Purchase orders

Purchase orders can be generated in Synergist, allocated to a Purchase invoice and then exported to most main accounts packages.

Synergist does have an approval cycle function for Purchase orders that can be switched on if required. Individual users can also be set with cost limits which will block them from ordering above a certain amount.

In both the Purchase order table and phase level Purchase tab all orders are coloured coded in the following way for an easy to read status overview:

• Red: Invoice not received
• Brown: Expense record
• Green: Part invoiced purchase
• Grey: Pending
• Purple: Estimate

Purchase orders are always generated at phase level and can be directly created from the Purch & exp. tab:

However, they are more typically estimated for first via a Purchase estimate and then converted to real.
The steps below are therefore for creating a Purchase estimate. This is done via the Estimate tab of a phase:

From here you need to pick your supplier and then you'll be in your Purchase estimate, ready to fill in the details:

Any mandatory fields (typically Supply type or Description) will be marked with a red asterisk.

The order is made up of six tabs:

• Details - main PO details.
• Text - textual description of the purchase.
• Lines - optionally break the PO into multiple items.
• Delivery - any specific details regarding delivery can be entered here.
• Notes - Miscellaneous info.
• Tender - if the PO originated from a tender then details of that will be shown here.

Details tab
Descriptions can be entered manually or selected from a pre-defined list set up in file maintenance.
You can now enter the estimated PO cost and check the mark-up and charge-out rate. The default markup is defined either by the normal mark-up for goods bought from this particular supplier or, if you have previously defined it, the normal mark-up for the client of this particular job.

Please note: If you are intending to break your purchase order down into several separate items, each one with its own cost, you would normally just leave these fields at zero since the system will create them for you automatically (see Lines tab below)

If the PO is to be marked to investment instead of charged out then tick the Investment box. You would not normally do this since this signifies that you do not intend to charge your client for this item. You can also chose to pick for estimate and / or quote.

Lines
This tab allows the flexibility for adding multiple lines to build up your overall purchase. Each line can have a description and detail as well as its own mark up. Those lines that are picked then push through to total on the details tab.

Once a Purchase estimate is converted to real all the estimate figures will copy across to the actual where the can be edited if required.