reference manual - · pdf filerevision date 1/5/2006 purchase order system (erequester)...

Revision Date 1/5/2006

Purchase Order System (eRequester)

Reference Manual

1. PO Requisitions 1.1 Login 1.2 Creating a PO Requisition 1.3 Approving a PO Requisition

2. Purchase Orders 2.1 Creating Purchase Orders 2.2 Guidelines for Purchase Orders 3. Receiving 3.1 Collecting Receipts 3.2 Entering Receipts 3.3 Guidelines for PO Receipts 4. Tips & Tricks 4.1 Searching 4.2 Editing Requisitions 4.3 Request for Quote (RFQ) 4.4 Templates 4.5 Advanced Templates


1. PO requisitions:

What is a PO requisition?

A 'PO requisition' is a request for a Purchase Order. So before you can create a Purchase order, you have to create the request.

1.1 Login

First you need to login to the PO request system (eRequester) located at http://hebe/e/login.asp

Enter in your username & password assigned to you, or if you forgot your it, click the link that says 'Forgot your login or password?'

Once you login, you will see the main layout of the program where you can do a number of different actions, create a new requisition, approve, create a PO, receive items, search, etc.


1.2 Creating a PO requisition

To create a PO requisition, you will need to login (See 1.1), Point to the 'Requisitions' menu and click on ‘Create New Requisition’.

Setup Requisition:

Reference, Request Type, & Department

The Setup page contains Req. Reference, Request Type, Department, and Notes fields.

Requisition Reference should contain an identifier such as the Supervisor’s name, a job name, or Job number, etc.

Request Type categorizes the type of purchase (Direct, Indirect, Mechanical, Office, etc)

Department categorizes the branch location of the purchase

Requisition Notes is a place where the user can provide any other additional information.

When finished with this page, click the Submit & Continue button.


Manage Items

The next page that comes up is the Manage Items page, where you can specify a vendor, item, item cost, GL coding, etc.

Vendor Selection

To select a vendor click on the blue search button next to the vendor box and you will see the following search page.

Type the first letter or part of a vendor name to search for it, or you can enter the vendor ID if you know it. The results will be displayed below, and you select the vendor you want by clicking on it.

An ‘Unlisted Vendor’ may be selected by clicking the link to the right of the search boxes, this should be used in cases of a new vendor, or where you want to receive several quotes from different vendors using a ‘Request for Quote’ (See 4.3)

Note when selecting an unlisted vendor, you will not be able to create a PO for the requisition until you select a vendor listed in the Solomon database. This means you will need to have the new vendor listed by following the steps on the New Vendor Setup PP&G, or select a listed vendor for the purchase.

Unlike in Solomon, you can search for any part of the vendor name. For example, a search for the word ‘world’ in the Vendor Name field would pull up Gardener’s World, Sprinkler World of Arizona, Plant World, etc.

You may also pull up a list of all vendors by leaving all fields blank and searching.


Item Description, Cost, & Quantity

Next you will enter the item description, in order to provide as much information as possible to the vendor, manager, and accounting; please be as specific as possible for item descriptions. Where the exact information is not known you may list general terms such as 'Misc. Irrigation Parts' this should only be done if all the items in the group are to be charged to the same GL and sub-account. In this case quantity should be 1 and the item cost should be the price not to be exceeded by the purchaser. If the item is subject to sales tax, this should be included in the cost.

GL Account Coding

For each item you will need to specify a GL account and Sub-account, you can select these by clicking the search button next to the GL account fields.

The GL search page will appear with two drop down boxes for the GL account selection. The GL account can be selected either by choosing the description drop down, or by the actual code drop down. Once you have made your selection, hit the search button to search for valid sub-accounts associated with that account. Click on a sub-account to select it, the GL and sub account should be inserted into the fields on the main page.

GL account selections will be filtered depending on the 'Request Type' and 'Department' you selected for the requisition.


Ship Date & Project Information

Enter the date you want the items to be delivered or picked up in case of will-call, the date will default to today’s date as most of the items are same day will-call.

If the search button next to the Project Number field has become active (by turning blue) a project number and task is required for this item. Project numbers associate a purchase with a specific job and allows managers to more effectively job cost their projects.

To select a project and task for this line item, click the blue search button next to the Project Number field. You may search by description or by ID if you know it. You may search for all or part of a project name or ID to get specific results.

When the desired project name appears, click on it and the search interface will next show tasks for the project. Valid tasks are 001 Installation, 002 Maintenance, 003 Improvements, and 007 Tree; other tasks that may display are no longer used. Click on a task to select it.

For items that should not be assigned to any project, check the ‘Non-post Project’ checkbox and continue, do not select a project number with the Non-post Project box checked.


Item Notes:

The ‘Additional Notes’ field should be used to identify which items are subject to sales tax. Additional information such as any specifications may be put in this field as well.

In order for the notes to be transferred to the PO form, the ‘Transfer Notes to PO’ checkbox must be checked.

Submitting the Item:

When you are finished with this item, you may click Submit & Add New if you need to add more items or Submit & Review if you do not need to add anymore items, or cancel if you do not wish to save your changes for this item.

Because each line item contains its own Vendor, GL code and project number, you can create one requisition for multiple vendors (one PO per vendor will be created) or purchase items for multiple jobs at once, but still accurately job cost.

When making a purchase for irrigation materials and hand tools, special care must be taken to ensure each item or item type is coded to the appropriate account.

Special instruction must be given to the purchaser to not exceed the PO amount on the purchase. Failure to do so will result in delays when entering receipts for that PO.

(Continued on next page)


Shipping:

Ship to location

This section allows you to specify a shipping address, contact person, etc. To save time entering in the address information, all branch location addresses and contact information has been pre-entered. To populate the fields with this information, simply pick the location name from the drop down boxes.

To enter a project address, simply choose the ‘PROJECT LOCATION’ drop down selection from the list and type the address and contact information in the appropriate fields.

Ship Via

Ship via gives instructions to the vendor how to ship this order, options include Will Call, Overnight, Deliver to Site, etc. This field is required.

When you have entered in the shipping information, click the ‘Submit & Continue’ button.


Review Requisition

Before submitting the requisition for approval, you will have a chance to review the requisition and make any changes to it. If a change is needed, click the [edit] link next to the section you will need to edit.

If you want to save this requisition for later use and also submit now, check the box that says Also save as a Template. If you do not want to submit the requisition at this time, but save it for later use, click Save as a Template Only. (See section 5 for Shortcuts & Tips on Templates)


Approval Routing

Justification

The last page will require you to give a justification for the purchase. This page will also show who has to approve the requisition before a PO can be created.

If you wish to receive an email when the requisition is approved, check the box labeled 'Notify me of each approval'.

If the requisition total is under your specific limit for that request type, the program will display ‘No Approval Needed’ and you will be able to create a PO upon submission.

Once submitted, the requisition will show up in your 'My Requisitions' tab in the program with a status of 'Waiting'. Once approved the status will change to 'Approved'


1.3 Approving a PO requisition

Approval Notification Email

When a requisition has been submitted that requires your approval you will receive an email from the eRequester program containing the information about the requisition and also a link to approve the requisition.

Approving through eRequester

To approve the requisition in eRequester you can either click the link in the email notification, which will take you directly to this requisition upon logging in (See 1.1).

Alternatively you may login directly to eRequester (See 1.1) and clicking on the ‘Pending Approval’ tab to view all requisitions awaiting your approval.

To view the details of a requisition either double click the item in the list, or you can highlight the requisition and click the 'View Req.' button above or right click on the item to get a list of options.

The requisition details will then be displayed. Click the + symbol to view the GL coding and Vendor details of each item.

Before approving you should verify the correct GL accounts have been selected.


Approving through eRequester (continued)

At the bottom of the requisition you will be given several choices to approve, reject, edit, or request changes to the requisition.

Clicking the approve button will allow the requester to create a PO if no further approvals are needed, or send the requisition to the next approver.

When viewing a requisition for approval, you may reject a requisition by simply giving an explanation and clicking the Reject button.

Similarly you should give an explanation if you want to require a change to the requisition, and click the 'Require Change' button.

See section 4.2 for instructions on editing the requisition.

Approving on your Blackberry

An approver has two options to approve a requisition from the blackberry when out of the office.

The requisition details are contained in the notification email, therefore managers will be able to review the details of the requisition and decide how to act on it.

Method 1) Reply to Email Notification: To approve (or reject) a requisition over Blackberry, simply reply to the notification email message (be sure to leave the original message intact) and describe how to act on the requisition.

