’ tab and add items to your purchase order.

A.

Adds a line item with a popup window so the price can be populated from vendor pricing.

B.

Adds a line from Inventory ensuring a precise match to a previous order.

C.

Adds blank line items into the Items window. Attributes/options will need to be completed before submitting the PO.

Customize Your Items List with Show/Hide Columns

Regardless of the method you’ve used to populate your purchase order, each row will represent a line item to be ordered from the vendor. Before submitting your PO to the vendor, take a moment to double check things such as the:

  • Order quantity (ORD)

  • Price (not required to submit the PO)

  • Needed-by Date

Depending on the size of your computer monitor, screen real estate may limit the number of columns you can see. There are more columns available than what will fit on the average monitor. To show/hide what columns you want to see:

  1. Right click anywhere in the item panel to open a pop-up context menu.

  2. Select Show/Hide Columns.

     

  3. Select/Deselect the columns that you want to see.