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Raising a client purchase order number for a new direct order

A look at the process of raising and confirming a purchase order number to link to a Flow360 works order.

When is a purchase order number required?

The requirement for a client purchase order number is controlled by a set of manager preferences. See Setting manager preferences for more details.

The preferences will determine whether an order number is required for all or only external orders, and whether there is a lower limit beneath which order numbers are not required. This will vary from client to client.

A red highlight means the order cannot be released

When you view the proposed new order list, any row that is highlighted red cannot be sent yet. Usually this is because an order number is required and none has been supplied.

Any draft order that requires an order number before it can be confirmed is indicated with an exclamation mark before the p.o. number column.

Adding an order number manually

If you already have an order number, you can simply enter it in the p.o. number column. The red highlight will turn green, the exclamation mark will be cleared and the order can be confirmed by clicking the target button on the relevant row. The order will be created and sent as normal.

The following steps are only for those situations where you do not have an order number ready....

Logging a request for an order number to be raised

If you do not have an order number ready, then you need to request one from the relevant finance contact. Do this by clicking the exclamation mark on the relevant row. When you do this, the exclamation mark will change to a tick to indicate that the request has been noted and the red highlight will turn green indicating the order can now be confirmed.

NOTE: any order where a purchase order number request has been logged will NOT actually be sent to the provider until the purchase order number is confirmed. Instead the order will be created, the request will be sent and the order will be placed on hold until the order number is confirmed.

Confirming an order when a p.o. number request has been logged

Now that an order request has been logged, to confirm this order for Prime Maintenance, click the target button on the relevant row (1)

Request confirmation

This dialogue confirms that the order has been created and placed on hold pending the issue of a purchase order number. Click OK to dismiss the dialogue.

The order added to the order list (and currently on hold)

The order has been created and added to the Works list - you can see from the pink triangle on the status colour block that the order is currently on hold.

Click the goto button (1) to view the full order.

The full order (currently on hold)

You can see instantly that the status is on hold and that all listed line items are similarly on hold.
The events tab (1) will list the hold event - click this tab to see the hold event

The events tab showing the Hold event

To see the full record card for the Hold event, click the goto button (1)

The Hold event record

The event record shows more detail about the hold and why and when it was applied. It also lists all items affected - in this case all the line items on the order, the order itself and all the scheduled tasks linked to the line items.

The purchase order number request message

When you confirmed the order by clicking the target button a new message was created for the finance contact to request the raising of a new purchase order number. This is the message.

You can see that there is a red dot in the actioned box indicating that action is required. (1)
As this message is a request for a purchase order number, there is a box on the message itself where the number can be entered (2) and any relevant notes can be entered in the response notes box (3).

You can see that there is also a link to full order so that the person raising the purchase order number can review the order.

Confirm the new purchase order number

To allow the order to be released, the finance contact needs to simply enter the purchase order number (1) along with any notes (2) and click the Confirm (3) button on the message. When that is done, the Cancel and Confirm buttons will disappear and the actioned box will be checked.

At the same time, the purchase order number has been applied to the order and a message has been sent to the manager that the order can now be released.

Message confirming the issue of the purchase order number

The message confirms that the order information has been sent to the provider and that the manager can now release the hold on the order. See the section on Releasing a Hold for more details

Canceling a purchase order request

If the finance contact is unable to raise a purchase order number for the order, they can click the Cancel button on the request message. This will send a message back to the manager informing them that the purchase order number request has been denied.