Purchase orders: dates, GL accounts and receipts
A purchase order has a header, lines (what you’re buying and at what price) and releases (how much arrives when, and where it goes). Most PO questions are really about the release: its dates, its Buy For setting and the GL account that follows from it.
The PO flow
Section titled “The PO flow”- A buyer creates the PO in Purchase Order Entry, either by hand or from PO suggestions.
- If the total exceeds the buyer’s PO limit, it goes to the approval person.
- The approved PO is printed or emailed to the supplier. The supplier confirms, and the buyer can record a promise date.
- Goods arrive and are received in Receipt Entry against the packing slip: to stock (
PUR-STK), to a job (PUR-MTL,PUR-SUB) or to inspection (PUR-INS). - The supplier’s invoice is matched to the receipt in AP Invoice Entry.
Due date vs promise date
Section titled “Due date vs promise date”| Field | Meaning in Epicor |
|---|---|
| Due Date | The date you need the goods received |
| Promise Date | The date the supplier has promised to ship |
Time-phased planning, MRP and late-PO reports use the due date. Suppliers often read “due date” on a PO as the date they must ship, so goods arrive a day or two after Epicor expects them, and time-phase shows the stock as available when it isn’t.
Ways to handle transit time:
- Treat the due date as the dock date and say so. Change the PO form so the column reads something like “Required delivery date”, and add a note that dates are delivery dates at your site. Measure supplier on-time performance against receipt date vs due (or promise) date, so the incentive matches.
- Pad the part. Add transit days to the part’s purchasing lead time, or use Receive Time so planning asks for goods earlier. This fixes planning for everyone buying that part, but inflates lead times on parts bought from local suppliers.
- Buyer judgment for ad hoc buys. For catalogue or next-day suppliers, the buyer picks a shipping method that gets goods in by the due date.
Entering a promise date on the release doesn’t change planning; time-phase still looks at the due date.
Where the GL account on a release comes from
Section titled “Where the GL account on a release comes from”The GL account is on the release. How it’s set depends on Buy For:
| Buy For | Account chosen from (first one found) | Editable? |
|---|---|---|
| Other (non-inventory) | Part class on the line, then the supplier’s expense account, then the supplier’s AP expense account, then the company AP expense default | Yes |
| Inventory | The part’s expense account, then its part class, then the company inventory default. A GL division on the warehouse is applied if possible | No |
| Job Material | WIP material account on the job’s product group, then the company WIP material default | No |
| Subcontract Operation | WIP subcontract account on the job’s product group, then the company WIP subcontract default | No |
For anything except Other, the account is read-only; use Get Default to see it. If the Inventory GL interface is turned off, the field stays editable for every option.
Purchase Advisor
Section titled “Purchase Advisor”Purchase Advisor answers the quick questions about a purchased part in one place: have we bought it before, is any on order, is any on hand, who are the approved suppliers, and is there a price list. Its receipts view lists every receipt of the part, most recent first, which is the easiest way to see which of several same-day receipts came last (the receipt date alone has no time). For doing that in a query, see Finding the most recent receipt.
Receipts and inspection
Section titled “Receipts and inspection”- Parts, part classes or suppliers flagged Inspection Required are received to inspection. Stock isn’t available until Inspection Processing passes it. Failed quantity goes to a DMR.
- Once a receipt has passed inspection, it can’t simply be reversed. See Reversing a receipt after inspection.
“Cannot close part: there is an open PO”
Section titled ““Cannot close part: there is an open PO””Symptom: you try to inactivate or close a part and Epicor refuses because a purchase order is still open for it.
Fix: find the PO in Purchase Order Entry or Purchase Order Tracker by searching or filtering on the part number (or use Purchase Advisor’s open-orders view). Receive the remaining quantity, or close the release or line, then retry.
Related pages
Section titled “Related pages”Sources
This page is written in our own words. It was informed by: