What is a purchase order number?
In Abtrac, you can have a purchase order number (PO #) associated with a job. This purchase order is an approval number that your client supplies you, to use as a reference for billing when you invoice the client.
In Abtrac this Purchase Order can be stored at the client, job or task level. Sometimes these are called claim numbers or requisition numbers.
What is the difference between a purchase order and a subconsultant purchase order?
A client purchase order number in Abtrac is not the same as a subconsultant purchase order.
Subconsultant purchase orders are approval numbers that you generate and give your contractors, so they can bill you for one of the jobs that they did for you. See more on subconsultants’ purchase order in this knowledgebase article – Creating a Sub-Consultant Purchase Order.
Client Purchase Orders
A Client purchase order is the purchase order number that is entered in the Client’s Invoice Defaults screen.
From Clients, Contacts & Jobs >> Search Clients and Jobs >> click on a Contact Name to go into the Details for page >> click on the Invoice Defaults tab to enter/update the default purchase order.
You can have a single purchase order number for all the jobs of a client which can be saved as the default purchase order here. This will then show up for all the invoices for the client if a purchase order number has not been entered in Job Billing Details.
Job Purchase Orders
A Job purchase order no. is the purchase order number that is entered in the Job Billing Details screen of a job. This is the default purchase order that will be shown on the invoice for the job.
From Clients, Contacts & Jobs >> Search Clients and Jobs >> click on a Job Code to go into the Job Details page for that job >> click on the Job Billing Details tab to enter the purchase order number for that job.
How a Purchase Order appears on an Invoice
From Invoices >> Load Invoices >> click on an Invoice No to go into the Invoice Management screen.
By default the purchase order in the Job Billing Details screen is the one that would be shown on the invoice.
If a purchase order number hasn’t been entered in the Job Billing Details screen, then it takes on the Default purchase order from the Client’s Invoice Defaults.
Task Purchase Orders
Task purchase orders are the only purchase orders that need to be added manually to an invoice.
From Clients, Contacts & Jobs >> Search Clients and Jobs >> click on a Job Code to go into the Job Details page for that job >> click on the Tasks tab to go into the Job Tasks page.
A job can have multiple variations, managed by tasks and/or task groups, and different purchase orders for each task or task group. However, a job and an invoice can only have one purchase order Number.
So although multiple tasks can have multiple purchase orders, they won’t auto update on your invoice – your invoice will only show what’s entered in there, which by default would be the one in the Job Billing Details.
However, you can manage the multiple task purchase orders by updating the Job Billing Details purchase order when a new task/variation starts, or by entering all purchase orders in Job Billing details (e.g. Purchase Order No: 1744, 3059, 3522).
Or when you’re billing for a certain task only, you can manually update on the invoice the correct purchase order for the task if it differs from the default one in Job Billing Details.
What if you cannot see Task Purchase Orders as an option?
The ‘Purchase order No’ column in the Tasks screen can be enabled from User Control Settings.
From Administration >> Settings >> User Control Settings >> select Task from the grid pages dropdown list and enter a width for ‘Purchase order No’.
See more on user control settings for grid pages here – User Control Settings: Grid Pages
Abtrac KB# 2195