Purchasing & AP
Purchase Orders
Support Guide
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Overview
Purchasing in Striven can help your Company order goods or services, receive stock, report on what is owed, and much more. This guide will help set up your Purchase Order Types, PO printable formats, and more to align your Company for success with Striven.
Read this guide if you are trying to:
✔ Create Simple and Contract Managed Purchase Order Types.
✔ Create Purchase Orders involving multiple Vendors.
✔ Configure Purchase Order printable formats.
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Purchase Order Types
Before your Company begins purchasing from Vendors, it is important to configure your Purchase Order (PO) Types. By configuring Purchase Order Types you can enable Vendor acceptance, require tracking information, and more. There are default Purchase Order Types in your settings on the PO Types List which can be edited, or you can add a new PO Type from here as well simply by clicking the Add button. After clicking Add, you will be brought to the Add PO Type page to start configuring the new type of Purchase Order. Below is a screenshot demonstrating how adding PO Types appears and details on what can be accomplished there. To view PO Types use the following steps below:
Company → Settings → Accounting → AP → PO Types
- Options: There are several options, which are described further below:
- Is Default: Notes this is the PO Type used by default when creating new Purchase Orders and therefore prefilling the type for convenience.
- Requires Internal Approval: Notes this type requires internal approval before sending it to the Vendor Contact.
- Allow Recurring: Allows you to create recurring POs based on frequencies configured and customized within Striven.
- Payment Terms: Enables you to choose from a drop-down list of your configured Payment Terms to utilize with this PO Type.
- Display Fields: Provides display options for POs of this Type, including adding a PO Name, Promise Date, Requested By, or a Vendor Contact.
- Note: If PO Name is selected, the name of the PO will be required when creating a new Purchase Order.
- Defaults: Allows you to choose whether this PO Type is used for Dropship orders by Default.
- Contract Management: Allows more options to be enabled, which are included and described below.
- Terms & Conditions: Enables you to choose to associate a Terms & Conditions for POs of this Type. This will allow you to effectively turn your Purchase Order into a contract with the selected Vendor. Terms and Conditions can be set up and configured within Striven to meet your Company’s needs.
- Requirements: These checkboxes will enable you to require the following:
- Vendor must enter tracking information: If you would like Vendors to enter tracking information for Purchase Orders you can enable that workflow with this checkbox.
- Requires Vendor Acceptance: Requires Vendors to accept Purchase Orders that you request. Once this option has been turned on, the below methods are available for acceptance.
- Allow Multiple Vendor Selection: Allows one or more Vendors to be selected for a particular PO. The first Vendor that accpets the PO will be designated for that PO.
- Acceptance Methods: There are three Acceptance Methods including the following:
- Electronic: Enables Vendor Contacts to sign their screen electronically to approve the Purchase Order.
- Written: Allows Vendor Contacts to approve Purchase Orders with written approval. You can also choose to require an attachment of a written agreement.
- Verbal: Allows Vendor Contacts to approve Purchase Orders with verbal approval. You can also choose to require an attachment of a verbal agreement.
- Note: The Written and Verbal Acceptance Methods also include the option to Require Attachment.
Example of Adding a PO Type
- Options: There are several options, which are described further below:
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PO Acceptance Notifications
If you have created a Contract Managed PO Type with Vendor Acceptance enabled, you may configure Acceptance Notifications. These notifications will inform an assigned recipient when Purchase Orders greater than a specific amount, or containing certain items have been accepted by a Vendor.
To begin setting up your Acceptance Notifications, select the waffle menu located on the PO Type – Info page, then choose the Acceptance Notifications option.
Example of the Acceptance Notifications Option within the Waffle Menu
When adding a new Acceptance Notification, you have the option to configure the following criteria that the Purchase Order must contain to trigger the notification. It is possible to configure multiple Acceptance Notifications on one PO Type with various thresholds. Below is an example of the options available when configuring an Acceptance Notification.
- Recipient: The Recipient field features a type-ahead drop-down menu, where you may search for the Employee you would like to receive the Acceptance Notification by name or email address. Only email addresses that are currently assigned to an Employee may be entered and selected.
- Division: If you wish for the recipient to only be notified when Items from a specific Division are ordered, select the Division here. Divisions can be assigned at the Item level. To learn more about Item Management, review our Item Management Guide.
- Order Total Greater Than: If you wish for the recipient to only be notified when Purchase Orders over a certain amount are accepted, you may enter the amount threshold here.
- Items: Selecting an Item in this field will make sure the recipient is always notified when a Purchase Order with that Item has been accepted by the Vendor.
