Product Update: Purchase Orders

Overview

The Purchase Orders module allows you to create and send purchase orders to authorized vendors, and also gives you the ability to request approval for these purchase orders from managers, board members, and other authorized personnel. 

Note: Click on the images to enlarge them.

Table of Contents

• Purchase Orders Settings
• Creating Purchase Orders
• Submitting POs for Approval & Communicating with Vendors
• Generating PDFs
• Editing/Canceling Purchase Orders
• Searching Purchase Orders

Purchase Orders Settings

Before you begin issuing purchase orders, you’ll need to set up the module by adding default addresses, approval options, notification preferences, and more. 

Go to Manage on the left. Then select Purchase orders. Click the Gear icon to enter the settings page.

Shipping address

Specify the type of address to ship to.

Then enter the default address the Purchase Orders will be shipped to.

You may change the address when creating a Purchase Order if the order should be sent to a different location.

 

Billing address

Next, you will fill out the default billing address, if it is the same as shipping you may check the Same as shipping address check box.

If not, select the type of address, then fill in the information.

 

Special terms and conditions

You may add extra text to the bottom of the invoices.
 

 Accounting
 

Add the accounting information in this section, including the prefixes and codes for your accounting software and tax information. Check the Enable tax line 2 to add a second tax if needed.

Approval and notification settings

Lastly, choose how the Purchase Order will be approved.

If they do not need to be approved you can select Approval is not enabled.

• Approval requested prior to payment - In this configuration, you can create multiple approval groups for escalation.

Example Groups:
Board = $0 to $5000
Regional Manager = $5000 to $100000

Click Configure to the right of Approval required to send PO to select who can approve.

Or click Configure to the right of Approval requested prior to payment to create the groups and approval limits.

 These lists are based on the employees of the building.


 

Creating Purchase Orders

To create a purchase order, click Manage, then Purchase orders. Click Create purchase order.

You can enter the details, who to bill to, and to show the terms and conditions on the order. Some of the details will fill in based on your settings. Click Next at the bottom of the page to continue.

 

You can then fill out who to invoice, where to ship, and select your vendor. The vendors are managed in the Vendor directory found under the Maintenance tab. Click Next to continue.

You can then add the items to the order. Enter the expense code, item, description (if applicable), quantity, and price per individual item. Click Add item to add another item to the order.

You may enter the shipping as well. The tax will be automatically calculated based on the settings, but can be manually overridden if needed. Click Create to finish generating the order.

You will now have a chance to look over all the information entered for the purchase order. Extra notes can be included if needed and PDFs of the order can be generated as well. Save when the information looks correct.

Submitting POs for Approval & Communicating with Vendors

 The approval process and PO workflow are determined by your approval settings.

• If you've set up the module to require approval when sending POs to vendors (common for U.S. properties), see Workflow A. 
• If you've set up the module to require approval only when sending payments to vendors, see Workflow B. 

 
Purchase Order Workflow A - Approval Required to Send PO

When you are ready to submit your PO for approval, click Submit for approval. Clicking Submit for approval will automatically email the purchase order to whoever is able to approve it based on your settings. After the PO is submitted, it will change to the Awaiting approval status.

Once a PO has been approved, it can now be sent to a vendor. Click Email to vendor to automatically attach the PO as a PDF file in BuildingLink’s Compose Email page, where you can email the PO to the vendor and others.

If you prefer to hand-deliver the PO or send it through the regular mail, you may generate a PDF to print instead. If you choose this option, simply click Open to indicate that the PO has been sent to the vendor and you’re ready to move on to the next step.

You may also add notes to the Activity log on the left side of the page; these notes will appear with the PO's status history.



 

 After the Email to vendor or Open buttons have been clicked, the PO will be marked as "Open". Once the goods and services have been rendered and you have received an invoice, you can update the *optional* "Received" and "Accounting options" sections. Click OK to pay when you are ready to issue payment to the vendor.

Your PO will now be marked as "Ready for payment." Clicking Close purchase order will save a permanent copy of the purchase order and remove the option to cancel it. You can continue to add notes to the activity log after the purchase order has been marked "Closed."

 
 
 

Purchase Order Workflow B - Approval Required to Send Vendor Payments

After your purchase order draft is completed, you will see the option to email the PO directly to the vendor by clicking Email to vendor. This will automatically attach the PO as a PDF file in BuildingLink’s Compose Email page, where you can email the PO to the vendor and others.

If you prefer to hand-deliver the PO or send it through the regular mail, you may generate a PDF to print instead. If you choose this option, simply click Open to indicate that the PO has been sent to the vendor and you’re ready to move on to the next step.

After the Email to vendor or Open buttons have been clicked, the purchase order will be marked as "Open". Once the goods and services have been rendered and you have received an invoice, you can update the *optional* "Received" and "Accounting options" sections.  Be sure to click Save Changes. Next, click Submit for approval. 

After requesting approval, the purchase order will be marked as "Awaiting approval." Click the Approve button to authorize the purchase order. You may also include a note in the Add note text box. Click Save to log the note to your PO. Once the purchase order is approved, click OK to pay. 

Once the purchase order is marked as "OK to pay", all of the line items will be fixed, but you can still add notes and update the Accounting options section, or cancel the purchase order. Click Close purchase order when have you made any final changes and wish to file the purchase order. 

Generating PDFs

You may generate a PDF of your purchase orders at any time, once they have advanced past "Draft" status. Simply click the Generate PDF button.

Editing/Canceling Purchase Orders

• Shipping and billing information can be edited until a purchase order has been marked as "Sent."
  
   
• Line items can be edited until a purchase order is in "OK to pay" status.
  
   
• Accounting Options can be edited until a purchase order is in "Closed" status.
  
   
• Purchase orders can be canceled at any stage before they are in "Closed" status. 

Searching Purchase Orders

You can configure the following filters to choose which purchase orders will appear on the Purchase orders home screen.

• Search the purchase order number
• Search vendor
• Search invoice number
• Search date
• Status
• Group by
• Expense code