Information Systems:Making IT department purchases

The IT department mostly makes its purchases from the following vendors:

• CDW
• Anisoft

Hardware and software purchases, especially larger capital expenditures, are done through ASW Purchase Order.

Making purchases through a purchase order (ASW PO)

Prior to proceeding, make sure the  vendor is set up as a partner in ASW.

• Get approval for the purchase, either through a business case or direct manager approval.
• Create an PO of type MO (Manual Order) in ASW (i.e. Work with purchase orders).
• Enter the vendor, F4 to prompt.
• Enter the warehouse and currency (CAD, USD). For USD transactions, do not worry about the exchange rate, the correct amounts will always be paid according to the invoice.
• Add lines/items. Things to note about each item/line added:

• The most common item number used for IT POs will be 02000149. In our catalog, this is a fictitious, non-inventory item.
• Use tomorrow's date (MMDDYY format) for the Dispatch date and Request date. These are not significant for IT POs, but the date cannot be today or earlier.
• Use EA for both the Item and Price units.
• Hit Enter or click the green check mark to proceed with adding the line. There will be three checks per item added that need to be worked around:

• ASW will prompt that the item number being entered is "non-standard". Hit the checkmark again to proceed past this warning.

• A following screen will prompt you to enter 'Y' or 'N' for Backlog. Enter 'N'.
• ASW will then warn about an error within the Additional info 1 panel. Navigate there, and enter 'N' in 'Quality ctl'.

• Select the line you just added and click 'Text'. Since the item is a manual item, there is no description or price information, and thus, it must be added in text. It is best to be descriptive since this is the official internal document representing an IT purchase.

• Click the green check, and verify the lines. Back out of the PO. It should be listed amongst all other purchase orders and be at status 10.
• Follow the steps to receive the PO when the items arrive.
• always use the net amount before taxes and shipping.

Receiving a purchase order (IT purchase)

• Once all the items of a PO have arrived, the purchase order needs to be completed so that it can processed by accounting (matched to the vendor invoice and paid). Normal POs are received through inbound shipments in the warehouse. For MOs, that step is bypassed (again, because the products involved are non-inventory).
• In Work with purchase orders,if using asw gui it is found in the purchase bubble, search the purchase order to be received.
• Highlight it, and select Print order. Print to Elaho. You may need to back out (F12) of a final green-screen confirmation prior to the action actually proceeding.
• Next, select Reception note, and print to the same printer. Somewhat self-explanatory, a reception note is the document/transaction to receive goods on a PO. (If the reception note doesn't print make sure the reception note date is taking the transport time into consideration. For example, if PO Dispatch date is Jan. 2 and the Transport Time is 4 days, make the reception note date Jan. 6 or 7 and it should work).
• Return to the ASW main menu. Select Reception button in the Warehouse area.
• Select Confirm purchase order reception notes
• Enter the reception note number on the printout.Click on Blank suggested quantity on the left pane, Confirm.
• Staple both documents, get stamped by Jeremy, submit to Angela.

Purchases made through expense claim

Sometimes, it is not practical to make a purchase through a purchase order e.g making a one-off purchase for something that is much cheaper on Amazon. In this case, it may be possible to get approval to make a personal purchase for the good(s) and then have it reimbursed. The steps are:

To be continued...