The email will be sent to the accounting team at the corporate office, one of these users will then login and approve the requisition on behalf of the manager. That person will also reply to the manager and the accounting dept. letting everyone know they have approved the requisition.

This method is dependent upon the availability of the accounting team at the corporate office to approve the requisition.


Approving on your Blackberry (continued)

Method 2) Login & Approve on the BB: The blackberry browser actually has the capability to log into the eRequester system to approve a requisition, however you will have to use a different password.

The first step must be performed at a desktop computer with access to email and the internet. Go to the following webpage: http://pajhome.org.uk/crypt/md5/ and enter your current eRequester password in the ‘input’ box. Click the ‘MD5’ button.

At your desktop computer, compose an email to your groundskeeper.com email address, copy and paste the text string from the ‘Results’ box into the email and send it.

On your blackberry you should receive the message, and save the message by highlighting the message in your inbox, pressing in the scroll wheel, selecting ‘Save’ and pressing the scroll wheel in again.

Now the message is accessible in your ‘Saved Messages’ menu option on your Blackberry.

Open the message with your encrypted password and copy the text by putting the cursor on the first letter of the password, hold the shift key (pictured) and scroll the wheel down over the entire password (but not any blank spaces). Once you have the whole password highlighted press the scroll wheel in and select ‘Copy’.


Approving on your Blackberry (continued)

Once you have the password copied on your Blackberry you will be able to paste it into the password box of eRequester. As long as you don’t copy any other text on your Blackberry, your encrypted password will always be available to paste in the password box, even after being powered down.

When you receive an email notifying you of a requisition awaiting your approval, simply click on the link to the requisition by pressing in the scroll wheel, highlight the ‘Get Link’ option and press the scroll wheel in again.

The Blackberry browser will open the eRequester login page where you will enter your username as you normally would, and paste your encrypted password in the ‘Password’ field. To paste the password, simply scroll to the password field, push the scroll wheel in, highlight ‘Paste’ and push the scroll wheel button in again.

Next you will scroll down to the login button (you should see a dashed border around the button to let you know it is the active item) and you will push the scroll wheel button in again and select ‘Get Link’.

After the login you will be taken directly to the PO you need to approve, this page may take a few minutes to load using the wireless connection of the blackberry, so before trying to scroll down on the page, allow it to fully load.

The approval button that you need is very close to the bottom of the page, therefore once the page has loaded you can type the ‘B’ key to skip to the bottom of the page, and from there scroll up a bit to see the ‘Approve’ button.

Once you have located the ‘Approve’ button, highlight it (make sure it has the dashed border around it) push the scroll wheel in and select ‘Get Link’. This action will load a new page, however you do not need any further action on the requisition, once you see the new page loading, you may close the browser by pushing the scroll wheel in and selecting ‘Close’ or you can simply hit the back button until you arrive back at the Blackberry main screen.

Notification of Approval

Once a requisition has been approved, an email notification will be sent either to the next approver (if more approval needed) or back to the original requester notifying them the requisition may not be turned into a PO. Also if another user approves the requisition on a manager’s behalf, the manager will be receive a notice stating who approved it.


2. Purchase Orders:

2.1 Creating POs

Once a requisition has been fully approved it can be turned into a Purchase Order. eRequester will email the original requester with a notification that the PO is ready to be created, or a user can login to the system (See 1.1) and view the requisitions that are ready to be turned into POs by clicking on the ‘Create PO’ tab.

You may create multiple POs at once by checking the box next to the requisition and clicking the 'Create PO' button, or viewing each individually and clicking the Create PO button contained on the requisition details page.

Once the Purchase Order is created, a message will pop-up with a link to view the PO.

At this time the PO is posted to Solomon and the items may be received in the system for payment. If you need to print the PO at a later time, you may go to the 'Receive' tab of the system, select the PO number, and click the View PO button.

Use the Search feature (See 4.1) to quickly locate POs that have been created by yourself or others.

2.2 Guidelines for Purchase Orders

Purchase Orders will remain in the accounting system until cancelled or completed by entering a receipt for the purchase, if you no longer need a PO for an order that was not placed, please notify accounting to have it cancelled.

Those using Purchase Orders should only use one PO per purchase, failure to do so will result in subsequent purchases miscoded to the wrong GL and/or project number. This problem can also result in delays when entering receipts.

