Purchase Order Templates

This help file applies to an out-of-date version of MainBoss.
The most recent version of MainBoss is MainBoss 4.2.4.
For the latest version of this help file can be found here.

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Suppose that a preventive maintenance task requires help from an outside contractor. Every time you generate a work order from the task, you also want to generate a purchase order that pays for the contractor's work.

In this situation, you can associate a "model" purchase order with the task. This is called a purchase order template. It's not a real purchase order; instead, it's a collection of information that can be used to create a real purchase order whenever a work order is generated. By associating the purchase order with the task, you can get MainBoss to create a correct purchase order automatically—you don't have to remember to write up the purchase order yourself.

As another example, suppose that a task requires that you replace a particular spare part in a piece of equipment. Every time you perform the task, you want to reorder the part immediately, so that you always have the part on hand. You could link the task to a purchase order template for the required part; every time MainBoss creates a work order from the task, it also creates a purchase order for the part.

In order to create such a purchase order:

You begin with Coding Definitions | Unit Maintenance Plans | Purchase Orders Templates. This lets you create and edit purchase order templates that can be associated with tasks.
Once you've created a template, you must link it to the task(s) that will use the purchase order. To do this, go to the Tasks section of the purchase order template and click New Task to Purchase Order Template Linkage. MainBoss will open a window where you can specify a task to be associated with the purchase order.

Alternatively, you can go to the Purchase Orders section of a task record. Clicking New Task to Purchase Order Template Linkage opens a window where you can specify a purchase order template to be associated with the task.

For more on viewing purchase order templates, see Viewing Purchase Order Templates. For information on creating and editing purchase order templates, see Editing Purchase Order Templates. For how to print purchase order templates, see Printing Purchase Order Templates. For the process of linking purchase order templates to tasks, see Linking Purchase Order Templates to Tasks.