Example of Adding an Acceptance Notification
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Purchase Order Printable Formats
Vendors can view Purchase Orders and transactions in many ways from the Vendor Portal, email, or mail. To provide a visual outside of the Portal, however, it is recommended you create printable formats. Using the Purchase Order formats will allow a PDF printable version of the Purchase Order to be sent to the Vendor. If Vendor Contacts are using the Portal, they will be able to view and print out Purchase Orders so they have a hard copy for their records. There is a default PO format in Striven for convenience, but a new format can also be created by using the Add button on the PO Formats List.
When creating a new printable format, there are three main sections available for you to configure to suit your Company’s needs including Content, Items, and Totals. This guide will discuss each section and explore what they can help you accomplish with printable formats. Below is a screenshot displaying how the Purchase Order Formats List appears.
Company → Settings → Accounting → AP → PO Formats
Example of PO Formats List
Content: Allows you to utilize a text editor to add content or merge fields (as shown by the green arrow in the screenshot below). Using merge fields is very important when setting up PO Formats. Merge fields will take information from the Order and merge it into the PDF automatically. Things like your Company logo or your Company’s primary address can be added to the format using merge fields. Content sections can serve as Headers, Footers, or Terms & Conditions sections. Below is a screenshot featuring how the Content section appears with merge fields and formatting.
Example of Setting Up the Content Section for Printable PO Formats
Items: Allows you to configure how the Items appear on the printable format. To configure the section header, you can choose a column header background color along with the font size and color. Within the Items, you can also choose what to include and/or exclude in the section from Quantity, Name, Description, and more. The columns can also be renamed and rearranged to fit your needs. Below is a screenshot illustrating how the Items section appears.
Example of Setting Up the Items Section for PO Formats
Totals: Adds everything up and totals Line Items on the PO. Configurations can be made to allow the hiding of information deemed less vital to your Company using a series of checkboxes. By clicking the checkbox, this notes whether or not the section will be hidden on the format. Below is an image that displays how this appears and what can be configured there.
Example of Setting Up the Totals Section of PO Formats
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Page Numbers in PO Printable Formats
Striven’s Printable Formats have the option to include page numbering on transactions. To turn on page numbering for your transaction formats, you will need to find the page number checkbox on the Format Settings page, above your format sections.
When the box is checked, further options appear for you to select the page number font color, type, and size.
Example of Page Number Settings for a Purchase Order Printable Format
These page numbers will display in a “Page __/__” format on the bottom of your transaction pages, but only when printing a particular transaction. Printing in batches from the Invoice Print Queue, for example, will not display the page numbers.
Example of Page Number Displaying on a Purchase Order
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Currency Settings on Printable Formats
Currency display settings can be determined for transaction printable formats. These settings options are located on the Content, Items, and Totals sections of your formats. Striven provides the ability to select whether currency shows with currency symbols or currency codes.
The default setting for all printable formats will be to show the Currency Symbols (i.e. $, ￡, €, etc.), but you will also have the option to show the Currency Codes (i.e. USD, EUR, AUD, CAD, etc.) in addition to, or instead of the symbols.
Example of Default Currency Settings for Items Section of an Purchase Order Printable Format
If you wish to remove a currency setting from displaying, simply uncheck the box next to the display option you do not want to be displayed.
Example of Purchase Order Printable Format Displaying Currency Symbols & Currency Codes
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Purchase Orders in Striven
Once you have configured PO Types and Printable Formats to suit your needs, you are ready to begin creating Purchase Orders in Striven. Purchase Orders are agreements to purchase goods or services from Vendors who supply those goods and services. Purchase Orders will differ depending on what PO Type has been selected upon creation as discussed in the Purchase Order Types section above. You can add new Purchase Orders using the Add button on the Purchase Orders List under the Vendors tab. Below is a screenshot exhibiting how adding a Purchase Order appears and details as to what can be accomplished there. To view the Purchase Order List, use the following steps below:
Vendors → Purchase Orders
- Type: Allows you to select a PO Type to use when creating a new Purchase Order.
- Note: If a default has been set within your PO Types List, this will populate here without having to select.
- Vendor: There are two options here, which are discussed further below:
- Select Vendor: Allows the selection of a single Vendor who will be completing this Purchase Order.
- Select multiple Vendors: Allows you to select multiple Vendors from whom you will be purchasing goods or services from. This option will allow you to search for Vendors based on the Vendors’ address and the first Vendor to accept the PO gets the job.
- PO Info: In this section, you can enter the following information:
- PO#: The PO number is auto-generated, but can be changed if desired.
- Promise Date: Notes when the Purchase Order should be fulfilled.
- Requested By: The Contact who is requesting the Purchase Order to be completed.
