PO form

Date Format in your Free Purchase Order Software

Emma reached out to us, asking how to change the format of date fields in the Free Version of SpendMap…

“I have just registered but the date setting is incorrect. We are in the UK so the date needs to be formatted as DD/MM/YY whereas currently it is set to MM/DD/YY.”

Sure thing, Emma, you can change the format of your date fields in step 6/14 of the Setup Wizard that runs automatically when you log into your Live Copy of SpendMap for the first time.

After that, you can change it in User Defined Field Settings…
– PURCHASING > Setup system > User defined terminology and settings > User defined field settings

Separately, you can also fine-tune the date format for your printed Purchase Order forms, using the setting “Printed Date Format”, in PO Printing Settings…
– PURCHASING > Setup system> Purchase order settings > PO printing settings > Settings

Purchase Order Numbers in your Free PO Software

We’ve had a few questions about the exclamation marks (!) that show next to the PO number on Purchase Order forms in the Free Version of SpendMap…

The exclamation marks will only show when you “preview” the PO in your Purchase Order Work Area but will not show when you actually process the order and print an official copy or e-mail it to your supplier.

Some form layouts also include something like “Draft copy – do not process” somewhere on the form.

You can process your new Purchase Orders using this menu option…
Purchase Orders > Process New POs > Process my POs

…or you can select the “process now” prompt when leaving your PO Work Area.

Hope that helps 🙂

Draft Purchase Orders in your Free PO Software

If you’re just getting started with the Free Version of SpendMap, you can enter new Purchase Orders in your PO Work Area…

PO Work Area

Your PO Work Area Contains your “Draft” Purchase Orders

Draft POs in your PO Work Area won’t affect the rest of the system until you process them. For example, they won’t show on reports and you can’t receive against them.

When your new POs are processed and sent to your suppliers, they’ll come out of your PO Work Area and then the “live” orders will be visible throughout the system.  You can process your new POs using the [Process POs] Toolbar button or you can just select the following prompt when you exit your PO Work Area…

Process-new-purchase-orders

What’s with the Exclamation Marks?

If you preview a draft PO in your PO Work Area, the PO form will have a few visual reminders that it’s not an official copy yet, such as exclamation marks (!) before and after the PO number.  Most forms also show a message or watermark like “Draft Copy – Do No Process” or similar.  Again, this won’t show when the order is actually processed.

po-number-marks

 

How to change the Delivery Date in your free Purchase Order Software

Ricardo works in the construction industry in Australia and was asking how to change the Delivery Date on a Purchase Order in the Free Version of SpendMap.

Great question, Ricardo.  You can enter the Delivery Date for each new PO in the Delivery field, at the right side of the Line Item Details screen in your PO Work Area.

After that, once the PO is processed, you can change/update the delivery date using…
– PURCHASING > Purchase Orders > Modify a processed PO > Set new delivery date/re-promise

Or you can change ANY FIELD on a processed PO by doing a Change Order. You can learn more about Change Orders in the following section of the Online Help in SpendMap…
– Purchasing (Main Module) > Purchase Orders > Modify a processed PO (About Change Orders).

Finally, you can customize the way that the Deliver Date appears on your PO Form, using the following setting in PO Printing Settings…

purchase-order-form-date-format

Forms and Documents in your Free Purchase Order Software (Video Tutorial, v14.5)

It’s not quite as good as your Christmas present but here’s a new video tutorial on how to set up your PO form in the Free Version of SpendMap.

We’ll just call it a belated stocking stuffer.  Ho-ho-ho!

Signature Line on PO Form in your Free Purchase Order Software

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?”

PO Form Signature Line

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.

When to Use a Change Order in your Free Purchase Order Software

When you need to modify a Purchase Order after it has already been sent to your supplier, you would typically process a Change Order in SpendMap.

In order to communicate to the supplier that this is a modification to an existing order rather than a brand new order, SpendMap will print “Change Order” rather than “Purchase Order” at the top of the form.  You will also see a “revision number” that will increment each time the order is changed (e.g. PO #1000-1, 1000-2, etc.).

What about changes that don’t impact the supplier?

While it’s common to use a Change Order when making changes that will affect your supplier, such as a quantity or price change, there are times when you may not want to bother informing your supplier that an order changed.  For example, it might not make sense to notify your supplier in this way if you just need to change the account coding or other “internal” fields that are of no concern to your supplier.

So, if you’d like to modify a PO without processing a Change Order, without incrementing the PO revision number, etc., just answer [No] to the following prompt, which you will see when you click the [OK] button on the PO Header Screen to save your changes…

To learn more about what happens when you make changes to Purchase Orders that have already been processed, check out the following section of the Online Help in SpendMap…
– Purchasing (Main Module) > Purchase Orders > Modify a processed (About Change Orders)

How to include your account number for the supplier on the PO form in your free PO software system

Chaim works in the security solutions industry in New Jersey and was asking how to include an account number for the supplier on the PO form…

“When I place an order, our suppliers would like to know our account number. In the Supplier information there are fields to enter Phone, Fax, but not our Account Number.  The Account Number should appear on the PO.“

Great question, Chaim!

Most people use the Comment 1 field or the Delivery Note field for that, both of which can be renamed to “Account Number” or similar.

You can enter the supplier’s account number into either of those fields in the [Miscellaneous] folder of the Supplier Master File, and it will carry forward to the PO Header for each new PO for that supplier and will be available to print on the PO form…

supplier account number on Purchase Order

TIP: Make sure that the field that you use appears on your PO form layout.  Delivery Note appears on form layouts 1, 2, and 5, where Comment 1 only appears on form layout 3.  Of course, if you upgrade to the paid/commercial version of SpendMap, we can customize your PO form with any fields you like.

You can preview and/or select your PO form layout, using the [Change PO Layout Option] button, in here…
– PURCHASING > Setup system> Purchase order settings > PO printing settings > Settings

Renaming the Fields

You can rename the field titles from “Comment 1” or “Delivery Note” to “Account Number”, which will update the field title in the Supplier Master File, as well as on the PO Header screen and the PO form itself.

Just go in here…
– PURCHASING > Setup system> Purchase order settings > PO printing settings > Text-Based Field Positions and Field Settings > Standard

…and change the Title of field #19 (Delivery Note) or #21 (Comment 1) , then exit and re-run SpendMap.

 

Terms and Conditions on PO Form (Ts and Cs)

Jody works in the hospitality industry in California and was asking how to include terms and conditions (Ts and Cs) on her PO form in the free version of SpendMap.

There are actually two options when it comes to terms and conditions on your Purchase Order form…

Short Terms Text

If you just need a few lines of text, try using the Short Terms Text in PO Printing Settings, which will be included on the face of the PO form, at the bottom, next to your signature line.  Here is where you can find the setting, and what it looks like…
– PURCHASING > Setup system> Purchase order settings > PO printing settings > Settings

Short terms and conditions on PO form

Long Terms Page

If you need more than just a few lines of text, the other option would be to use the full Terms and Conditions Page that will automatically accompany each PO that is printed or e-mailed to your suppliers .  You can configure the Terms Page using the [Setup Your Terms Page] button on that same PO Printing Settings screen.

When you click the [Setup Your Terms Page] button, you will be brought to a screen where you can either 1) enter lots and lots of text for your Terms Page, or 2) if you already have an existing Terms Page, you can scan it and upload it into SpendMap as an image file.

Finally, don’t forget to enable the Terms Page for one or more copies of the PO (likely only the Supplier’s copy) using the applicable check-box on the main PO Printing Settings screen…

PO Printing Settings