This post reviews how to set up the budget tracking feature in your Live Copy of SpendMap.
If you’d like to see the budget tracking feature in action before you get started, it’s already set up in your Evaluation Copy of SpendMap (the copy with the sample data), and there’s a Walkthrough Tutorial called “Budget Tracking” that you can try, using the drop-list at the top-right of the Main Menu in SpendMap…
OK, here’s what you do to set it up in your Live Copy…
Are you looking for an easier way to approve your suppliers’ invoices for payment? Tired of all the paperwork, phone calls and emails?
SpendMap’s Invoice Approval and A/P Interface Module really simplifies the process.
Check out our new video tutorial, below. Or better yet, take a free test drive of our Pro Version and see for yourself.
Hanna is the Purchasing Manager at a construction company in California and asked about setting up budgets for her departments and jobs…
“When a department buys something, like a computer or office supplies for example, it goes against their monthly budget but when we buy something for one of our jobs, the budget can span several months in some cases.”
No problem Hanna, you can track both “time-based” and “overall” budgets in SpendMap.
For your time-based budgets, you would typically allocate funds by month, quarter or year but when you allocate an overall budget to a project or a job, that budget will be available for the life of the project, regardless of how long that takes.
Theoretically an individual Cost Center (department, project, job, etc.) could have both time-based budgets and an overall budgets but that’s pretty unusual. Typically it’s one or the other.
You can enter both time-based and overall budgets in the Cost Center Master File…
Get control of your company’s spending and see where the money is going, with SpendMap’s free Purchase Order Management Software.
Happy Halloween everyone!
Garrett wants his manager’s name to appear in the signature line at the bottom of his Purchase Order form, rather than his own name…
“On our current Purchase Orders in the system, it shows my name at the bottom of the PO. However, we need to have another manager sign-off on POs. Is it possible to change the name?”
Yes, SpendMap can do that. Just select this menu…
– PURCHASING > Setup system> Purchase order settings > PO printing settings > Text-Based Field Positions and Field Settings > Standard
…scroll down to field #85 and in the Title Field, fill in your Manager’s name that you would like to appear in the signature line on your Purchase Orders.
If you leave the Title Field blank, SpendMap will print the name of the person who entered/created the PO in SpendMap but if you fill in the Title, that’s what will print instead. You can enter someone’s name, or maybe just “Authorized by”, or something like that.
But did you know that SpendMap offers a Requisitions and Approvals Module, that your managers can use to approve/reject orders right in SpendMap, without having to forward a copy of each order manually? You can learn more here.
Need another reason to upgrade your free Purchase Order Software to the paid/commercial version of SpendMap?
With the new Email Approval feature, you can approve and reject Requisitions right from the body of the email notification that you receive from SpendMap, without even having to log in to the system.
And even better, the emails are mobile responsive, so you can approve Requisitions on your smartphone or tablet, even if you’re not connected to the Internet. Could we make that morning subway ride any more productive?
Check out the news announcement or click the screenshot below…
Click to see more…
Nadine runs a property management company in New York and wants to know if she has any open orders for an item before placing a subsequent order for more of the same…
“Were trying to get organized (using SpendMap) but sometimes the left hand doesn’t know what he right hand is doing. How does a Buyer know if someone else already ordered something?”
Sure Nadine, now that all your Buyers are using SpendMap, it’s easy for them to check on each other’s work and eliminate duplicate orders. Here are a few options to consider…
If you like the sound of #3 above, you can enable the feature by selecting an option for “Open Order Warning Option”, in here…
– PURCHASING > Setup system> Purchase Order settings > PO entry settings
Then, if Buyers try to create a new Purchase Order for an item that is already on an open (unreceived) order, they will get a warning message like this…
David works in the landscaping industry in Australia and was asking about charging Purchase Orders to more than one account code at the same time…
“Query about functionality – multiple cost centers per order”
Yes, SpendMap supports multiple cost centers (departments, jobs, projects, etc.) on an order, as well as multiple GL accounts.
Each line item on a Purchase Order can be charged to its own cost center and GL, and you can even “split-charge” an individual line item to an unlimited number of cost centers and GL account codes.
Usage Example: A database server might be charged to a single G/L account for “computer hardware” but three Cost Centers if, for example, the Marketing, Accounting and Human Resources departments will be sharing the server.
This allows you to include the item one time only on the Purchase Order while properly allocating the costs to the various account codes for internal reporting and tracking. An alternative would be to include the item many times on the PO, with each line item being charged to a single set of account codes. However, repeating the item on the PO would be more work and might cause confusion for your suppliers as well internal staff that will work on the PO (e.g. Receivers, Accounts Payable, etc.).
You can learn more in this section of the Online Help…
– System-Wide Features and Information > System-Wide Features and Utilities > Split-Charging
The thought of wasting money is pretty scary for most small and medium size businesses.
It’s hard enough to run a successful SMB these days, without having to worry about your staff spending money that they shouldn’t be.
Get control of your company’s spending and see where the money is going, with SpendMap’s free Purchase Order Management Software.
Happy Halloween everyone!
We added a new feature in v14 of SpendMap that can help you stick to your budget by proactively warning you when you’re running out of money.
In Cost Center History/Budget Settings, you can establish the “budget threshold”. For example, you might want to be warned once you’re down to, say, 20% of the budget remaining (i.e. 80% budget consumed).
While entering new POs, the hyperlink that shows the total value of the order at the top of the Purchase Order Header Screen will change from green to yellow when the budget threshold has been reached. Then the hyperlink will eventually change to red when there’s nothing left in the budget.
TIP: Click through that hyperlink to see the full budget details.
On a related note, you can also prohibit/stop the processing of Purchase Orders and other documents that will exceed the budget, using the related options in Cost Center History/Budget Settings…
The Free-Procurement Project 