Purchase Orders
Overview
Staff can generate Purchase Orders within Compass via the Financial Management page under the Organisation menu (grid icon) and submit them for approval. Once approved, staff can issue their purchase order to the applicable Creditor.
Permissions
All staff are able to generate a Purchase Order.
Staff with the PurchaseOrderAdmin permission have the ability to administer all Purchase Orders.
For information on Permissions in Compass, please refer to the 'Permissions' article from our Knowledge Base.
Creating a Purchase Order
To create a new PO, go to Financial Management under the grid menu icon.
Click the 'New Purchase Order' button.
Select a creditor from the drop down list of your school's creditors. The creditor's details will be automatically populated from the information that has been imported from CASES.
If the creditor you need is not currently in the list they will need to be added before a purchase order can be created for them.
You will need to speak with your school's Business Manager with regard to having the creditor added.
Choose the Distribution type for the Purchase Order once approved.
If you have information for the creditor you can type this into the 'Notes' field and it will be printed on the PO for the creditor to see. This can include extra delivery information for the creditor, eg if the order should be shipped to a different contact and/or address from the school's main campus.
Anything you add to the 'Private Notes' field is only viewable within Compass Purchase Orders. These can be used to include additional notes for the Sub-Program or Business Manager.
Tick the 'OHS Purchase Order Checklist Required' if applicable for your order. You can also select a Campus is required.
Once the Order Details section has been completed, you will need to add Lines to the PO.
A single line in a PO contains one type of item to be purchased (either a single item or a quantity of that same item). For example a PO for a stationary supplier could include one line for blue ball-point pens, one line for black ball-point pens, one line for A4 paper, one line for A3 paper etc.
For each line you can define the sub-program relevant to this purchase (i.e. I am buying coloured paper for 'Visual Art') and the account to which the item will be charged (eg, the coloured paper is a 'Classroom Material').
| Description | Item being purchased - the description should be clear enough that the creditor will know which item it refers to. We recommend using the Product Code from the creditor's catalogue if applicable. |
| Qty | Number of items being purchased. This can be a single unit. |
| Sub-Program | Select the applicable Sub-Program for this line of the PO. |
| Account | Select the relevant Account for this item. |
| Unit Cost | Enter the cost of one item (a total cost will be calculated based on the quantity and unit cost entered). |
| Unit GST | Indicate if the unit cost includes GST. |
| Attachment Icon | You can attach a quote or similar document. |
| Download Icon | Click this to view the attachment you uploaded. |
If at any time you wish to change any details of the line, you can do so by double-clicking on the line.
Click 'Add Line' to add all items to your Purchase Order.
Click the 'Save' option to save as you go. After you press 'Save' initially, some additional options will show.
If you are unhappy with any of the changes you have made you can use the "Revert' function to change the PO back to the last time it was saved.
Each line is completely independent. Therefore one PO can include purchases for multiple sub-programs and accounts. This allows a single purchase order to be processed to charge multiple sub-programs, allowing funding/cost to be shared or consolidated across departments within the school.
When you save a PO, it is saved with a 'Draft' status. POs marked as 'Draft' can remain indefinitely and will not be processed. Once you have completed your PO and are ready to submit the PO for approval, select the 'Submit for Approval' button in the top bar of the PO. This will change the PO's status to "Pending Sub-Program (SP) Approval". You will no longer be able to edit the PO.
Once a PO has been submitted it needs to be approved by all relevant sub-program managers and the school's Business Manager before it can be sent off. The creator of a PO will be notified via an alert when their PO has been fully approved.
When you see this notification you can click it. Click into the Purchase Order and then you can proceed to forward it to the Creditor via the available options.
Clicking 'Email Creditor' will email a copy of the order to the email address on file for the creditor.
Alternatively you can click 'Download PDF/Print' to forward to the creditor via your own email as an attachment, via fax or hard copy.
Viewing your Purchase Orders
To view your Purchase Orders, go to Financial Management under the Organisation menu (grid icon).
Here you will see any orders you have created and their status.
Duplicating a Purchase Order
Purchase Orders can be duplicated. This allows for multiple orders of the same items to be created.
To duplicate a PO, locate the original order and click to open. Click on the 'Duplicate PO' button located in the top bar of all Purchase Orders.
This will generate a duplicate and open it for you to edit.
Archived and cancelled POs can also be duplicated.
Please Note: Duplicated Purchase Orders duplicate into the same Financial Period as the original order.Editing a Purchase Order
You can edit Purchase Orders you created while the PO's status is 'Draft' (ie, saved but not submitted for approval). Once a PO has been submitted for approval, only users with the PurchaseOrderAdmin permission can edit the PO details.
To edit while in 'Draft' status, go to Financial Management under the Organisation menu (grid icon). Locate the purchase order in your list of orders and click the PO Code to open.
Make your changes and click 'Save'.
If a PO is cancelled it can no longer be edited.
Cancelling a Purchase Order
If at any point you do not wish to proceed with a Purchase Order you can cancel the order. Cancelling a PO is a permanent action that cannot be undone.
To do so, click into the applicable PO and click 'Cancel Order'.
Adding your own Creditors
Schools can choose to allow staff to add their own list of Creditors to use when creating a Purchase Order (please refer to the 'Financial Management Administration Guide' article for details on this setting). If this functionality is enabled at your school you will see a green cross icon next to the Creditor field in a Purchase Order.
Click the icon to open a pop-up in which you can add the details of your new Creditor.
Once you have added all the information and clicked 'Save', the new Creditor will be listed as the Creditor within your Purchase Order.
To view a list of your Creditors (or System Creditors), click the 'Creditor' button at the top of the Financial Management page.
On the Creditors page you will see a list of Creditors you have created in the top section called 'My Creditors'. You can also add a creditor via this page by clicking 'New Creditor'. System Creditors are listed beneath.
Approving Purchase Orders
If you are a Sub-Program Manager or the school Business Manager you will be required to approve Purchase Orders.
Purchase orders go through a two-step approval process, firstly to the applicable Sub-Program Manager and then to the Business Manager.
Sub-Program Managers
If an item in a purchase order belongs to a Sub-Program that you manage, you will be required to approve the purchase. Where a purchase order has items relating to more than one Sub-Program, all applicable Sub-Program Managers will be required to approve the items within the order that relate to their Sub-Program.
As a Sub-Program Manager, you will receive a notification on your Dashboard when there is an order requiring your approval.
Click the order number in the notification and it will open the Purchase Order for you to view. Click the 'Approve Lines' button to approve the items in your Sub-Program category.
If there were multiple items in the order from various Sub-Programs, only the lines pertaining to the Sub-Program/s you manage will be approved.
Business Manager Approval
When all lines in a Purchase Order have been approved by the relevant Sub-Program Managers, the Purchase Order will require the approval of the Business Manager.
To approve Purchase Orders, the Business Manager needs to go to 'Financial Management' under the Organisation menu (grid icon). In the Purchase Orders section, set the 'Currently Viewing' field to 'Pending PO Approval'. This will show a list of all Purchase Orders requiring final approval.
Click into each Purchase Order listed to view the details. Click 'Fully Approve' when in the order to approve.
Alternatively you can select multiple Purchase Orders from the list and then click 'Action Selected' and choose 'Fully Approve Selected'. This will fully approve all the selected orders.
Once a Purchase Order is fully approved, the staff member who raised the order will recieve a notification on their Dashboard. They can then proceed to submit the order to the Creditor.
Purchase Order Administration
For information on the Administration of Purchase Orders, please refer to the 'Financial Management Administration Guide' article from our Knowledge Base.
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