12 October 2009

Weekly Dynamic: Proper P.O. Closing

An awful lot of folks close Purchase Orders the wrong way. The scenario is this: A P.O. remains partially open due to a vendor's inability to deliver goods in a timely manner. The firm finds an alternate supplier and cancels the P.O. with the vendor. To cancel the P.O. out of GP, they change the quantity on the P.O. line to match the quantity delivered and close the P.O. The problem with this scenario is that it removes visibility into the vendor's performance. A better way to accomplish this is to put the remaining amounts in the Quantity Cancelled line. This will enable closing the P.O. and provide a history that the vendor didn't deliver. Now Smartlists or other reporting can be used to compare the delivery performance of various vendors and allow businesses to make intelligent sourcing decisions.