Create a Purchase Order

Modified on Thu, 25 Jun at 5:18 PM

Purchase Orders should be created whenever you incur third party costs from a Supplier, in order to track the true cost of the Project. In iCFM, a Purchase Order should be linked to a Job in order to pass the costs onto the client. The three paths below explain how this works.

The Services booked on a Job are what become the billing rows that can later be attached to Billing Approvals and Invoices. The process of creating a Purchase Order is very similar to Quotes and Jobs. Complete the required fields in the header, indicated by the Bold captions.

If you are raising a Freelance PO, see Create Freelancer Job on Schedule for specific setup guidance before continuing.

How costs are handled

When creating a PO, how you fill in the Job ID field determines what happens to the costs. There are three paths:

Path	Description
Path A (most common) Create a new Job automatically from this PO	Leave the Job ID blank. When the PO is Authorised, a Job is created using the PO costs, dates and services, and the costs are passed on to the client.
Path B Add this PO to a Job that already exists	Enter the existing Job ID. No new Job is created. The PO costs are added to that Job as billing rows when Authorised. Some PO types differ, see Purchase Order Types.
Path C Record the cost without charging the client	Tick No Charge. No Job is created. The PO is recorded against the project for cost tracking only.

How to Create a Purchase Order

Open the Project Summary
Click the green + icon in the Purchase Orders section (or Entities > Purchase Orders > Click Add)
Complete the required fields
(Pay attention to the Purchase Order Type and the Job ID field, as these affect how your costs are handled)
- Purchase Order Type: select the type that most closely matches your purchase. Different types affect how dates, costs and Jobs are handled
- Job ID: choose Path A, B or C as described above
Click Save (your Purchase Order is created at this point)
The Purchase Order Details section will appear below
Choose your Service Category
Select Service
Check and amend the Qty, Description and Unit Charge fields
Click Add to save the row
Repeat steps 6 to 9 to add additional rows as required
Authorise the PO. This is the point at which your chosen path takes effect
- If the PO is within your spending limit, you can Authorise it yourself
- If it exceeds your limit, it will be set to Awaiting Authorisation and sent to the Department Contact(s) to approve. See Purchase Order Limits
Mark Items as Received
Complete the PO. You'll enter the supplier invoice details, and if the invoiced amount differs from the PO a discrepancy reason is required