A Blanket Purchase order is typically used to keep track of money that will be (or can be) spent by an organization (or department) on a particular project. Another common use is to limit spending on a particular class of items or services, and/or to limit spending on those items or services within a time period. If you are reading a blog post about purchase orders, you probably knew about Blanket POs, but did you know that Dynamics GP can support these requirements?
WilloWare just released a major update to our BlanketPO (BPO) module for Dynamics GP. Our first release added to GP the ability to have a large number of control lines on a single Blanket PO (compared to GP’s out-of-the-box support for one control line per Blanket). With the latest build we tick off nearly every feature request we have received for the product over the last several years.
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Most significantly, BPO now supports a PO level control limit (in dollars or quantity). The previous functionality of line-level control is still present.
The PO Settings window provided by BPO adds several additional fields to each Blanket, such a Previous Blanket PO Number, and Contract Number.
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Contract End Date is used by BPO to control the lifespan of a Blanket PO. When the End Date has passed, BPO will not allow creation of new Releases.
Each Release on a Blanket can be controlled by the Release Minimum fields. For example, a Release Minimum Cost of $500 will ensure that each Release contains at least $500 of purchases from the Vendor.
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The PO Settings window also provides an option to control which Item Numbers are allowed on the Blanket. The items can be added to the list manually, or they can be added automatically from a SmartList Favorite. When items are added to this list, BPO will only allow Control Lines using one of the allowed items.
Another big change is in the area of security. BPO now has security controls over who can access the PO Settings window (i.e. to set the Blanket Control Amount), who can add Control Lines, and who can add Releases. This means that a purchasing director can negotiate a contract with a Vendor and set up the Blanket’s control information, while individual buyers have access to add and create Releases (but not change the Blanket’s control values).
Lastly, BPO has an optional auditing function which, when enabled, will track all changes to the Blanket control values (everything in the PO Settings window). When a change is made, the user is required to provide a reason for the change, then before and after values are recorded along with the User ID, time and date.
If you need to create Blanket Purchase Orders, you can do it with Dynamics GP and WilloWare! Please visit our website (www.willoware.com) for more information.
by WillowWare