Module Description

The purchase request module allows you to manage the insertion of a document to make requests to the purchasing office.

It is an internal company document.

It is possible to go and set up an approval setup for amount brackets and it is possible to submit the approval to the residual budget control.

Setup

Supplier Accounting Setup

The management of the Origins RDA module starts from the Purchase Requests setup. To reach the setup you need to access the “Supplier Accounting Setup” page

The fields present in the setup are the following:

• RDA No.: serial number that will be used for RDA numbering
• RDA Budget Name: enter the budget identification code that will be used for comparison with the RDA amount. If this field is empty, the system will not activate a budget control, only considering the RDA authorization set.
• Cost Center Dimension Control: if flagged, the control on the RDA line will be performed by comparing only the budget lines with the same cost center. If deactivated, the budget considered in the control ignores the CDC, but considers only the destination account.
• Work Center: Will be translated to “Cost Center Size”
  Within this field it will be necessary to define which dimension will be used for the Cost Center control. This field allows you to define which values to show within the “Cost Center” field at the RDA Line level. Based on the dimension defined within this field the system will report this information:
  • If global dimension 1 has been entered at the “Cost Center Size” level, then, at the RDA line level, when validating the “Global Dimension 1” field , the system must populate the “Cost Center” = Global Dimension 1” field;
  • If global dimension 2 has been entered at the “Cost Center Size” level, then, at the RDA line level, when validating the “Global Dimension 2” field , the system must populate the “Cost Center” = Global Dimension 2 ” field;
  • If a NON global dimension has been entered at the “Cost Center Size” level, the “Cost Center” field must be populated manually;

Purchase Request Categories

The “Purchase Request Categories” page defines the categories that will characterize the purchase requests.

For each category the following aspects can be defined:

• RDA C/G  if activated, the RDAs with that category will be subject to the General Accounting Budget control. If not flagged, this control will be skipped.
• Skip budget control on zero lines if flagged, will allow approval of RDA lines with zero amount. 
  

User Setup

In the “User Setup” page there are some essential fields for defining user authorizations, for RDA management purposes. Specifically:

• Block RDA insertion à if activated, prevents the user from inserting new RDAs
• RDA Requester No. à the resource that, for the RDAs created by that user, will appear in the “Requester No.” field must be indicated. This field is also the basis for setting the authorization setups.
• Allow reading of all RDAs. Purchase à if not activated allows the user to view only the RDAs issued by him. 
  

RDA Permissions Setup

In the “RDA Permission Setup” page, approvers for RDAs are defined. Here is how to set up RDA approval.

1. User related permission.
   • Insert at the Requester ID level in Requester No. of the RDA. (Resource inserted at the User Setup level). Each user, in order to create the RDAs, must have a row set up within this view.
     2. You will then need to fill in the “Approval Responsible ID 1” field. This can be filled in two different ways.
     3. If the reference resource has an approval limit for its RDAs at the “Approval Responsible ID 1” level, the user ID that reports that resource will be entered. Enter the amount for which this person is authorized at the Approval Limit 1 level.
     4. If the reference resource does not have an approval limit for its RDAs at the “Approval Responsible ID 1” level, the ID of its manager will be entered. Enter the amount for which the manager is authorized at the Approval Limit 1 level.
     5. Once the approval limit 1 has been exceeded, the system will search for the next approver based on the “RDA Category” (therefore going to the second case).
2. Authorization related to the RDA category
   • For each RDA category, it will be necessary to set up the relevant managers. There can be more than one manager and they must be populated starting from the “ID manager Approval 2” field. Each approver manager will have his own limit. Once this is exceeded, it will go to the next manager. 
     

Budget Control

The budget is set at the “G/C Budget” page level. It will be possible to define the dimension that defines the cost center within the column

The budget is entered by accounting account. The system recognizes if we have a Budget for a certain item through the use of the “Purchase Account” field present at the “General Registration Setup” level where:

• If the “Supplier No.” field is populated at the RDA level, then it will take over the “Business Registration Category” of the Supplier. In combination with this, the “Service Item Registration Category” field present at the item/fixed asset/C/G account master data level will be taken over.
• If the “Supplier No.” field is not populated at the RDA level, then it will take over the “RDA Business Registration Category” at the supplier accounting setup level. In combination with this, the “Service Item Registration Category” field present at the item/fixed asset/C/G account master data level will be taken over. 
  

Purchase requests

Create Purchase Request

Creating a purchase request starts from the “Purchase Request List” page by selecting the “New” item from the ribbon.

