Purchase Order States

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To accommodate organizations that require approvals before making a purchase, the process of creating a purchase order can have many stages:

Draft: This is the stage where you first enter the information about the purchase order. The purchase order remains in its draft state until you issue it (see below).

Many organizations require a formal approval process for some or all purchase orders created by the maintenance department. Typically, a purchase order remains in the draft stage until it receives all the necessary approvals.

Note: Inventory items are considered to be on order as soon as they appear on a draft purchase order. MainBoss does this to avoid over-ordering stock—once an item has been put on one purchase order, the corresponding "stock available" quantities are all updated to show the quantity of stock that will eventually arrive.

The drawback of this approach is that the items are considered on order before the purchase order is actually issued. If the purchase order isn't issued for a long time, you may be misled into thinking that the stock is soon going to show up, when in fact, the purchase order hasn't even been sent to the vendor. For this reason, you should try not to leave any purchase order in the draft stage for an extended period of time.

Issued: Once the purchase order has been approved, it can be issued to the vendor who will supply the goods. An issued purchase order has actually been submitted to the vendor.

Once a purchase order has been issued, you can't add more items to it. If you've issued a purchase order but find that you have to make changes before sending it to the vendor, MainBoss lets you withdraw the purchase order.

You cannot record the receipt of goods or services in connection with a purchase order until the purchase order is issued.
Closed: Once you have received all the items specified in the purchase order, the purchase order may be closed. The purchase order may also be closed if some items have been received and orders for outstanding items have been cancelled.

A closed purchase order can't be edited. If you really want to make changes, you have to reactivate it first. If you want to add comments to the purchase order, you should do so before you close it.
Void: A draft purchase order may be canceled by marking it as void.

MainBoss has various buttons for changing the state of purchase orders. These are summarized below:

Void: Changes Draft to Void, and also opens a window where you may record a comment about why you decided to cancel the purchase order
Re-Draft: Changes Void to Draft, and also opens a window where you may record a comment about why you decided to reopen the purchase order
Issue: Changes Draft to Issued
Issue (With Comment): Same as Issue, but also opens a window where you may record a comment about what you're doing
Withdraw Purchase Order: Changes Issued to Draft, and also opens a window where you may record a comment explaining why you're withdrawing the purchase order
Close Purchase Order: Changes Issued to Closed
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
ReActivate Purchase Order: Changes Closed to Issued, and also opens a window where you may record a comment explaining why you're reactivating the purchase order

Purchase orders may be created in a number of different ways. The simplest is creating one directly from the purchase order viewer (Purchase Orders in the control panel). Purchase orders may also be created as part of the process of creating a work order. When a work order requires hiring outside contractors or the purchase of non-inventory materials, MainBoss lets you create a purchase order to cover those labor or material costs. For more on this way to create purchase orders, see Editing Work Orders.

Purchase Order Status Codes: In addition to the standard purchase order states, you can create your own custom status codes to describe the condition of purchase orders. For example, you might have status codes like

Waiting for price quote
Waiting for management approval
Items on back-order

For more on purchase order status codes, see Purchase Order Status Codes.

For information on viewing purchase orders, see Viewing Purchase Orders. For more on creating and editing purchase orders, see Editing Purchase Orders. For more on printing purchase orders, see Printing Purchase Orders. For more on reports related to purchase orders, see Purchase Order Reports.