PO Change Orders Overview

Purchase Order Change Orders (POCOs) are used to record changes in scope to approved purchase orders, such as additions/subtractions to existing items or the creation of new items.

In order to create a change order for a purchase order, the purchase order must be approved; however, it does not need to be interfaced to the accounting modules.

Note: Purchase orders are approved using the Approve checkbox on the Info tab of the PM Purchase Orders form, and they are interfaced with the accounting modules using the PM Interface form.

You can also create a PO change order using the PO Change Order Entry form in the PO module; however changes made to a purchase order in PO are not available in the PM module. By entering the POCO in the PM module and then interfacing it with the PO module, the PO change is available in both the PM and PO modules.

Creating and processing a POCO has four basic steps, which are almost identical to the steps for processing a subcontract change order(SCO).

Step 1 - Create the PO Change Order

You can create PO change orders using one of the following methods:

  • Manual Entry - You can manually create a POCO using PM PO Change Orders. You can then process it and interface it to the accounting modules or you can associate it with a pending change order detail item using the PO Change Order and PO Change Order Seq fields on the Estimate/Purchase Details tab of PM Pending Change Orders.

  • From a PCO - When creating a pending change order using PM Pending Change Orders , you can associate a PCO detail item with an existing and approved PO using the PO and PO/SL Item fields on the Estimate/Purchase Details tab. Once a PCO detail item is associated with a PO, you can create a POCO in two ways:

    • Automatically on Approval - When the pending change order is approved, the PCO detail will be used to automatically create a POCO. pending change orders are approved using the PM Approve PCOs form.

    • Manually before Approval - You can also manually create a POCO using the detail already entered on a PCO item - for example if you need to create a POCO document before the pending change order is approved. Select Create PO Change Order in PM Pending Change Orders. This will open the PM PCO Items Create PCOs form.

  • Using PM Material Detail - You can manually create a new POCO using the POCO Num field on the PM Material Detail form. However, this only applies to material detail that is associated with a purchase order.

  • Using PM Purchase Orders - You can manually create a new POCO using the POCO Num field on the Non-Interfaced tab of the PM Purchase Orders form.

The line items on the PO change order can change an existing PO line item or create a new item on the selected PO.

Step 2 - Create and Send the PO Change Order Document

Use the Create and Send feature to generate a PO change order document and email/fax it to a list of contacts. This is an optional step. For more information about the Create and Send feature, see About the Create and Send Feature.

Step 3 - Approve the PO Change Order

Before you interface a PO change order, it must be approved. You can either approve all items on the PO change order by clicking the Approve button or approve individual items by selecing the Interface checkbox for each applicable item, and then selecting the Ready for Accounting checkbox on the header Info tab.

Step 4 - Interface the PO Change Order

Interface the PO change order with the accounting modules using the PM Interface form. You can access this form from the PM PO Change Orders toolbar by selecting Tasks > Open PM Interface.

You cannot interface the PO change order before the original PO has been interfaced.