The purchase request form is structured as follows:

• Header, where the following fields must be filled in:
  • Description: Provide a brief description of the RDA
  • Category Code
  • Requester No.: it is automatically filled in with the resource linked to the user who is creating the RDA
  • Supplier No.: enter the supplier number if you know the reference supplier
  • Global Dimension Value 1/Global Dimension Value 2
  • Delivery Date: this date, in addition to the indicative purpose for the delivery of the requested goods, determines the RDA's competence for Budget control
• Rows, several fields are filled in reporting the header values:
  • Category Code
  • Supplier No.
  • Location
  • Delivery Date
  • Dimension value (CDC): the header value prevails even in the case of an article with a size already assigned in the master data
    The fields to be filled in, however, are the following:
  • Type: filled in by default with the value “Article”
  • No.
  • Amount
  • Direct Unit Cost: mandatory only if the “Skip budget control in zero rows” function is not provided for the RDA category entered in the header

Purchase Request Approval Flow

The purchase request undergoes an approval process that leads the document to assume different statuses:

• Open à Initial state and which reappears if the document is reopened
• Waiting for approval à l'RDA is in this state when the approval request has already been sent, but the document has not yet been approved. In this state, it is possible to create Offers but not orders (the system reports the state at line level and at header level the state remains “Waiting for Approval”)
• Approved The transition to this status arises from the approval of the document, and allows you to create offers and orders from the purchase request.
• Rejected

Once the RDA has been completed, in order to send the approval request, the user who created the document must select the “Approve” item in the header menu. If the amount of the purchase request exceeds the user's spending autonomy limit, the purchase request will go to the “Waiting for approval” status; otherwise, it will go directly to the “Approved” status.

To approve the RDA, the approving user will have to access the RDA and select the same item in the header menu.

To reject the purchase request, the “Reject” item must be selected in the header menu.

By rejecting the RDA, the user will have the possibility to enter a description of the reason for the rejection, which will be visible to the user who requested the approval of the document, from the “RDA Notes” factbox.

The RDA can only be reopened by the user who created it. To reopen it, select “Reopen” from the header menu.

RDA States

Once the RDA has been created, it will then be necessary to approve it (by selecting “Approve”). The states that the RDA can assume are the following:

• If the RDA amount is zero:
  • If you have selected an RDA Category that has the “Skip Budget Control for zero lines” flag active, the system will implement the standard approval flow, bringing the RDA to the following status:
    • Approved: If the user who created the RDA has an approval limit;
    • Waiting for approval: If the user has a null approval limit. The system will populate the “Approver ID” field with the user who will have to approve the RDA (User Related Authorization, case B);
  • If you have selected an RDA Category that does NOT have the “Skip budget control for zero lines” flag active: Waiting for Approval;
• If the RDA amount is NOT zero:
  • If you respect the budget:
    • Approved: If the user has an approval limit greater than the related RDA;
    • Waiting for Approval: If the user has an approval limit lower than the relative RDA. The approver entered at the RDA header level will be the one related to the RDA category (Approver ID 2 for RDA Category);
    • Waiting for Approval: If the user does not have an approval limit, the approver entered at the RDA header level will be the one entered at the User level (Approver ID 1)
  • If the budget is not respected, the system rolls back maintaining the starting state (OPEN)

Budget Control

Budget control is performed at the time of submitting the approval request.

The control involves comparing the total amount of the RDA and the remaining budget for the period in which the document's “Delivery Date” falls.

The residual budget is obtained from the difference between the Initial Budget and the sum of Other RDAs, Purchase Orders, Purchase Invoices and uninvoiced charges that weigh on the same account and, if applicable, on the same cost center.

In case of exceeding the budget, the system will prevent the approval request from being sent with an error message where the evidence of exceeding the remaining budget will be reported. The system, if the budget is exceeded, will leave the status unchanged.

There is also a factbox in the RDA tab where the evidence of the remaining budget is reported, considering the total amount also of the RDA in which it is displayed. The fields will all be navigable, allowing the viewing of the documents concerned.

Budget control will consider the entire year in which the RDA creation date is included, regardless of how it is entered.

Creation of purchase documents from RDA: offer and order

From the purchase request lines, you can create offers and purchase orders with the appropriate function. To create the purchase document, select the RDA lines that you want to accumulate in a single document and, from the line menu, select “Functions” à “Create Purchase Doc”.

In the form that opens, fill in the following fields:

• Document type à option field that allows you to decide whether to create/accumulate an offer or an order
• Create à flaggare if you want to create a new document
• Supplier to be filled in only if not present in the RDA (or if you want to create an offer for a supplier other than the one present in the RDA)
• Cumula à flaggare if you want to cumulate the RDA lines to an already existing document
• Document No. à select the document on which you want to transfer the RDA lines 
  

To view the created purchase documents, position yourself on the desired line and, from the line menu, select the item “Line” à “Purchase document line”

The system will update the RDA unit costs when:

• An offer will be defined as definitive;
• An order will be created for the RDA of interest.