Purchasing Workflow

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Overview

 

Purchasing in InFocus uses the following workflow. Enabled in Global Settings, much of the workflow is considered optional and based on the requirements of your firm.

 

Purchasing Workflow

 

1.Purchase Order Created
2.Purchase Order Approved (optional)
3.Purchase Order Issued
a.Purchase Order Pre-Billed (optional)
4.Purchase Order Received (optional)
5.Purchase Order Converted to a Purchase Journal

 

Purchase Order Management

 

Purchase Orders are managed throughout this workflow by completing one of the related tasks.

 

•Approval
•Issue
•Receipt of Goods
•Convert to Purchase Journal

 

These tasks can be performed across the following applets. The applet you use for management is a matter of preference based on your role.

 

•My Purchase Orders - Can be used by any user to view the status of their submitted Purchase Orders and/or manage those Purchase Orders to which they are assigned as Approver or Delegate
•Purchase Order Management - Administrative applet geared for Purchase Order Managers
•Receipt of Goods - Administrative applet geared for staff who work in Receiving

 

 

Purchasing Workflow Descriptions

 

Purchase Order Created

 

Purchase Orders are created via the Purchase Orders applet.

 

Creating a new Purchase Order consists of assigning a unique PO Number, PO Name, Requester, PO Date and applicable line-items. All other fields are considered optional and are used as needed to support your firm's requirements for Purchasing.

 

Once created, a Purchase Order can be submitted for approval (optional - if not using approvals, the PO is auto-approved).

 

Purchase Order Approved (optional)

 

If enabled, Purchase Orders can undergo an approval process prior to being issued. InFocus uses line-item approvals where each line can be marked Approved or Rejected. A Purchase Order's Approval Status is not marked Approved until all lines have been approved.

 

Approvals can be granted automatically (based on a set of approval rules) or by an assigned approver or delegate.

 

Approval options are available from the following applets for employees designated as an approver or delegate of an approver.

 

•Purchase Orders
•My Purchase Orders
•Purchase Order Management

 

Once approved, a Purchase Order can be issued to the vendor for fulfillment.

 

Purchase Order Issued

 

Once approved, whether by approval process or auto-approval, a Purchase Order is issued to the vendor for fulfillment.

 

Purchase Orders can be issued by clicking Issue from the toolbar of the following applets.

 

•Purchase Orders
•My Purchase Orders
•Purchase Order Management

 

Purchase Order Pre-Billed (optional)

 

Purchase Orders can be optionally pre-billed at the time they are issued to the vendor, prior to receiving an actual invoice.

 

This optional feature can help streamline the collection of reimbursable expense and be helpful for managing pay-when-paid contracts.

 

Once issued, the Purchase Order is marked Open and ready to be received.

 

Purchase Order Received (optional)

 

Purchase Order fulfillment can be tracked by enabling Receipt of Goods.

 

When enabled, this provides the ability to mark a Purchase Order as received. Similar to approvals, InFocus uses line-item receiving. A Purchase Order's Receipt Status is not marked Received until all lines have been received.

 

Receiving options are available from the following applets:

 

•My Purchase Orders
•Purchase Order Management
•Receipt of Goods

 

Purchase Order Converted to Purchase Journal

 

Purchase Orders are used to manage the purchasing process. However, until posted, a Purchase Order has no impact on Accounts Payable, Billing or the G/L.

 

Once a Purchase Order has been fulfilled, the associated invoice can be posted to the Purchase Journal, making the purchase available to A/P, Billing, etc.

 

Note In the case of a pre-billed Purchase Order, the pre-bill is simply updated to a formal Purchase Journal.