Editing Purchase Orders

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A purchase order lists goods and/or services that you wish to purchase from a vendor. It can also list information such as where purchased items should be stored when they're received and the payment terms for the order.

To create a purchase order, go to Purchase Orders and click the New Purchase Order button. This opens a window that contains the following:

Details section: Basic information about the purchase order.

Number: An identification number to label this purchase order. No two purchase orders may have the same code.

Number Format [only appears when editing defaults]: Specifies the format to be used when numbering new purchase orders. The default is PO {0:D8}. This means that the numbering format consists of the letters PO followed by a space and then eight decimal digits.

The 0 before the : is necessary. The number after the D is the minimum number of decimal digits in the resulting number. As an example, suppose you want to include the year in purchase orders numbers. If you set "Number Format" to PO 2007-{0:D6}, you'll get numbers like PO 2007-000001. You can also put text after the closing }; for example, you could write PO {0:D6}-2007 to get numbers like PO 000001-2007.

For more on number formats, see Number Formats.

We recommend that you use enough digits in your numbers to ensure that there is always a leading zero.

Number Sequence [only appears when editing defaults]: Specifies the number to used the next time you create a new purchase order. For example, if you set this to 1000, the next purchase order you create will be given the number 1000.

If you include the year in "Number Format", you should change the format at the beginning of each year and reset "Number Sequence" to 1.

Send Invoice To [only appears when editing defaults]: Specifies a contact person within your organization to whom invoices should be sent. To fill in this field, you specify an entry in your Contacts table. For more on contacts, see Contacts.

Summary: A summary describing the nature of the purchase order.

Details: Read-only fields indicating the purchase order's current status.

Effective Date: The date/time that the purchase order entered its current state.

State: Whether the purchase order is Draft (recently created), Open (ready to be sent to the vendor), Void (cancelled), or Closed (marked as complete). A new purchase order's "State" is blank until the first time the purchase order is saved.

Status: A user-defined status code for this purchase order. Typically, a code means that the purchase order requires someone's attention. For more on purchase order status codes, see Purchase Order Status Codes.

Required By Date: The date by which you expect this PO to be filled (i.e. when the goods/services will be delivered).

Vendor: The supplier or contractor who'll supply the goods and services. For more on vendors, see Vendors.

Purchase Order Category: A category for this purchase order. For more on purchase order categories, see Purchase Order Categories on page 174.

Use payment terms from vendor: If you checkmark this box, MainBoss will set the "Payment Terms" field to the default payment terms associated with the given vendor (if any). If you leave the box blank, you can set "Payment Terms" manually.

Payment Term: The terms on which you intend to pay for the goods/services. For more on payment terms, see Payment Terms.

Shipping Mode: How you want goods shipped to your organization. For more on shipping terms, see Shipping Modes.

Ship To Location: The location where you want the goods/services delivered (e.g. the loading dock for a particular building). For more on locations, see Locations.

Project: A project that should be associated with this purchase order template. For more on projects, see Projects on page 405.

Comment to Vendor: Any comments that should be printed on the purchase order when it is issued to the vendor.

Comments: Any internal comments you want to record on the purchase order. These will not be printed on the purchase order when it's issued.

Select for Printing: Makes it simpler to print the purchase order after it has been created. For more on the use of Select for Printing, see Select Print Flags.

Line Items section: The actual goods and/or services paid for by this purchase order.

New Purchase Item: Specifies an item you want to purchase. If you click this button, MainBoss opens a window where you can give more details about the item. For more, see Purchase Item.

New Purchase Hourly Outside: Specifies that you want to hire the vendor to do work, paid by the hour. If you click this button, MainBoss opens a window where you can give more details about the work. For more, see Purchase Hourly Outside.

New Purchase Per Job Outside: Specifies that you want to hire the vendor to do work, paid by the hour. If you click this button, MainBoss opens a window where you can give more details about the work. For more, see Purchase Per Job Outside.

New Purchase Miscellaneous Item: Specifies that you want the purchase order to include a miscellaneous item (e.g. that you'll pay a service charge for quick delivery). If you click this button, MainBoss opens a window where you can give more details about the item. For more, see Purchase Miscellaneous Item.

Assignments section: Lists people who have been assigned to this purchase order. For more information on assignments, see Assignments.

New Purchase Order Assignment: Opens a window where you can assign someone to this purchase order. For more details, see Assigning Someone to a Purchase Order.

Edit: Opens a window where you can edit the selected assignment.

View: Opens a window where you can view (but not change) the selected assignment.

View Assignee: Opens a window where you can view the purchase order assignee record associated with the assignment that's currently selected.

: Deletes the selected assignment from the list.

: Lets you search through the list of records for a particular record. For more information, see Searching for a Particular Record. The button has an accompanying drop-down list containing the following:

Find Next: Uses the same search condition(s) as your most recent search and finds the next record in the table that matches the condition(s). If the search reaches the end of the table without finding a matching record, it goes to the start of the table and continues the search.

Find Previous: Same as Find Next except that it goes backward in the table. If the search reaches the start of the table without finding a matching record, it goes to the end of the table and continues the search.

: Updates the list to reflect any recent changes.

