Reviewing Purchase Order Lines and Purchase Orders

Reviewing Purchase Order Lines (POL's)

Why does a PO Line go into review?

A PO line will be sent for review if

• There are data issues (such as incomplete/missing or invalid information) or alerts. 
• An order has been 'Saved' but not sent using the 'Save and Continue' option.

A staff member will need to manually review and correct these PO lines in order for the PO line to move to the next stage of the workflow

POL Assignment

The last person who edits a PO line is "assigned" to it.

• Only the person assigned to the PO line can edit the PO line information
• They will find these PO lines in the Order lines >> Review >> Assigned to Me tab.
  

Alma roles and POL Review

To review PO lines, you must have one of the following roles:

• Purchasing Operator
• Purchasing Manager
  

These roles allow the holder to edit unassigned PO lines in the Unassigned tab, and to view or reassign PO lines which are currently assigned to others in the Assigned to Others tab

Navigating & Searching for POL Lines in Review

PO lines requiring review appear on the Purchase Order Lines in Review page (Acquisitions > Purchase Order Lines > Review)

You can also open this page with a specific tab pre-selected by clicking one of the following links on the Tasks List in the persistent menu, or on your Tasks Widget on the dashboard:

• Purchase Order Lines >> Review >> Assigned to me
  
• Purchase Order Lines >> Review >> Unassigned

POL Actions

Edit – edit incorrect information or add missing information

• • If the PO line is still invalid, it is once again sent for review
  • If all data issues have been resolved, the PO line proceeds to the next stage of the workflow

Assign to or Release assignment – reassign to another user or have assignment released (meaning that the PO line is not assigned to any specific user) 

• • A PO line that is reassigned remains in review until the issues are rectified 

Start a trial or Request evaluation (only for electronic orders) when a trial is requested or started via a PO line, it is automatically sent to the review task list 

• • If you have the Trial Operator/Manager role, you can start the trial. 
  • Otherwise, you can request that a trial be started by selecting Request evaluation

Order now—move the PO line to the normalization and validation stage (meaning cleaning up & error checking stage) of creating a PO and sending the order (if the Acquisitions method is Purchase)

Save and Continue - if you have edited the PO Line, Save and continue will move the PO Line to the next stage of the workflow, packaging the PO Line overnight into a PO and sending the order (if the Acquisitions method is Purchase)

Save - if you have edited the PO Line, Save will save your changes and leave the PO Line in the same status of In Review

Defer – PO lines in review can be deferred for any reason

• • PO lines that are deferred appear on the Review Deferred page until they are either reactivated, ordered (using the Order now option), or canceled 

Relink – link the PO line to a different bibliographic record 

Cancel – cancel a PO line. Note – To cancel a PO line, you must have the Purchasing Operator Extended Role

• • When a PO line in review is canceled, it is removed from the review task list, but not from Alma. 
  • Cancelled orders are included in the Order line search in the repository and using the facets on the left side of the page in other search screen displays

Delete – Delete the PO line, as well as any transactions and inventory resources related to the PO line  Note – To delete a PO line, you must have the Purchasing Operator Extended Role 

Reviewing Purchase Orders (PO's)

General Information

A PO is sent for review if mandatory information is invalid or missing when the PO is created; or when the operator hits Save instead of Save and Continue after creating the PO.

To review Purchase orders (POs), you must have the Purchasing Operator role.

Navigating & Searching

PO's requiring review appear on the Orders in Review page (Acquisitions > Purchase Order > Review). You can also access this page by clicking the task Orders - review in the Tasks List in the persistent menu

Unlike the PO Line review list, there are no "Assignment" tabs on the PO review list

Units/libraries will need to find their POs in review by using the following facets:

Alerts – The type of alert that was generated for the PO

Vendor – The vendor to which the PO is to be sent

Library – The library/unit that ordered the material (the PO line owner)

Actions

Suggested best practice: Units/libraries will need to determine how this list will be reviewed; perhaps assigning 1-2 operators the responsibility of reviewing the list daily

The following actions appear under the row action item list icon (ellipsis) to the right of each PO in review

View – This may be the only option displayed if you do not have permissions to edit a PO

Edit – opens up the PO summary (Required fields will be marked with a red asterisk). After correcting inaccurate or adding missing information, choose Save or Save and Continue

Save – use this option if you are unsure if you want the PO to continue to the next stage of the purchasing workflow

Save and Continue – use this option if you know you want to proceed with the order. The PO is packaged and proceeds to the approval and sending stage of the workflow. This also moves the associated PO Lines to the next stage of the workflow, changing the Status from Ready to Sent 

• • When saving a PO, the expected receipt date of the items associated with the PO lines is updated.

Delete -- Only an option if you have Purchase Operator Extended or Purchasing Manager role. You might need to delete a PO to prevent it from being sent to the vendor and to get it out of the review list

Manually Add PO lines to an Existing PO

On the Purchase Orders in Review page, select Edit in the row actions list for the relevant PO.

On the PO Summary page:

1. In the PO Line List tab, click Add PO Line. 
2. The list of PO lines that can be added to the PO appear. 
   • Note: Only PO lines that are available for manual packaging appear in the list and are available to add to the PO
3. Click on the selection box icon to the left of one or more PO lines to add
4. Click Select. The PO line(s) will then be added to the PO.