We often place one purchase order to a material vendor to buy materials for more than one job at a time. We would like to start using Job Material instead of Inventory as the Line option on the PO. This should allow us to document the job and operation that the material is bought for. If we want to purchase the same material for more than one job, do we just make multiple lines with the same part, and different job numbers? Is this the right way?
Thank you!
Nate
You can also do one line with multiple releases - one release for each job you’re buying to.
It depends on what’s easier for you and your vendor.
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Are you using MRP to generate suggestions or writing the purchase orders manually?
Manually for now.
When should we use lines versus releases on a PO? If all the material is the same exact part, but we need it for 4 jobs, what’s the difference between making 4 releases on one line, and 4 lines? I’m tending to lean towards one line per job, but I have not good reason for that.
Using one line and multiple releases allows Epicor’s price lists and price breaks to calculate correctly (if you have them set up). For example, say you need to buy 100 EA screws for 4 different jobs and your vendor has a price break at 100. If you create 4 lines then Epicor will fill in the higher unit price since you didn’t hit the 100 EA minimum for the price break on each line. But if you have 1 line with 4 releases, the line quantity is 100 and so it will use the lower price break price. I think that’s the biggest “draw” of using 1 line with multiple releases.
Descriptions and comments are on the line, though. So if any of those are different (say, different certification requirements or packaging or something like that) then you’d need to have them on separate lines.
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Hi Nate,
Generally speaking releases are used to note different receipt dates, different addresses to send to, and different buy for. We have occasionally had problems with the multiple releases when we’ve received a wrong release or when we have a dashboard or query that is based on line data and not release data. We also have had difficulty placing drop shipment POs with multiple customers via this method. We go full new PO for that now… If dealing with it via lines is not causing anyone to gripe, it might be the best way to continue, less likely to experience these difficulties IMO. If you’re feeling like trying out a new way, I’d say give it a go!
Nancy
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