- Allow Vendor to submit a Bill that does not match PO: Allows Vendors to create Bills from the Portal that do not match the Purchase Order Line Items. Bills created by Vendors will be sent directly into the Bill Review Queue to be approved or denied.
- Allow partial fulfillment by Vendor: If you’d like to provide Vendors with the ability to partially fulfill POs you can do so with this checkbox.
- Note: Fields and requirements will be based on how the PO Type is configured.
- Payment Info: Enables you to designate the PO Date and Payment Terms.
- Shipping Info: Enables you to choose where you want the Vendor to ship the Items. You can choose to ship the Items to an internal location or you can choose to dropship the Items to a Customer Location. There is also an option to select the shipping method.
- Items Section: Allows you to add Items that your Company is purchasing from the Vendor. Options are described further below:
- Class: The default Class which will be posted to when Items are purchased.
- Item: Allows you to choose the Item in your system that is being purchased from the Vendor.
- Customer/Sales Order: Allows you to enter the Customer and/or Sales Order for whom the Items are being purchased. This will allow for a relation between the Customer’s Sales Order and the correlating Vendor’s Purchase Order.
- Description: The chosen Item’s description. If a description has been saved at the Item level, this will populate into this field once an Item has been selected. The description can be edited or replaced if needed.
- Quantity: The number of Items that are being purchased from the Vendor.
- Unit Cost: The cost for which the Item will be purchased. The cost can be saved at the Item level to be pulled in while creating Orders and transactions. This can be changed if necessary while creating the Purchase Order.
- Amount: The sum cost of the Items being purchased from the Vendor based on the quantity ordered.
Example of Adding a Purchase Order
- Type: Allows you to select a PO Type to use when creating a new Purchase Order.
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Purchase Order Hub (Collaboration)
The Purchase Order Hub may be accessed by selecting the Collaboration tab on a created Purchase Order. The Purchase Order Hub allows you to store documents, links, and other materials related to the Purchase Order. These files can be organized within Content Groups for further organization and quick access. For more information on the functionality of Hub, please visit the Hub Support Guide.
Example of the Purchase Order Hub
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Purchase Order Assignments
The Assignments tab located on a Purchase Order lists any Assignments that have been given to the Purchase Order along with the Assignment Category. This allows you to designate specific work that each Employee will be in charge of when it comes to the Purchase Order. To learn more about how Assignments can be set up and used in Striven, review our Assignments Support Guide.
Example of the Purchase Order Assignments
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Purchase Order Approval & Acceptance
If your Purchase Order Type has the option configured for Turn on contract management, you will be prompted to send the Purchase Order for Approval and Acceptance when creating a new PO. Below details the information and actions available when sending a Purchase Order to the Contact for review.
- PO Info: Displays the Purchase Order Number and the Purchase Order Total. The PO # field is hyperlinked to easily access details related to the PO that is being sent for approval.
- Acceptance Method: Lists options to send this Purchase Order to the Vendor Contact for review. The sending options of Electronic, Written, and Verbal are available based on the PO Type settings. The Vendor Contact listed can be changed as needed, but will prefill in the Contact that was selected when initially adding the PO.
- Actions: Available Actions include Edit to make any changes before sending the PO for approval, Send Acceptance Request to send the PO for review, and Close which will navigate back to the Purchase Orders List without sending the approval notification.
Example of the Purchase Order Approval & Acceptance Page
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Purchase Order Templates
If you frequently create Purchase Orders for the same Items at one time, Purchase Order Templates can help streamline the creation of these Orders. Purchase Order Templates allow you to create a template containing the items, item prices, where the Order should be shipped to, and the Vendor the items will be ordered from.
You can view and create Purchase Order Templates by navigating Vendors → Purchasing → Order Templates.
Below is an image showing how the Purchase Order Templates page appears and what options are available from this page.
- Search Options: If you would like to narrow the results on this page, you can do so by using the available Search fields. You can search for a Purchase Order Template by Name, PO Type, and Status.
- Add: Selecting the Add button allows you to create a new Purchase Order Template.
- Template Information: Information such as the Template Name, and Type are listed on the Purchase Order Templates page. Selecting the Template Name will allow you view the Template and edit the Template details.
- Create Purchase Order: Allows you to quickly open and create a new Purchase Order using the information from the Template.
- Deactivate: Selecting the trashcan icon allows you to deactivate the Template.
Example of the Purchase Order Templates Page
Creating Purchase Order Templates
To create a new Purchase Order Template, select the Add button from the Purchase Order Templates page. When creating a Purchase Order Template, you have the following options:
- PO Type: This drop-down menu allows you to select the PO Type that will be utilized when a Purchase Order is created using this Template. You may add a new PO Type by selecting the Plus icon that appears when hovering over this field.
