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Purchase orders

Commit to buying from a supplier, then track what has been received and what has been billed against it.

A purchase order is your written commitment to buy from a supplier: a transport load of propane for the bulk plant, a pallet of cylinders, a case of regulators, or outside work such as requalifying a batch of cylinders. Receipts and supplier bills are both checked against it. It stays open until everything on it has been received and invoiced.

How to raise a purchase order when you know what you are buying

  1. Open Purchasing → Orders and select Add Purchase Order.
  2. Fill in the header:
    • Supplier, with its Supplier Location and Supplier Contact.
    • Supplier Order Number, when the supplier gave you one.
    • Delivery Location: the bulk plant, warehouse or yard that will receive the goods.
    • Currency.
    • Type: Purchase for goods, Outside Processing for work a vendor does on your own equipment.
    • Purchase Order ID comes from your numbering unless you type one.
  3. Save, then add lines. Each line is one of these kinds:
    • An item line (Part, Service, Material, Tool or Consumable) with:
      • Item, Description and Supplier Part Number.
      • Required Date, Quantity, Unit of Measure and the conversion to your stocking unit.
      • Unit Price and Shipping.
      • Delivery Location and Storage Unit.
    • A G/L Account line, for spend that is not stocked, such as a truck repair or a permit fee. It carries a GL Account, Cost Center, Fixed Asset and Location in place of an item.
    • A Comment line, for text only.
  4. Open the Shipping panel to set the Requested Date, Promised Date, Shipping Method, Shipping Cost, Incoterm and Tracking Number. Open the Payment panel to confirm Invoice Supplier, Invoice Location, Invoice Contact and Payment Terms. Both panels start from the supplier's own settings.

When a supplier sells in a different unit than you stock, set the conversion on the line. For example, a vendor that sells regulators in cases of 12 while you stock single regulators uses a conversion of 12. The receipt then adds 12 regulators to stock for every case received.

How to send a purchase order when it is ready

  1. Select Finalize. The button is enabled only while the order is Draft or Planned, has at least one line, and its supplier is approved.
  2. In the dialog, choose Send Via (Email or None), add anyone to CC, and check the attachments. The attachments are the default files set for your company, for this supplier and for each item on the order.
  3. Confirm. The order locks, the PDF is generated, and the order moves to To Receive and Invoice.

When your company has an approval rule for purchase orders (Settings → Approval Rules) and this order's amount falls under it, finalizing stops at Needs Approval instead. The approver sees the order under Assigned to Me on the purchasing page and selects Approve or Reject on the order. The PDF and email go out only after approval.

To keep an order for later review instead of sending it, choose Mark as Planned from the arrow beside Finalize. The order moves to Planned, the same status material planning gives the orders it suggests.

How to receive and bill a purchase order when the goods and the bill arrive

  • Receive creates a receipt for the lines still owed. When receipts already exist, the button opens a menu listing them, with New Receipt for another delivery.
  • Invoice starts a purchase invoice for the lines still to be billed. New Invoice in its menu starts another.
  • Returns lists the supplier returns raised against this order.

Each line counts what has been received and what has been invoiced separately, and the order's status follows from those two counts:

statusmeaning
Draftbeing built; the only state where you edit freely
Plannedsuggested by material planning, or marked planned for review
To Reviewa suggested order waiting for someone to review it
Needs Approvalwaiting for sign-off under an approval rule
Rejectedsign-off was declined
To Receive and Invoicesent; nothing received or billed yet
To Receivefully billed, still waiting on goods
To Invoicefully received, still waiting on the bill
Completedeverything received and billed
Closedended before completion

When a supplier will never deliver the rest of a line, for example a short transport load that will not be topped up, select Stop Receiving on that line. The remainder stops counting as incoming stock, and Resume Receiving undoes it.

How to send equipment out for work when you use an Outside Processing order

An Outside Processing order pays a vendor to work on your own equipment, such as requalifying cylinders or refurbishing tanks:

  1. Raise the order with Type set to Outside Processing. Its lines carry no delivery location or storage unit.
  2. After finalizing, select Ship to create the shipment that sends the equipment out. Shipments lists existing ones, with New Shipment for another batch.
  3. When the equipment comes back, select Receive. AimRack refuses to receive an Outside Processing order until it has been shipped.

How to change an order when it has already been sent

  • Reopen returns the order to editing, for example to fix a price before the supplier ships.
  • Create PO Revision reopens it as a numbered revision, shown with a suffix such as PO000123-1 on the PDF and emails, so the supplier can tell the amended order from the original.
  • Cancel Order ends an order that will not be filled.
  • Delete Purchase Order removes an order created by mistake.
  • Duplicate in the orders list copies an order with a new number, which suits a standing weekly load.

How to deliver straight to a customer when the supplier drops ships

Turn on Drop Shipment in the order's Shipping panel and choose the Customer and their location. Use it when a vendor delivers directly to a customer's property, for example a tank set dropped at a new customer's site, so the goods never pass through your yard.

Where this fits