purchase orders

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 🙂

Defaulting Fields in your Free Purchase Order Software

We added a new [Default] button to the PO Work Area in the latest release of SpendMap that lets you update fields on all line items at once, so you don’t have to update each item individually.

For example, you might have already completed your Purchase Order and then realize that you need to change the delivery date or account coding or something, on all line items.

You’re welcome 🙂

“Waiting to Start Report” message in your Free Purchase Order Software

We’ve had some support tickets from folks who are seeing a message like “Waiting to start report” when printing Purchase Orders or other reports to a PDF file in the free version of SpendMap, or when emailing Purchase Orders in PDF format.

We think the problem may be a result of an update to Windows 10 that Microsoft pushed out recently.

If you ever have trouble creating PDF files in your free SpendMap system, please try removing and then reinstalling SpendMap’s PDF printer driver. You will need Administrator access/rights on PC to do this…

  1. Exit SpendMap.
  2. In Windows Settings, navigate to “Devices”, then “Printers and Scanners”, and then remove the “Palmas PDF printer”.
  3. To reinstall the PDF printer driver, just RIGHT-mouse-click on the shortcut/icon that you use to run SpendMap and select “Run As Administrator”.  As you log in to SpendMap, you will see additional prompts to install the printer driver.

If you are still not able to view or email POs or other reports in PDF format, please let us know on our Support Ticket System.

Thanks and sorry for any inconvenience.

Who can add to Master Files on-the-fly in your Free Purchase Order Software?

Did you know that, by default, all users in your Free Purchase Order Software will be able to add suppliers, items, account codes and other Master File information “on-the-fly” as they work on Purchase Orders and other transactions in the system?

That’s right, while creating a new Purchase Order, if you type in a new supplier code, part number, account code, etc. that doesn’t already exist in the respective Master File, SpendMap will prompt you to add the information to the Master File right there-and-then, so you don’t have to stop what you’re working on in your PO Work Area.

Of course, you may not want everyone doing that, so you can turn this feature on or off, using the setting called “Allow adding of codes on-the-fly?”, which you can find in the [Permissions] folder/tab of the User Master File.

on-the-fly

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!

Open Order Warning in your Free Purchase Order Software

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…

  1. Check before you start:  You can always use View PO Status or View Item History to see the orders that are out there, before going into your PO Work Area to create a new order…
    – PURCHASING > Status & Inquiries > PO Status > Current POs
    – PURCHASING > Status & Inquiries > Item History
  2. Check while you’re at it:  Better yet, while adding new items to Purchase Orders in your PO Work Area, you can also use the [History] button at the bottom of the PO Line Item Details screen, to see the complete purchase history of the item.  If you click to see the [Details] of a recent purchase, you will see both the original order quantity, as well as the quantity on-order.
  3. Let SpendMap check for you:  Even better yet, to make sure that your Buyers are aware of any open orders, without them having to proactively look for that information, you can use the Open Order Warning feature in SpendMap, to actively warn them if they attempt to create a duplicate order…

Open Order Warning

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…

Open Order Warning in Free Purchase Order Software

 

“Waiting to Start Report” message in your Free Purchase Order Software

We’ve had a few support tickets from people who are seeing a message like “Waiting to start report” when printing Purchase Orders or other reports to a PDF file in the free version of SpendMap, or when emailing POs in PDF format.

We think the problem may be a result of a big update to Windows 10 that Microsoft pushed out recently.

Either way, if you ever have trouble creating PDF files in your free SpendMap system, please try removing and then reinstalling SpendMap’s PDF printer driver (you will need Administrator access/rights on PC to do this)…

  1. Exit SpendMap.
  2. In the Windows Control Panel, navigate to “Devices and printers”, and remove the “Palmas PDF printer”.
  3. To reinstall the PDF printer driver, just RIGHT-mouse-click on the shortcut/icon that you use to run SpendMap and select “Run As Administrator”.  As you log in to SpendMap, you will see additional prompts to install the printer driver.

If you are still not able to view or email POs or other reports in PDF format, please let us know on our Support Ticket System.

Thanks, and sorry for any inconvenience.

-FP

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)