Once a PO has been created for a specific vendor, it cannot be changed after the fact. DO NOT use a PO number for one vendor with a different vendor; the purchase can not be processed for payment properly. See section 4.3 for a quick method of duplicating the PO with minor changes.

PURCHASERS SHOULD NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT OF THE PO.

Purchases Orders must be created BEFORE the purchase is made and the PO number must be given to the vendor to be put on all invoices, receipts, etc.


Sample Purchase Order


3. Receiving

3.1 Collecting Receipts

Collecting the receipts from the purchasers is a vital step to the PO process. In order to pay invoices in a timely manner, receipts should be collected and entered no more than one day after the items are received.

A drop box for the purchasers to return the receipts is an effective way to collect the receipts, purchasers should be instructed to drop off their receipts at least once a day and receipts must have an itemized and final cost on them (supplied by the vendor).

Running a search for POs that have not been received is also an effective way to track which POs have not been received (See 4.1) for tips on searching.

3.2 Entering Receipts

Once a PO has been created and posted, the PO number will appear in your 'Receiving' tab in eRequester. To begin receiving highlight the PO you have received and click the 'Receive' button, or right click on the item and select Receive from the list.

Once you are viewing the receipt page for the PO you can enter in a receipt for the items by clicking the 'Receive' button on the detail page.


Entering Receipts (continued)

The receipt page allows you to indicate the quantity and price of the items received, if there is tax applicable on the purchase, be sure to include this in item cost.

Be sure the receipt date also reflects the actual date the items were received.

The final receipt amount must equal the total amount shown on the receipt.

Invoice #, and Invoice Date is not required, Corporate Accounting will enter this information from the corresponding invoice.

Save the receipt by clicking the Save Receipt button. You may enter more receipts for this PO by clicking the Receive button again; a new receipt will be created.

If there are multiple, separate receipts for the same PO, YOU MUST ENTER THEM SEPARATELY; failure to do so will result in a delay in payment of the invoice.

Once the PO is fully received (i.e. you don’t expect any more deliveries) for this PO, you can close it by clicking the ‘close’ link on the Receiving page of the PO.


3.3 Guidelines on Receipts

Invoices are paid directly off of the receipt amounts; therefore it is important receipts reflect the exact amount of the expected invoice. Vendors should be instructed to itemize the receipts with any tax, fuel, or delivery charges included if they do not do so already.

Entered receipts should be sent down to the corporate office, attention: Accounts Payable on a weekly basis. Invoices will be sent directly to Accounts payable, processed for payment, and matched up to the receipts as they come in from the branch locations.

Multiple receipts can be paid by one invoice, however multiple invoices cannot be paid by only one receipt, therefore if you have separate receipts for the same PO; you MUST enter them separately in order to have them processed properly.

Goods received in the current month need to have the corresponding receipt entered in the same period. It is a good idea to monitor which POs have not been received during the month in order to avoid a last minute scramble to enter all the receipts in before the month-end close. Likewise special attention should be given to those deliveries or pick-ups scheduled for the last day of the month; the receipt needs to be entered on the same day in these situations.

eRequester will email a reminder to receive against a PO after the delivery date has passed, if the receipts have not been collected from the purchasers at this time, it is recommended you forward this email to them as a reminder.

If the receipt cannot be located, and the final amount is unknown the vendor may have to be contacted for the invoice amount.

The receipt amount should not be more than the PO amount, if the receipt is higher than the PO amount eRequester will not allow the receipt to be entered and someone at Corporate accounting will have to enter the receipt manually with permission from the branch manager.

To enter receipts for a PO that another user created, See section4.1 for tips on searching, and receive as normal (See 3.2).


4. Tips & Tricks

4.1 Searching

Effective searching in eRequester can be a very valuable tool for managers, accounting and the office managers.

To get to the search page click the search button in the top left corner of eRequester.

The search layout allows you to search in Requisition Name (the Req. Reference Field) or by other Advanced Criteria.

Any combination of the advanced criteria can be used, by checking the boxes next to each section, you are able to narrow your search by the following criterion.

ID – PO or Requisition ID

Date – PO creation date

Status – Requisition/PO Status (Received, etc.)

Group – Filters by requester, vendor, department, etc.

Total – Total Dollar Amount

Line Item – Searches in each item for GL or Project #

The most commonly used criteria is probably the ‘Status’ and ‘Group’ boxes. A status of ‘Posted’ and Group of Department > Las Vegas would show all the POs that have not been received yet in Las Vegas.

