Add a Purchase Order

Contents

The Purchase Orders log window contains information for each purchase order in the project. This information includes the names of the parties issuing and receiving the purchase order, the subject specification, the total value of the purchase order, and approved/pending changes to the original amount.

You can organize and manage lump sum and unit price purchase orders. Once you set up a purchase order, you can generate related submittals or requisitions, track changes, and monitor charges.

Add the Purchase Order:

1. Expand the Contract Information folder and click Purchase Orders to open the Purchase Orders Log Window.
2. Click Add Document or select Add Document from the Select an action drop-down list, to display the Purchase Order Document Window.

On the General tab:

1. Click Select To to the right of the To field to open the Select Contact Dialog Box to choose the company receiving the purchase order. Click Address to open the To dialog box to edit the address of the contact after you select one.
2. The company name is already filled in. To change the company, click Select From to the right of the From field to open the Select Contact Dialog Box to choose the company issuing the purchase order. Click Address to open the From dialog box to edit the address of the new company after you select one.
3. Contract Management automatically assigns a unique number to identify the purchase order. You can only change this number when you create a new document. Once the document is created, this is a read-only field.
4. The Title field is already filled in. You can edit the Title field.
5. The Dated field contains the date when the purchase order was created. Click the calendar icon to change the date.
6. Select the specification item from the Spec Section drop-down list that best describes the purchase order.
7. The Total Cost field reflects the cost of the Line Items or Lump Sum item. This is a read-only field.

Review Status tab-Setting up the Approval structure using the method available in Contract Management version 11.1 and older:

If you have purchase orders that were created in a version of Contract Management prior to version 12.0 (11.1 and older), and you want the new purchase orders you create to have the same approval structure, you can use the approval fields described in this section to a new purchase order. Once you save this document using the fields in this section to set up the approval structure, you will not be able to use the new approval process.

Note: If you have reports that were built against approval data using the approval fields from versions 11.1 and older, you should use this section of this dialog box to set up the approval structure. If you use the new approval process available in versions of Contract Management 12.0 and later, your reports may not work.

1. Click Select Document Owner next to the Document Owner field to open the Select Contact Dialog Box, and select the document owner. This is the contact responsible for this purchase order document. This contact is one that is already linked to a user account when adding contacts or editing an existing contact. When using the existing approval fields, this is not a required field.
2. Click Select Ball in Court next to the Ball in Court field to open the Select Contact Dialog Box to choose a BIC.
3. From the Priority drop-down list, select the priority level for this purchase order, which will appear in the BIC’s action list.
4. From the Status drop-down list, select a valid status codes.
5. To approve the purchase order, click Approve and save. The default is No. You must fill in the Approved By information before you can approve a purchase order.
6. Click Select Contact next to the Contact field in this section to open the Select Contact Dialog Box to select the authorized contacts to approve the purchase order.
7. Enter dates in the Approved Date fields or click Select Date and choose dates. Two contacts must sign off on the purchase order before you can click Approve and Save.

On the Review Status tab – Using the new workflow-based Approval Process available in Contract Management version 12.0 and later:

Prerequisites – Before you begin using the approval process

The following prerequisites must be met before you can use this approval process:

1. The companies for this project must be created. See Add Companies and Contacts for more information.
2. The contacts for the companies must be created, and each contact must be linked to a user account. See Add Companies and Contacts for more information.
3. The contacts must have view, add, and edit rights for the project.
   • This is done in the Contract Management Administration Application when the user account is created. Log onto the Administration Application, and click User Accounts in the left pane to display the User Account – Edit Window. Use this to add a user account.
   • Once the user account has been created, you can change access rights by right-clicking on the project name and selecting Project Access to display the Project Access Dialog Box. On this dialog box, click Edit next to the user name to display the User Project Access Dialog Box, and set the user project access rights. If the user is not listed for this project, click Add Users to this Project on the Project Access Dialog Box, and select the users to add to the project.
4. The contacts must have approval rights for the project.
   • This is done in the Contract Management Administration Application when a user access template is created. Log onto the Administration Application, and click Access Templates to display the Access Template – Edit Window. After that, the template is assigned to the user account when the user account is created on the User Account – Edit Window.
   • Once the template has been assigned to a user account, you can change the approval rights by right-clicking on the project name and selecting Project Access to display the Project Access Dialog Box. On this dialog box, click Edit next to the user name to display the User Project Access Dialog Box, and set the approval rights. If the user is not listed for this project, click Add Users to this Project on the Project Access Dialog Box, and select the users to add to the project.