- Vendor Selection: Allows you to select the Vendor whom the Purchase Order will be created for when using this Template. You may use the Search icon to locate a specific Vendor. The “Selected Currency” field will only display if multi-currency transactions have been enabled for your Company.
- Payment Information: You may select the Payment Terms for Purchase Orders created with this Template by using the drop-down menu. Depending on your Company settings, you may have the option to select the AP Account for billing.
- Shipping Information: Allows you to select whether Orders created with this Template will be dropshipped, and you may select the Ship To address with a drop-down menu. If a specific shipping method is desired, the Ship Via field can be used to select the carrier you prefer.
- Template Name: Enables you to enter a name for the Purchase Order Template.
- Vendor Notes: Allows you to enter any notes which may be necessary for the Vendor.
- Save Pricing Information: Selecting this checkbox will retain the Item Prices entered on this Template when creating a Purchase Order. If this option is not selected, pricing information on the created Purchase Order will reflect the item’s current price.
- Select Items: Allows you to add items to the Purchase Order Template. These items, their descriptions, and quanitities will be added to the PO when created from this Template.
Example of Adding a Purchase Order Template
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Select Multiple Vendors
When choosing to select multiple Vendors on Purchase Orders, a Search for Vendors button will appear with which you can search for Vendors that have primary addresses in Striven. Vendors that have addresses will be available to choose from and will also be populated on a map to provide a visual reference on their location(s). Each Vendor you select will be sent an acceptance request for this Purchase Order. The first Vendor to accept the request will be assigned to this Purchase Order. Below is a screenshot featuring how the Vendors Search appears and details on what can be accomplished there.
- Select Vendors: Enables you to select which Vendors will receive a notification alerting them that a PO is available for acceptance.
- Map of Vendors: Illustrates where Vendors are located based on each Vendor’s primary address in Striven to help you select which Vendors to include.
- Select/Close: Saves your selections and brings you back to the Purchase Order with Vendors listed under the Search for Vendors button. Clicking Close will not save any Vendor selections.
Example of Selecting Multiple Vendors on Purchase Orders
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Purchase Orders List
The Purchase Orders List is a list of POs within your Striven system. This list can be filtered to view Purchase Orders of a particular type, status, Vendor, and more. The Purchase Order names and Vendors are able to be selected from the list to view more information. The image below displays a Purchase Order List and the available options found there.
To access the Purchase Orders List, the path you can follow is:
Vendors → Purchasing → Orders
- Search Filters: The search filters available to narrow down the Purchase Order List results to show only those POs that meet the criteria.
- Add Purchase Order: Redirects you to the Add Purchase Order page to create a new Purchase Order.
- Actions (Hamburger) Menu: A drop-down menu next to each PO displaying options to Edit, Set Approval Status, or Cancel the PO.
- View Log: Lists anyone that has viewed the Purchase Order along with a date and timestamp of when it was viewed.
- Notes Log: Displays notes saved to the Purchase Order with the option to create a new note.
- Discussions: Displays Discussion threads related to the Purchase Order.
Example of Purchase Orders List
- Note: Any Purchase Orders with a green semi-circle to the right is an indication that the Purchase Order is recurring (not displayed in the example image).
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Recurring Purchase Orders
During creation of a new Purchase Order, you can determine if the Order is a one-time Order or if you would like to set it to be recurring. If you decide you would like the Purchase Order to be recurring, you can select the Recurring radio button. Once this option is selected, other options will display to allow for further configuration.
Purchase Order frequency can be selected from a drop-down menu. Some common frequency options from the menu are Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly and Quarterly. You can indicate if you would like the recurrence to have an expiration date or not by selecting or deselecting the No Expiration checkbox. If the box is not selected, a field will appear to indicate how many recurring Purchase Orders should be created.
There is also an option to add lead time for Purchase Order creation. Lead time will determine how far in advance the Purchase Order should be created from the frequency selected. For example, if a Purchase Order is set for a Monthly frequency with a lead time of 7 days, the Purchase Order will be created 7 days before the Monthly frequency set.
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Recap
With this guide, we’ve discovered how to create and manage Purchase Order Types, Purchase Orders, and more to enable you to purchase goods or services from your Vendors. We’ve explored how to configure PO printable formats, as well. We’ve also covered the available options on the Purchase Orders List to best manage your Company’s purchasing needs with Striven.
FAQs
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I’ve ordered raw materials, but how do I assemble a finished good from them?
This can be accomplished by creating Manufactured Items and later creating a Build to complete the assembly of Finished Items to be sold to Customers. To learn more please reference our Item Management Guide.