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 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 added, either to the timeline as a Booking or as an extra for example as 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:
a) 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.
b) 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:
1. Amend the PO to reflect the correct rate before attaching the Incoming Invoice
- this will also modify the cost of the initial quote.
2. 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
To raise a Purchase Order from a Budget Detail, select the Budget Detail, right-click and select Raise Purchase Order:
You can either have a Per-Unit Rate or Fixed Price Purchase Order. What to choose depends on whether the negotiated agreement with the supplier is that the price is fixed or not. In this example the price is not fixed, in case the team gets stuck in San Francisco one day extra and the Director needs to get paid for an extra day.
The PO that is created for Director Mike Wendel then looks like this:
If using Divisions module (licensed), the Project's Division is used to determine the POs Division when using option 'Raise Purchase Order'.
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 anyway.
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:
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.
Next, a booking for the Director is created. If you book the Director using the Scheduling Mode option from within the Budget window, the system will respect both the buy rate and the sell rate. But if the Booking is created in the traditional way, the item will still display the default rate.
To make the booked line use the Rate negotiated in the PO, click on the Object's icon and link it to the PO by selecting Outgoing Purchase Order.
The Sell Rate has to be manually adjusted unless the feature Add Budget Rates To Rate Card is used, in which case the objects will get the correct rates from the beginning. For more details please refer to the Budgeting manual.
Here an example of a service that was outsourced and that does not need to be booked in the timeline, but still you wish to reflect in the Actuals so you can then compare budgeted vs. actualized info. Use the Forward Budget Details To Actuals.
This way the PO gets directly linked to the Actual created in the Project window.
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:
If using Divisions module (licensed), the Project's Division is used to determine which POs can be selected when using option 'Add To Existing Purchase Order.
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 Order and a column for Incoming Invoice (to be selected through the Eye menu in the Actuals pane), with details of the PO or II that the Actual is linked to, if any. The related icon is kept next to the Actual when the Actual gets attached to the Budget.
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.