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About Purchase Orders

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Platform:WebMobile
Plan Type:BasicEssentialPremiumEnterprise
User Type:RequesterFull UserAdministrator

In MaintainX, a purchase order is a document that specifies the types, quantities, and prices for items your organization buys.

Usually, a purchase order is for parts defined in your parts inventory that you purchase from a vendor defined in your organization, in the Vendors module. But a purchase order doesn't have to have a vendor defined, and you can add items that aren't defined in your parts inventory.

  • Administrators can create, manage, and approve purchase orders. They can also configure the Purchase Orders module. For example, to set up approval rules.
  • By default, Full Users can view and request purchase orders, but they can't see cost information. Purchase order requests must be approved by an Administrator.

Purchase Order Concepts​

Here are some important purchase orders concepts.

Purchase Order Flow​

A purchase order goes through the following stages:

  1. Request/Creation: An Administrator creates a purchase order, or a Full User requests a purchase order and an Administrator approves the request.

  2. Approval: An Administrator or other approver approves the purchase order.

    Approved purchase orders can be sent to the Vendor directly from MaintainX.

  3. Fulfillment: As you receive the items in the purchase order, you indicate the quantity received and the price you paid.

  4. Completion: When you've received the items you ordered, an Administrator marks the purchase order as complete.

For details, see Process a Purchase Order.

Purchase Orders vs. Purchase Order Requests​

Administrators and Full Users can access purchase orders, but only Administrators can create new purchase orders that go directly into the purchase order approval flow.

If you're a Full User, you can't create new purchase orders, but you can create purchase order requests. An Administrator or other approver has to approve a request to turn it into an actual purchase order and put it into the approval flow (see Approve or Decline a Purchase Order Request).

Creating a purchase order request is almost exactly the same as creating a full purchase order, except that as a Full User you can't do the following:

  • See or modify cost information (i.e., unit costs and total costs).
  • Add taxes or additional costs.

Approval Rules​

By default new purchase orders are sent to the organization Administrators for approval. You can set up approval rules to handle purchase orders differently when they meet specific criteria. Use purchase order rules to:

  • Send purchase orders to other teams or users besides the organization Administrators.
  • Approve purchase orders automatically.

For example, you could set up a rule to assign purchase orders to a specific user or team when the total cost is more than a threshold amount. Or a rule to automatically approve purchase orders when the total cost is less than a threshold amount.

For details, see Set Up Purchase Order Approval Rules.

One-Off Parts​

In addition to parts from your parts inventory, a purchase order can also have one-off parts. You define one-off parts on the fly when you create a purchase order. You can fulfill them the same way you would any other part, but MaintainX doesn't add them to your parts inventory.

For details, see Add/Update Items, Taxes, and Additional Costs in a Purchase Order.

Taxes and Additional Costs​

When you add items to a purchase order, you can also add taxes and additional costs. For example, sales taxes or shipping costs.

For details, see Add/Update Items, Taxes, and Additional Costs in a Purchase Order.

Purchase Order Notifications​

Administrators can set up in-app and email notifications for purchase orders that they create, and purchase orders that they need to approve. For details, see Manage Your Notification Settings.

Purchase Orders and Other Entities​

Purchase Orders and Parts Inventory​

Most purchase orders are for parts that are in your parts inventory. If information like a part's unit cost or ordering part number is defined in the Parts Inventory module, MaintainX automatically adds it to purchase orders for the part.

When you fulfill a purchase order, MaintainX automatically adds fulfilled quantities of the parts you ordered to your parts inventory.

When you're running low on a part, you can start an order directly from the part details page, and MaintainX creates a purchase order automatically.

Purchase Orders and Vendors​

Usually, a purchase order for a part in your parts inventory is to purchase from a vendor you've defined in the Vendors module.

If you specify a vendor for a purchase order, MaintainX prioritizes that vendor's parts when you add items to the purchase order.

If you have contacts set up for the vendor, you can add one when you create a purchase order for parts from that vendor. When the purchase order is approved, you can email a copy of it to the vendor contact directly from MaintainX.

Learn More​