     Note: If any of the preceding prerequisites are not met, the reviewer that you want to select for the approval process will not show up on the list of reviewers from which you can select.

Setting up the approval cycle

1. Select the Use Approval Process option to use the new approval process.

   This will display the fields for the new approval process, and will hide the fields that would be available for versions of Contract Management prior to version 12.0. Once you enter all the information for the approval process and click Save, this option will no longer be visible. After you save the document using the new approval process, you will not be able to go back and use the approval fields that were available in Contract Management 11.1 and older.

   Note: If you have reports that were built against approval data using the approval fields available in Contract Management versions 11.1 and older, use the approval fields that were available in Contract Management 11.1 and older to set up the approval structure. If you use this new approval process, the reports that you built against the approval data may not work.

2. Click Select Document Owner next to the Document Owner field to open the Select Contact Dialog Box and choose the contact responsible for this purchase order document. This contact is one that is already linked to a user account when adding contacts or editing an existing contact. This is a required field when using the new approval process.
3. Click Select Ball in Court next to the Ball in Court field to open the Select Contact Dialog Box to choose a BIC.
4. Use the Status drop-down list to select the status codes for the document. This field will change, depending on what action a reviewer designates for a document.
5. Use the Priority drop-down list to select the priority level for this purchase order, which will appear in the BIC’s action list. Priority can be High, Normal, or Low.
6. Use the Workflow drop-down list to choose the method of approval. This can be one of the following:
   • Approve in Sequence: Use this when the document must be approved in the order in which the reviewers are listed under the Review section.
   • All must Approve: Use this when every contact listed under the Review section must approve the document before approval is final.
   • Any can Approve: Use this when any contact listed under the Review section can approve the document and make the approval final.
7. Click Add Reviewers to create the list of reviewers. This displays the Select Contact dialog box that you use to choose the reviewers. You must already have added the contacts and linked them to a user account.
8. Click Select Date for the Required Start field to display a calendar that you can use to select the date on which the approval process must start. Use the arrows on either side of the name of the month to select a different month. Use the arrows on either side of the year to select a different year.
9. Click Select Date for the Required Finish field to display a calendar that you can use to select the date on which the approval process must end. Use the arrows on either side of the name of the month to select a different month. Use the arrows on either side of the year to select a different year.
10. After setting up all the information and creating the list of reviewers, click Initiate to start the approval process. Only one of the following can initiate a purchase order:
    • The project owner
    • The document owner
    • A Contract Management administrator

      Caution: If you click Initiate before all fields are complete, and all reviewers are listed, you will be unable to make any changes in this cycle. The field to the right of the Initiate field lists the cycles. You can use the pull down list to pick a different cycle to review. This field will be blank until after the first cycle is initiated.

Read-only fields

The following fields are read-only information fields:

Cycle Days Overdue

This read-only field displays the number of days in this cycle that the approval process has exceeded the Required Finish date.

Cycle Days Elapsed

This read-only field displays the number of days in this cycle that have passed since the Required Start date of the approval process.

Total Days Elapsed

This read-only field displays the total number of days in this cycle that have passed since start of the approval process, including the number of days overdue.

Reviewer

This read-only field lists the contacts who will review and decide whether to approve the document.

Status

The item's status.

Received

This read-only field lists the date on which the reviewer received the document.

Forwarded

This read-only field lists the date on which the reviewer sent the document to the next reviewer on the list.

Held

This read-only field lists the number of days that the reviewer had the document before sending it to the next reviewer on the list.

Comments

Lists each reviewer's comments regarding the document.

On the Contract Summary tab:

This tab contains information that will be filled in after the purchase order is approved. This tab contains the following subordinate tabs:

Details tab:

Use this tab to view details for the contract.

Changes tab:

This informational tab lists all change documents associated with the contract this purchase order is linked to. You cannot edit the fields on this tab.

Click Initiate Change Management to open the Change Management Document Window. Use this window to start Change Management to link a change document to the contract and this purchase order.

Insurance tab (for the contract to which this purchase order is linked):

This informational tab lists insurance policies associated with the contract with which this purchase order is linked.

Click Add to open the Insurance Document Window to link a new insurance document to the contract.

Invoices tab (for the contract to which this purchase order is linked):

Note: This tab does not display if you have a requisition against this purchase order. It lists invoices associated with the contract this purchase order is linked to.

This tab lists invoices associated with this contract.

Click Add to open the Invoice Dialog Box to link an invoice to the contract. Enter information about the invoice on this dialog box. Click Save & Close when you are finished, or click Save & Add Another to add another invoice.

