Multiple POs per Order-problems with processing payments?

Hi all
There has been some discussion internally (by Finance) advocating our customer service team does NOT use multiple POs on a sales order (via the PO Line functionality). Apparently, they are told that many of our major customers have problems processing invoices from us due to PO/Invoice matching on their end. These are major hospital system customers, so I am hesitant to believe this has any bearing in reality.

Has anyone else experienced a problem like this? I obviously can’t speak to the customers automated ability to match invoice PO listing to their POs, but as I understand it these are big automated systems. I would think this would be a non-issue for a major company, but wanted to solicit the feedback from this group on their experience.

In my mind, going to 1 PO = 1 Order is going backwards in efficiency for both us and for the customer.
Is there any validity to these claims?

I know our Accounting department has a rule about that but there are more reasons such as customers not paying an invoice because one of the parts was returned, etc. (things like that)

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Automotive customers sends schedules where each line has different PO number. I store that information in Sales Order line in a UD field along with PO Line and sends information back in EDI ASN and Invoice. I use this for last 8 years in E9 and have no issue with that.

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Interesting. In our case, we don’t use EDI but instead just send regular old invoices via email. It sounds like this requirement isn’t unique.

Although Epicor out-of-the-box is designed for 1-PO-to-1-SO, there are installations where that just doesn’t fit reality. In those instances, we need to create workarounds (I’ve done two or three over the years), and (happily) such workarounds aren’t that hard to create. Making stuff appear on a form (like the AR Invoice) isn’t rocket science, but sometimes making the invoicing process show the right values on the right screens can be time-consuming (I personally HATE messing with Finance processes).

I do have to say, however, that the vast majority of clients I’ve implemented are fine with that 1-1 functionality.

I like the insulation that this gives.

Ideally (but rarely ever), a Sales Order should match the PO, line-by-line, release-by-release.

I’m not even a fan of combining orders on a Packer.

I have added UD field in customer master to identify the customers (like Ford, General Motors, etc) who sends PO number at line level. So I have modified the AR Invoice and Pack Slip form to print PO and line number at line level.

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I might need to do this, that’s basically exactly the same requirement. And from an internal perspective it doesn’t really change anyone’s workload or workflow, but it does make it easier for the customer. How does it handle the ar invoice though? Do you configure the customer for 1 invoice per pack line?

Its a normal sales order. Since we receive sales order through EDI, assign header PO number as current date (YYMMDD) and update line UD field PO number with real PO number. In Pack slip and AR Invoice, Report Data Definition has been modified to pick PO number from the OrderDtl. We don’t consolidate sales order or pack. Once pack slip one invoice.

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