Receiving section: Indicates which items have been received. For more on receiving and receipts, see Receipts.

Receive: Indicates that you have received some or all of the currently selected line item. If you click this button, MainBoss opens a window where you can record information about what you received. For more on receiving line items, see Receiving Purchase Order Items, Actual Hourly Outside (with PO), Actual Per Job Outside (with PO), and Receiving Purchase Order Miscellaneous Items.

Correct: Lets you change an existing receipt entry. Clicking the button opens an appropriate window that gives you the opportunity to change what was previously recorded. For more on correcting line item receipts, see Correcting Receive Item Entries, Corrections of Actual Hourly Outside (with PO), Corrections of Actual Per Job Outside (with PO), and Correcting Receive Miscellaneous Entries.

Edit: Lets you change an existing purchase entry. Clicking the button opens an appropriate window for editing the information.

If you use Edit on a receipt entry, it only lets you change a few fields in the record. To make more substantial changes, use Correct.

View: Lets you view the currently selected entry (read-only).

: Searches the list for a specific entry.

: Updates the list to reflect any recent changes.

Receipts section: Indicates any receipts (waybills) associated with this purchase order.

New Receipt: Opens a window where you can create a new receipt. For more information, see Editing Receipts.

Edit: Opens a window to edit the selected receipt.

View: Opens a window to let you view (but not change) the selected receipt.

: Deletes the selected receipt record.

: Searches the list for a specific entry.

: Updates the list to reflect any recent changes.

Work Orders section: Shows any work orders associated with this purchase order. For more on work orders, see Work Orders.

New Work Order Purchase Order: Opens a window where you can associate a work order with this purchase order. Typically, this should be an existing work order. For more, see Associating Work Orders with Purchase Orders.

Edit: Lets you change a work order association.

View: Lets you view (but not change) the selected work order association.

: Deletes a work order from the list. (The work order itself is not deleted, just the connection with this purchase order.)

: Lets you search for an entry in the list.

: Updates the list to reflect any recent changes.

State History section: Shows the states that purchase order has gone through: when it was opened, when it was issued, and so on.

Printed Form section [only appears when editing defaults]: Specifies information that will be used when printing purchase orders.

Title: Zero or more lines of text that should appear at the beginning of the purchase order. For example, you might put in any legal notices that your organization requires.

Additional Lines: A number. MainBoss will add this number of blank lines after the body of the purchase order. For example, if you specify the number 6, MainBoss will add six blank lines after the body of the purchase order, leaving space for people to write in any useful information.

Additional Information: Zero or more lines of text that should appear at the end of the purchase order. For example, you might use this to indicate where an authorization signature goes.

Note: If you change the text in the Printed Form section, it does not change the text in any customizations you have saved previously. Customizations save their own copies of the Printed Form information, and these copies are independent of any changes you make later in the main defaults. This can be confusing—when you use a customization, you will not see your new text, but rather the old text that was active when the customization was saved.

Save: Saves the purchase order. The editor window stays open in case you want to make more changes.

Save & New: Saves the purchase order and sets up the window for you to enter a new PO. Fields in the new PO will be blank or set to default values.

Save & Close: Saves the purchase order and closes the editor window.

: Opens a window to let you print purchase orders. For more information, see Printing Purchase Orders.

Save & Print: Saves the purchase order and opens a window that will let you print this specific purchase order.

Issue: Applies to a purchase order that is currently in its draft state. The purchase order is marked as issued. Issue has a drop-down list containing the following:

Issue (With Comment): Same as Issue, but also opens a window where you may record a comment about what you're doing.

Close Purchase Order: Applies to a purchase order that has been issued. The purchase order is marked as closed. MainBoss opens a window where you can record a comment and other information.

Close Purchase Order (With Comment): Same as Close Purchase Order, but also opens a window where you may record a comment about what you're doing.

Withdraw Purchase Order: Applies to a purchase order that has been issued. The purchase order is put back into the draft state.

ReActivate Purchase Order: Applies to a purchase order that has been closed. The purchase order is put back into the issued state.

Void: Applies to a purchase order that is currently in its draft state. The purchase order is put into the void state (cancelled).

Re-Draft: Applies to a purchase order that has been voided. The purchase order is put back into the draft state.

Note: Issue (With Comment), Close Purchase Order (With Comment), Withdraw Purchase Order, ReActivate Purchase Order, Void, and Re-Draft all open a window where you can record comments about what you're doing. This window also lets you set an effective date for the action. For more on recording such information, see Purchase Order State History Records.

Cancel: Closes the window without saving any changes you've made to the record since the last time you saved. When you Save the record, the Cancel button changes to Close, indicating that you can safely close the window without losing any changes.

Close: Closes the window. This button only appears after you've saved changes with Save or before you've entered any data at all. Otherwise, the button is labeled Cancel.

Add Purchase Order Comment: Opens a window that allows you to create a state history record for this purchase order. This record has a Comments field where you can enter any comments about this PO. For example, you can use the state history record to provide date-stamped information for other users. For more on purchase order state history records, see Purchase Order State History Records.

For general information on purchase orders, see Purchase Orders. For information on viewing purchase orders, see Viewing Purchase Orders. For a description of editors in general, see Using Editors.

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