Payment Requisitions tab:

The fields on this tab are for the contract to which this purchase order is linked.

Note: This tab does not display if you have an invoice against this purchase order.

This tab lists requisitions associated with the contract this purchase order is linked to.

Click Generate to open the Generate Requisition wizard to create a new requisition for this contract.

Submittals tab:

This tab lists submittals associated with the contract this purchase order is linked to. You can link submittals to a contract. This will populate the Received From and Returned By values in the submittal workflow with the To Company from the contract.

• Click Add to open a Submittal Document Window to link a new submittal to the contract.
• Click Select to open the Select Submittals Dialog Box to link existing submittals to the contract. Use this option if you already entered your submittals and are now awarding the contract for that package. Contract Management automatically fills in the Received From and Forwarded To fields with the To company of the contract.

On the Line Items tab:

Use this tab to add lump sum values or unit price values.

• If the contract involves payment of single lump sum for services, click Add Lump Sum to display the Contract Item/Lump Sum/Unit Price Dialog Box. Enter information about the contract item. Click Save and Close when you are finished, or click Save and Add Another to add another contract item.
• If the contract contains itemized labor or materials costs, click Add Unit Price to display the Contract Item/Lump Sum/Unit Price Dialog Box. Enter information about the contract item. Click Save and Close when you are finished, or click Save and Add Another to add another contract item.

On the Details tab:

Use the Details tab to add detailed information for the purchase order.

1. In the Description field, enter a detailed description for the purchase order.
2. In the Document For field, enter a brief description of the work to be done under this purchase order.
3. In the Manager field, enter the name of the manager or contact person for this purchase order.
4. The Cost Category field is a read-only field that is always Committed for purchase order documents.
5. The Cost Type field is a read-only field that is always Original for purchase order documents.
6. Select the DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise), MBE (Minority Business Enterprise), or WBE (Women Business Enterprise) option if it is applicable to the purchase order.
7. In the Reference Number field, enter a unique number to identify this purchase order.
8. In the Work At field, enter the work location for the contact to receive this purchase order.
9. Click Select Contact to open the Select Contact Dialog Box to choose a contact. Click Clear  to clear the field so that you can select another contact.
10. Click Address to open the To/From/Work At/Bill To Dialog Box to view or edit the address information for the company's work address.
11. In the Bill To field, enter the contact being billed.
12. Click Select Contact to open the Select Contact Dialog Box to choose a contact to bill. Click Clear to clear the field so that you can select another contact.
13. Click to open the To/From/Work At/Bill To Dialog Box to view or edit the address information for the company being billed.
14. In the Terms field, enter any special payment terms or conditions for this Purchase Order.
15. Use the Shipping field to enter shipping instructions.

On the Schedule tab:

Use the fields on this tab to link this purchase order to the start and finish dates of a P6 EPPM activity.

• If you are connected to P6 EPPM, you can do this by clicking Select to open the Select Activity Dialog Box, or simply associate a schedule activity (and not update) with the contract dates. See Connecting a Contract Management Project to a P6 EPPM Project for more information.
• If you are not connected to P6 EPPM, you can manually enter the Activity ID, and the Start and End dates.

On the Issues tab:

Use this tab to link this purchase order to existing issues by clicking Link to open the Select Issue Dialog Box to select the issue. You can also click Link, and then click Add Issue to add a new issue.

On the Attachments tab:

Use this tab to attach documents or URLs to this purchase order.

• Click Attach File to open the Attach File Dialog Box to attach a file to the document.
• Click Attach from Repository to open the Attach Document Dialog Box, which you can use to attach a document from the content repository. These documents are external to Contract Management, and are not part of the documents created in Contract Management. This will not display unless the administrator set the Contract Management project content management properties to use the repository. See Configure the Content Management Version Document and Attachment Feature for more information.
• Click Attach URL to open the Attach URL Dialog Box to attach a web address to the document.

  Note: If you are using the Firefox Internet browser, you cannot attach files when in File Server mode.

On the Versions tab:

Use the Versions tab to maintain a history of your document changes. This tab only displays when you open the document in View mode, not in Edit mode (open the document by clicking the document name, not Edit , beside the document name).

Saving the Purchase Order:

When finished enter all data for the purchase order, click Save.

Using Markup for a Purchase Order:

If you will be using markup for this purchase order, and you want to use different parameters than the defaults used for all purchase orders added in this project as set up in the Project Settings Dialog Box, choose Select an action, Markup for Changes to open the Markup for Changes Dialog Box to configure the markup settings to use for this purchase order. These settings will override the project defaults.