Once a PO has been created it is considered ‘Posted’, when a receipt has been entered it changes to ‘Partially Received’ and when the ‘Close’ link is clicked on the receipt screen, the PO is considered ‘Closed’

The search results can be sorted by clicking on the name of any of the column headings shown below.


4.2 Editing Requisitions

Requisitions can only be edited prior to PO creation, only users with the proper rights to edit requisitions can do so.

To edit a requisition before submission or before approving it, you first must locate the requisition either by searching or clicking a link from a notification email. Once you have located it, ‘View’ the requisition.

At the bottom you will see a blue ‘Edit’ button; if this is present clicking on it will make the requisition editable.

If you do not see the button, the requisition may already be editable, look for small blue links on the review page that say [edit]. Clicking on these links will edit that section of the requisition.

Upon selecting the edit link next to the Review Items section, you will see each line item with options to edit, delete, or attach a document (such as specs) to that line item.

Clicking edit for these line items will take you to a page that looks just like the initial item setup page (See 1.2)


4.3 Request for Quote (RFQ)

A Request for Quote (RFQ) is a form that allows the requester to easily obtain quotes from multiple vendors before creating a PO for the purchase. A RFQ can be created once a requisition is fully approved and ready to be turned into a PO.

To create an RFQ, locate and view the desired requisition, remember it must be ready to be turned into a PO. When viewing the requisition, click the blue ‘Create RFQ’ button.

The ‘Add RFQ’ screen that appears has only three fields, Vendor, Due Date (the date the vendor must return the Request for Quote by), and instructions to the Vendor.

Search for a vendor using the blue search button next to the Vendor field, the search box is the same one used for the requisitioning process (See 1.2: Manage Items).

To include any item notes from the requisition (taken from the ‘Additional Notes’ field during the requisition process); check the ‘Include Item Notes’ checkbox.

When you complete the RFQ for this vendor you may choose to add a different vendor buy using the ‘Submit & Add New’ button.

If you do not need to add any more vendors, click the ‘Submit & Review’ button and you will see the open RFQ list in the ‘Review Requisition’ page.

From this list you may View the RFQ (to print or email it to the vendor), Delete, Edit, or Close (which indicates the quote has been received), the item.


Sample Request for Quote:


4.4 Templates

eRequester has a few features that help make the process of creating the requisition faster. As mentioned before when creating a requisition you have the option of creating a template for that requisition, which allows you to re-create that requisition (or something similar) quickly without having to enter all the same information again.

To access your saved templates, either point to the requisitions menu and click on ‘Templates’ or you can click on the ‘Templates’ tab in the main eRequester layout.

You don’t have to create a template for every purchase that you may repeat however, for any requisition that you have created, you can duplicate it to a new one. Before submitting eRequester allows you to edit any of the details (See 4.2). To duplicate an existing requisition or PO, locate the requisition and either right click on it and select ‘Make Requisition’ or view the requisition and click the blue button that says ‘Create New’

When duplicating a requisition, be sure to change the relevant details such as project number, ship date, and any notes for the new purchase.


4.5 Advanced Templates

A new but potentially powerful feature to eRequester is the ability to create ‘zero quantity templates’. What this means is an office manager could create a template with 100 different commonly requested items or materials, but put a quantity and price of zero for the items.

When the request is made for one or more of the items, the office manager can open up the template, update the quantity and cost of these items only, and submit the requisition. Any line items with a quantity of zero will be deleted upon submission.

To create a ‘zero quantity template’, begin by creating a new requisition as normal (See 1.2); be sure to leave the quantities and costs of all the line items in the requisition zero. You will see two warning messages about leaving the quantities and costs zero; click the ‘OK’ button for both warnings.

Rather than submitting the requisition, click the ‘Save a Template Only’ button. The template now can be found in your ‘Template’ section of eRequester (See 4.4).

Create a new requisition from the template (See 4.4). Before submitting the requisition for approval you will need to update the item quantity, cost, and ensure the GL coding and project information is correct. (See 4.2 for instructions on editing requisitions.)

To shorten the requisitioning process, these types of templates may be made in advance for as many items as needed.

reference manual - · pdf filerevision date 1/5/2006 purchase order system (erequester)...

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