Purchasing for Maintenance Parts

Purchased maintenance parts are used to clean or maintain equipment in Facilities. This process joins the Purchasing and Production practices to efficiently obtain the parts necessary for maintenance and allows the use of several other key DEACOM features, including using Vendor Part Cross References, the Requisition process for control, and linking orders. When creating Purchase Orders for maintenance parts, there is a "Job Number" field on the Purchase Order that allows a user to link the MRO Job directly to the Purchase Order. This link means that upon receipt of the Purchase Order, the maintenance parts will be immediately issued to the MRO Job. It is important to note that the GL postings associated with these purchases will not be displayed until after the linked job has been closed.

Configuration

All necessary configuration is contained in the Process section below.

Process

Using Vendor Part Cross References

DEACOM offers the ability to define specific Vendor Parts that contain their own lead times, minimal PO quantities, unique vendor part number and descriptions, as well as pricing information that can be set with specific valid from and expiration dates. This information can be used by purchasing users to make informed decisions when ordering supplies and can also help when using the optimize prices feature in DEACOM to determine the best possible price for specific items. Items may contain multiple Vendor-specific Parts and each Vendor-specific Part may contain multiple pricing options or pricing breaks based on a combination of time periods and order quantities. For information on how to use this feature, refer to Managing Vendors Using Vendor Part Cross References.

Using the Requisition process

Controlling the purchasing process is most easily done by using the Requisition Order Type in conjunction with Work Flows. Users without security access to enter Purchase Orders can enter the Purchase Order information and save the order as a "Requisition" Order Type. Purchase Order Requisitions are used to notify the purchasing department of items it needs to order, their quantity, and the time frame for receipt of materials or services. The Requisition process allows companies to help manage requests for purchases and have them flow through an approval process. Once created, requisitions can be routed to the purchasing department for approval and purchase order creation. Once a requisition exists, the appropriate purchasing personnel may be notified that it is awaiting approval via the use of Previews and Work Flow Reporting. For more information on these options, refer to the Requisitions and Approval and Configuring Work Flows pages.

Linking Purchase Orders to MRO Jobs

Because Maintenance Jobs are typically linked to Work Centers or Containers, materials issued to those Jobs provides a method of tracking costs against each Work Center or Container. By linking a Purchase Order to a Maintenance Job, the items are automatically issued directly to that Job when the Purchase Order is received. This saves time from having to go through the issuing process manually for these purchased items while maintaining the benefits of Work Center or Container cost tracking. To link Purchase Orders to MRO Jobs, perform the following:

  1. Create a Maintenance Job using the process detailed in Creating Maintenance Jobs. Note the Job Number as it will be used later.
  2. Create a Purchase Order for a maintenance part using the process detailed in Entering Purchase Orders (or Requisitions and Approval if using that option). Note the Purchase Order Number as it will be used later.
  3. Navigate to Purchasing > Order Reporting.
  4. Select the Purchase Order created in step 2 and click "Modify" to open the Purchase Order Entry form.
  5. Navigate to the Misc 1 tab and enter the Job Number created in step 1 in the "Job Number" field.
  6. Click "Save" to confirm the modification. This action will link the Purchase Order to the Maintenance Job.

In situations where a Purchase Order for a non-stock or non-inventory item is received to an open, active Maintenance Job that allows WIP, the cost is posted to the "WIP Mtc. Purchases" account (defined via Accounting > Options > Costing tab). If applicable, this account will be overridden by the Facility or Work Center overrides from the first Routing sequence on the Job. More details on assigning overrides can be found on the Configuring GL Overrides page.

In the event that a Maintenance Job has already been completed but was not initially linked to a Purchase Order, this can be done after the fact. When creating the Purchase Order for the maintenance expense, simply enter the corresponding closed Maintenance Job number in the "Job Number" field of the PO's Misc 1 tab. This option is useful in situations where a maintenance job has been closed but bills from the vendor may arrive at a later time. This also allows job expense reports to show which expenses were related to the selected jobs.