iDocuments Purchasing User Guide

First published on: 09/08/2023/8:09 pm

Introduction

Overview

iDocuments Purchasing gives you an easy-to-use, accessible solution for raising purchase orders. You'll have an individual account you must log into with a username and password.

Logging in

iDocuments is accessible via a standard internet browser using the following URL: https://production.idocuments.io/

Enter your username and password, then click Sign in.

Home Screen

Dashboard

Each user has a customized, company-dependent dashboard with these fields: 

• Company — Top right dropdown list for choosing companies 
• Pending tasks and summary – Graphical summary of all outstanding tasks 
• Due for submission + overdue tasks — All outstanding tasks awaiting action 
• Key performance indicator – KPI summaries 
• Recent — Recent pages the user has visited in the system 
• Favourites — User-defined favourite pages in the system 
• Automatic system notification — User-specific system alerts 
• Message board — General system messages 
• License information — License summary available to the system administrator

Purchasing Process

Create a new purchase order

Video: How to Create a New Purchase Order

This video demonstrates the steps outlined in this section.

Go to the 'Purchasing Menu' and select 'Add Purchase Order'.

Purchase order header information

Populate these mandatory fields in the purchase order header:

• Group — Represents your department(s)
• Supplier — The supplier list is automatically populated from the ERP system
• Description — Free text field to describe the acquisition
• Delivery to — Dropdown selection to which the goods and services are to be received 

Purchase order lines

Populate the purchase order line(s).

Choose from the list of GL or item account codes:

• GL account/item code — The list of items you wish to purchase (populated automatically from the ERP)
• Description — Enter a specific description for the line of purchase
• Delivery date — The date on which the goods or service will be received
• Unit price — Net amount (without VAT) 

Add an attachment if required by selecting the attachment tab, choosing 'file', and selecting 'attach'. (Note: An attachment description isn't mandatory.)

Submit the purchase order.

Once the order is complete:

• Save — Save the purchase order as a draft
• Approve — The next approver in the workflow will be informed there's a new purchase order awaiting approval
• Close — Close without saving 

Viewing Purchase Order Lines

Go to the 'Purchasing' menu and select 'View Purchase Orders'.

You can filter the list by selecting from the fields under the 'Smart Search' query button.

Purchase Order Options

These options are on the 'View All Purchase Orders' forms:

Add new — Quick link to the 'Add Purchase Order' screen   Export — Export filtered data to Excel   Copy to GRN — Select and copy the approved PO to GRN   Preview/print — View a purchase order as a PDF   Email/issue — Issue the purchase order directly to the supplier. (You can enter up to 5 email addresses.) Once issued to the supplier, the status will change to 'Issued'. An audit log in the purchase order history will show when and to whom it was issued.    Approve — Approve multiple purchase orders from the 'View' form [optional]   Reject — Reject back to the originator for further action. Include comments to explain the rejection.   Delete — Only draft documents can be deleted Cancel — Cancel a purchase order that has been issued to the supplier when the goods or services are no longer required Close — Close a remaining balance that is no longer to be received    Re-open — Re-open a document for GRN that has been closed for GRN. (Note: This doesn't re-open a closed document in SAP.)   Copy — Copy an existing purchase order, which will be saved as a draft for editing/submission

Issue Purchase Order to Supplier

You can email fully approved purchase orders to suppliers by selecting from the 'Purchase Order List' and clicking Email/Issue. Emails can be populated from business partner contact details, or you can enter a specific email address if required.

Once a purchase order is emailed to the supplier, its status is set to 'Email Issued', and its document history is updated to show when the purchase order was sent, who sent it, and to whom it was sent.

Purchase order approval

iDocuments Purchasing will automatically email the approver to inform them they have a purchase order to review. 

By selecting 'Approve PO' from 'Pending Tasks', the approver will see a list of documents requiring approval.

The approver can either approve or reject the purchase order. A rejected purchase order will automatically return to the person who created it, with an explanation for the rejection.

Purchase order amendments

After approval, the Purchase Orders can still be updated, as long as the receipt process has not yet taken place or any of the lines have not been closed for receipting.

For orders that have not been goods received or have been partially goods received, then the user is able to edit the Line fields, configured in the Editable Fields option by an administrator. 

Edited documents can be resubmitted for approval by first altering the details required and then using the Smart Edit button to save those changes and then the document is returned to the status of Submitted and routed for approval.

See the separate Functionality Guide for purchase order updates iDocuments Purchase Order Updates (vision33.com)

Goods Receipts

Video: How to Create a GRN

This video demonstrates the steps outlined in this section.

To pay a supplier’s invoice, users must confirm in iDocuments Purchasing that an order was received or partly received. Orders are filtered from the 'Purchase Order List Approved', which will display the GRN status, GRN value, and outstanding value.

Select an order with an outstanding GRN value and copy it to the 'Goods Receipts' using the Copy to GRN functionality. You'll see the 'Edit Goods Receipt' form where the GRN has picked up the values and quantity received from the original order values.

If the GRN matches the order, the user will issue without editing. If the GRN doesn't match the order, the user may edit the values as required and issue it as a 'part-receipted' GRN. You can also enable 'over-receipting' if required.

The View All Goods Receipts form will display the GRN number for the purchase order selected and status as 'Issued'.

The purchase order list will display the values GRN’d against each order, where over-receipted values will be indicated as negative values. Once a purchase order is fully receipted, it will be flagged on the list as 'Closed for GRN'.

Note: when overdue for receipt, based on the oldest line delivery date, the purchase order entry will be highlighted in orange as below.

Some other colours you might see on the purchasing screens are:

Grey: Purchase Order is closed

Blue: Invoice amount is greater than the receipt amount

Red: Interfacing error when submitting to the finance system

Goods Returns

You can create goods return notes using the 'Add Goods Return' function and confirm in iDocuments Purchasing that a return or partial return has occurred using the goods return function. By selecting a supplier, you can see good receipt notes relating to that supplier that haven't been fully delivered.

Any goods receipt notes selected will populate the goods return note with the goods receipt note information.

Enter the goods receipt note number and value (quantity returned or price to return) to issue the 'Goods Return Note' in iDocuments Purchasing. Any quantity or value returned will be reversed on the GRN, so it will be available as an outstanding commitment.

iDocuments Document Statuses

There are several document statuses that can be seen throughout the purchasing module in iDocuments - these are detailed below:

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