Use blanket purchase orders and their associated releases to establish purchasing agreements with vendors to facilitate the purchase of repeatedly bought items. Blanket purchase orders cannot be vouchered against or received. The blanket purchase order acts as both a template for setting up new releases quickly and a control device to limit (at your discretion) what is bought and how much is spent by whoever creates the release.
You must create release orders from blanket orders with the Create Blanket Releases function. You can select lines from the blanket for copying over to the new release. The release order will have the same purchase order number as the blanket from which it was created. However, it will be assigned a unique release number to differentiate it and other releases from the blanket order itself. Once you create a release, it can be maintained, printed, received, and vouchered just as a normal purchase order is.
Releases are treated as normal purchase orders for commitment purposes. All unreleased amounts on blanket order lines will be calculated and reported separately. This amount can be included in or excluded from the commitment total, based on the Include Unreleased Blanket Amounts on Commitments flag in the PO Settings screen. For commitment calculation purposes, the unreleased blanket line amounts, not the total blanket amount set up in the blanket header, will be used. (The blanket header amount does not have the additional charge information necessary for commitment calculation.)
Use the Enter POs screen to create a blanket order. At the Type drop-down box, select "Blanket Order."
Authorization for this procedure occurs in the Buyers screen. At the PO Entry Authorization group box on this screen, select the Blanket Order checkbox.
Value of purchase order and PO lines cannot exceed maximum limits as determined in the Buyers screen.
Option One: In the Create Blanket Release Orders screen, use Find or Query to load the blanket order for which a release order is to be created.
You use the Buyers screen to authorize people to enter release orders. Select the Release Order checkbox under the PO Entry Authorization group box.
The values of purchase orders and PO lines cannot exceed maximum authorization limits set in the Buyers screen.
A release order will be created for all lines with a copy flag of "Y." Release quantity or release amount (depending on the type of line) must be greater than zero.
Validations may occur depending on the checkboxes in the Blanket PO Restrictions group box in the Header Information subtask of the Enter POs screen for the blanket order.
To maintain the release order, use the Enter POs screen. Use Find or Query to load the release order you wish to maintain.
Option Two: You can also create blanket release orders in the Enter POs screen. Use Find or Query to load the blanket order, and select the CreateRel pushbutton to generate your next release. Maintain the release information in the same screen.
Validations may occur depending on the checkboxes in the Blanket PO Restrictions group box in the Header Information subtask of the Enter POs screen for the blanket order.
You cannot add new lines to the release order when the Restrict Release Items to Items on Blanket checkbox is selected in the Header Information subtask of the Enter POs screen.
Charge all purchases to a valid project/account/organization or account/organization. The system uses these charge accounts to calculate and distribute purchase commitment amounts and to distribute vendor charges when the vendor invoice vouchers are posted against the accounting ledgers. You specify all charges at the purchase order line level, although you can enter default values in the Defaults subtask of the Enter POs screen and populate the Account Distribution subtask with those charge numbers.
For a charge number to be valid, all the standard Costpoint accounting criteria must be met. You can use only detailed account numbers, and all elements and charge combinations must be active. In addition, accounts you enter must be set up with an account entry group linked to the Enter POs screen. (Such accounts should also be linked to the Enter PO Vouchers screen to ensure that these charges can be used when the PO is invoiced.)
You can allocate a given purchase order line amount across combinations of multiple valid charge numbers. You can also charge the PO line amount across as many charge numbers as you wish. You can allocate the amount by using a percentage or by entering a specific amount to charge and allowing the system to calculate percentages. If the PO line amount changes after you have set up the charges, the function will automatically recalculate charge amounts based on the original percentages. If you have set up reference numbers, you can also enter these on each of the PO line charge lines.
If you use Costpoint Inventory, remember that any parts to be received and tracked in inventory must be charged to an inventory abbreviation. This abbreviation will automatically load the appropriate project, account, and organization information into the Account Distribution subtask of the Enter POs screen. If you enter an inventory abbreviation on a PO line, you must also enter an inventory part in the Item field. You cannot use an inventory abbreviation to order goods, services, miscellaneous charges, or non-inventory parts. You cannot allocate inventory parts to multiple charge numbers on a given line.
Use Costpoint to set up PO line charge type codes for two different purposes. In the first case, you can use line charge types in place of an item (part, good, or service) on a new PO line. If you do not enter an item on the PO line in the Enter POs screen, you must enter a line charge type code in the Misc Type column. The PO function will then look up the line charge type to populate a description field (provided one has not already been entered) and various other default values.
In the second instance, you can use PO line charge types to set up one or more line charges against an existing PO line. These charges can represent additional amounts the vendor will charge beyond the unit price and associated sales tax specified on the PO line. Typical line charges include freight and shipping costs, insurance, lot and setup charges, and Nonrecurring Engineering (NRE) costs.