Archibus SaaS / Maintenance / Part Inventory
Maintenance / Corrective Maintenance / Inventory Manager
Maintenance / Preventive Maintenance / Background Data – Maintenance

Creating Purchase Orders for Parts

When reviewing your parts inventory, if you notice that parts are low, you can create a purchase order for the parts, or you can add the part to an existing purchase order. Working from the Manage Parts Inventory task, you can select a single type of part to purchase (from the Total Parts Inventory tab), or multiple types of parts to purchase (from the Parts by Location tab).

To create purchase orders, work with the Manage Parts Inventory task. Once purchase orders are created, you can modify or update the purchase order working from the Manage Purchase Orders task.

Getting Started

If you want to generate purchase orders for parts, note the following:

• Vendor Codes: A part must be associated with a Vendor Code to generate purchase orders for the part See Maintaining a List of Parts Vendors.

When using the multiple storage locations for parts feature, consider developing the following data so that the system can more fully complete your purchase orders.

• Associate a storage location with a building. When you define a storage location, if the location is associated with a building, then the shipping and billing address for the purchase order are automatically populated with the address information entered for the building. Associating a building with a storage location is optional, but has this advantage.
• Catalog Numbers. When defining your parts' vendors, if you enter the Vendor Parts #s used by the vendor for that part, the system populates the Catalog Number for the part's line item on a purchase order with the Vendor Part #. See Maintaining a list of Parts Vendors.

Adding parts to a purchase order

When working from the Total Parts Inventory or the Parts by Location tabs of the Manage Parts Inventory task, you can add parts to a new or existing purchase order.

To add a part to a purchase order:

1. Do one of the following:
   • Single type of part: To create a purchase order for a single type of part, select the Total Parts Inventory tab, select the check box for a single part and location, and click Purchase.

   • Multiple types of parts. To create a purchase order for multiple types of parts, select the Parts by Locations tab, use the filter to select a storage location to view parts for, and click Show to show parts for that location. Select the check boxes for the parts you want to purchase, and click Purchase. You can create a purchase order for multiple types of parts that are in the same location if the parts have at least one common vendor.

   The Purchase Order form appears. The Part Code and From Storage Location are automatically populated based on the part and location you selected.

2. Do one of the following:
   • Create new. To create a new purchase order, select the Create New Purchase Order tab.
   • Add to existing. To add the part to an existing purchase order, select the Add to existing purchase order tab. This tab presents a list of existing purchase orders that have the same Receiving Location as the part you selected, have a Purchase Order Status that is Requested, Approved, or Rejected, and the selected Part Code has a vendor that matches the vendor of the purchase order Select the option button for one of the purchase orders.

3. Vendor Code: When working from either tab, the Vendor Code is populated with the vendor associated with this part that has the lowest number for its Vendor Rank. Select the ellipsis to see the complete list of vendors associated with this part. If needed, select a different vendor from that list.
4. Receiving location: When working from the Create new purchase order tab, the receiving location defaults to the storage location you selected when you selected the part. If needed, select a different storage location from the list. The shipping and billing address for the purchase order will be set to automatically match the address of the Receiving Location's building, if it exists
5. When working from either tab, enter the following information:
   • Quantity: Enter the quantity you want to purchase.
   • Unit Cost: This value defaults to the Unit Cost - set by User (pt_store_loc_pt.cost_unit_std). If needed, you can change this value.
   • Account Code: Select the internal account to charge this part's cost to.
   • Source System:. If you are using connectors to link records in the Purchase Order (PO) table to an external system, the value identifies the system from which the purchase order originated.
   • Comments: Optionally, enter comments about this part for the order.
   • Federal Tax / State Tax / Shipping. Enter these fields for the purchase order as a whole. The application prorates these fields to the purchase order line items. See How shipping and taxes are prorated
6. Review the following fields that are provided as a reference.
   • Catalog Number (po_line.cat_no). The form displays the value of the Vendor Part # (pv.vn_pt_no) if this exists, Otherwise, it displays the Part Code (part_id).
   • Quantity Understocked (pt_store_loc_id.qty_to_order).
7. If you are adding the parts to a new purchase order, the following virtual field is calculated:
   • Total Cost. This is a virtual field, calculated as vf_po_value plus po.federal_tax plus po.state_tax plus po.shipping.
8. If you are adding the parts to an existing purchase order, the following fields are calculated:
   • Total Additional Cost – calculated as the Quantity to Purchase multiplied by the Unit Cost
   • Updated Order Value – When adding parts to an existing purchase order, this is calculated as Total Additional Cost plus the summed costs of the existing line items.
9. Click Save.

   When you save the form, the system sets the following values for the purchase order:

   • The P.O. Line Number (po_line.po_line_id) – is set to 1
   • The Purchase Order Status is set to Requested. If you are in the security group “PO APPROVER”, then the system sets the status to Approved
   • Date Requested (po.date_requested) – is set to today’s date
   • Requestor Name (po.em_id) – is set to the employee ID of the user currently logged on
   • If the Receiving Location is associated with a Building Code; that is, if you entered a Building Code for the receiving location when you defined it as a storage location, then the shipping and billing address for the purchase order will be set to automatically match the address of the Receiving Location building.

After creating the purchase order, or adding a part to an existing purchase order, you can modify or update the purchase order working from the Manage Purchase Orders view. See Managing Purchase Orders for Parts.

Purchase orders and inventory transactions

When a Purchase Order is received, the system creates an inventory transaction. Because Purchase Orders may contain values for shipping and taxes that are prorated into line costs, these values must also be reflected in the Cost per Unit for inventory transactions, in the following way:

• The Cost per Unit when used = Unit Cost from PO Line Item + (Shipping and Taxes from PO Line Item / Transaction Quantity)
• The Total Cost is calculated by multiplying (Cost per Unit when used) by (Transaction Quantity), but it may yield a different value because the Cost per Unit when used reflects a portion of the Shipping and Taxes.