At the time of designing the Quote using the Budget module, it might not be clear that it is ever going to be approved and that the job is ever going to start or when it is going to happen. So contacting external resources to check their schedules and negotiate prices is something that might be done once the Quote is approved.
Once the Quote is approved then, the external resources and providers are contacted and Purchase Orders are raised for their work. This will update the Buy Rate in the Budget area.
As soon as the work is put in the timeline (Booking) or added as an extra (in case of a Service or Expense), and this Actual is attached to the Budget Detail and related Purchase Order, then Forecast and To Date areas will also get the same Buy Rate.
When the external resource sends an Invoice (Incoming Invoice) for their work or service provided, generally this will match the initial Purchase Order.
Please note that Incoming Invoice details will not modify the original Purchase Order or the Actuals linked to it.
If the Incoming Invoice does not match the PO, it could be due to:
- Incoming Invoice's QUANTITY is different than the POs quantity. For example, your initial quote was for 2 days of shooting, so you hired a cameraman for 2 days. But later an extra day was needed so you get invoiced 3 days. In this case, make sure that the cameraman is booked for 3 days so the Actuals will reflect this difference.
- Incoming Invoice's RATE does not match the POs rate. If you agreed on a rate of 100 per hour and you get an invoice with 150 per hour, this clearly seems wrong. You can do two things:
- Amend the PO to reflect the correct rate before attaching the Incoming Invoice - this will also modify the cost of the initial quote.
- Do not change the initial PO, to not modify the initial cost of your quote. Instead, create a new one with the new price to which you will attach the Actual. This will result in the Budget Detail to be connected to a PO with price 100 and the Actual to be connected to a PO with price 150. The Incoming Invoice will be connected to the second PO.
See more details below.
Raise Purchase Order from a Budget Detail
To raise a Purchase Order from a Budget Detail, select the Budget Detail, right-click and select Raise Purchase Order:
Raise Purchase Order from Budget Detail
The PO that is created for Director Mike Wendel then looks like this:
New Purchase Order for Budget Detail
If using Divisions module (licensed), the Project Division determines the POs Division.
Once you click OK on the new order, you are prompted if you want to approve the PO. Only users with corresponding permission can approve Purchase Orders.
Next you can decide if the same Buy rate is to be used as Sell rate. You can always modify the Sell rate later.
After it is created, the Bin icon on the Budget Detail is replaced by a PO icon, and the Description, Quantity and Buy Rate cannot be directly edited anymore, since the line is now under the control of the PO:
Linked Budget Detail
If the PO has not been approved yet, the PO icon will show in grey.
To modify the PO, click on the PO icon and select Open Linked PO.
If you book the Director using the Scheduling Mode option, both the buy rate and the sell rate will be respected. But if the Booking is created in the traditional way, the Actual will still display the default rate, until it is connected to the PO.
To make the booked line use the buy rate negotiated in the PO, click on the Object's icon and link it to the corresponding PO by selecting Outgoing Purchase Order in the drop-down menu.
Booking after linking
Booking (Actual) attached to Budget Line
In this case, use the Forward Budget Details To Actuals.
Forward Budget Detail to Actuals
Actual linked to Purchase Order
Add to existing Purchase Order
The Add To Existing Purchase Order option can be used to add the Budget Detail to an existing Purchase Order that has yet not been approved. In this example 'Location Scout- Madrid' is added to an existing PO from the same Supplier on the same Project:
Add To Existing Purchase Order from Budget Detail
Select Project from drop-down list
Purchase Order with status Waiting For Approval
If using Divisions module (licensed), the Project Division determines which POs can be selected when using 'Add To Existing Purchase Order.
Purchase Order and Incoming Invoice icons in Budget and in Actuals pane
The picture above shows:
- Some Budget Details for which Purchase Orders have been created, like Location Scout (still grey because it is pending of approval) and Cameraman/ DOP (approved).
- Some Actuals attached to Budget Details, and linked to original Purchase Order, like Storyboard.
- An Actual for Meals that is not connected to any Budget Detail, but is linked to an Incoming Invoice - typically of extras that are not in the initial Quote.
- The Actuals pane at the bottom displaying a column for Purchase Orders and a column for Incoming Invoices (to be selected through the Eye menu in the Actuals pane), with details of the Purchase Order or Incoming Invoice that the Actual is linked to, if any.
When mousing over these icons, you can read some information such as Purchase Order/Incoming Invoice number, Supplier, creation date.
And when clicking on the icon the Purchase Order / Incoming Invoice opens.
Refer to the Purchase Order Manual for more details.