Hi,
I am currently helping to setup AX 2012 and we have come accross an issue with attaching blanket purchase orders.
From time to time we need to be able to attach blanket purchase orders to work orders. Put simply, I dont know how to do this, does anyone have an ideas how this can be done?
The work orders are created and maintained in our Enterprise Asset Management module (EAM).
Any help would be gratefully recieved as this is causing us a right headache!!
Thanks
P.S i think i have posted in the correct part of the forum
Hi Alex
A blanket purchase order existed in AX2009, so I am presuming you are on that version or earlier. The purpose of a blanket order is to hold a commitment to purchase from the supplier. You then call off orders at intervals meeting the blanket order obligations. It is the purchase order that is linked to the blanket order nothing else.
EAM is not standard, I am guessing using the terminology this is the To-Increase (through Dynaway) MDIS you have installed which creates service works orders against objects. The objects themselves are related to projects and if you need to purchase specifically to an object this becomes a project requirement. If you purchase to stock and consume against a works order you can do this and release from the blanket order but there is no method of connecting the purchase order to the service works order I am afraid. What you are trying to connect is a non-transactional element to a service works order, and this cannot be done.
Hi, thank you for your response. I am sure we are using AX 2012 but I may have this incorrect. You are correct, we are using the To Increase bolt on if you like. Just to make sure I am correct in my understanding - if we wanted to post costs on a work order but using a purchase order we can’t?
So for example if I have supplier A providing a service but he is covered by a purchase order for the service. The service being provided must be posted on a service work order against an object but committed to the purchase order.
There is no way of linking the purchase order to the service works order on the object?
Thanks
Hi, thank you for your response. I am sure we are using AX 2012 but I may have this incorrect. You are correct, we are using the To Increase bolt on if you like. Just to make sure I am correct in my understanding - if we wanted to post costs on a work order but using a purchase order we can’t?
So for example if I have supplier A providing a service but he is covered by a purchase order for the service. The service being provided must be posted on a service work order against an object but committed to the purchase order.
There is now way of linking the purchase order to the service works order on the object?
Thanks
Well there are no blanket orders in AX2012, there are purchase agreements 
Blanket orders was renamed after AX2009. However the concept is the same.
The service works order is a project, if you want the project to absorb the costs, and therefore the object, you need to create the purchase order from the service works order - this is possible from memory. Then upon creation you would need to see if the agreement link was available to make the connection.
If you have an existing purchase order that is just generally raised you cannot just push this to the cost of the project, you need to raise the purchase order to be project specific. You can try to update the project on the purchase order to match the project of the service works order, but I would imagine it would prevent you from doing this, but feel free to try
I have worked out how to do it now, great thank you for your help
I just now need to understand where these costs get posted to. As it is a PO against service work order which is against an object, will the costs appear in project management and acconting in the posted project transactions section against the project ID? Or would I need to look elsewhere to see it’s been posted?
I’m just not sure on the flow of information in this case, and I need to see where its posted to, to make sure it is in the correct place for reporting purposes.
Thanks again for your valuable help.
Hi Alex
Not a problem. They will post against the project. However from the purchase order you can look at the transactions and look at the voucher entries from there as well. So basically both elements allow you to navigate to the entries.
Hi,
I have been doing a little bit of investigation with the whole thing now I have a better idea of what to do. A PO has been created against a project (originated from a work order) and we have posted some costs in this PO against the project.
The PO has been approved and although we can see the transaction of the PO in the project purchase order part of the project management and accounting module its not where I thought it would be. I thought it would appear in posted project transactions? Will it only ever appear in project purchase orders and never in posted project transactions?
We may have missed part of the process which allows it to be posted where I think but I dont think we have as the PO has been approved, confirmed and receipted.
Another question - sorry! If we want to setup a purchase agreement for a number of different contractors for example, could we setup service items for each contractor so that we can just post against them when we need to and it uses the same PO each time rather than creating a new PO?
Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it.
Hi Alex
I am not sure where you expect it to be against where it is, but until there are transactions you will not see it in certain places - if you invoice it what happens is a simple test.
I would recommend you setup multiple purchase agreements, one for each contractor. No you cannot post against the agreement, you have to transact against a purchase order. You could continually reuse the same one but then there are no real controls of PO matching etc, so it depends what you want and how it fits into your accounting processes and controls.