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4.2. Purchase Orders
Last Updated 11/18/2024
What is a Purchase Order?
Purchase Orders allow you to keep track of orders and, if EDI is enabled, communicate with your provider. To view purchase orders, select Purchase Orders from the Acquisitions menu. This will take you directly to the Purchase Orders tab in the general Acquisitions search.
Naming your purchase order
You can give your purchase order a name. Some vendors have a character limit on identifiers for purchase orders submitted via EDI, where the identifier includes not only the name assigned by the cataloger but also the line item ID (number) and the PO ID (number). The identifier for each line item in the purchase order looks like this:
<PO ID><name>/<lineitem ID>
The PO ID number is assigned by Evergreen in sequence and the current number of digits for NC Cardinal is 6, and will soon be 7. The line item ID number is assigned by Evergreen and is currently 6 digits, but will also soon be 7 digits. There is also a forward slash that takes one character, which totals 15 occupied spaces.
As an example of how that affects naming: Ingram will not allow a total identifier longer than 22 characters. So, a cataloger who will be submitting their PO via EDI will need to limit any name they assign to 7 or fewer characters for Ingram.
Note: Catalogers should check with each of their EDI vendors to see what the character limit is for that particular vendor and adjust the number of characters used for the optional PO name accordingly. Creating a name longer than the vendor's character limit will cause problems with invoices such that the invoices will likely attach to a different PO altogether, causing headaches for all concerned.
When creating a purchase order or editing an existing purchase order, the purchase order name must be unique for the ordering agency (your library branch). Purchase Order Names are case sensitive. Evergreen will display a warning dialog to users if they attempt to create or edit purchase order names that match the names of already existing purchase orders at the same ordering agency. The Duplicate Purchase Order Name Warning Dialog includes a link that will open the matching purchase order in a new tab.
Duplicate PO Name Detection When Creating a New Purchase Order
When a duplicate purchase order name is detected during the creation of a new purchase order, the user may:
- Click View PO to view the purchase order with the matching name. The purchase order will open in a new tab.
- Click Cancel to cancel the creation of the new purchase order.
- Within the Name (optional) field, enter a different, unique name for the new purchase order.
If the purchase order name is unique for the ordering agency, the user will continue filling in the remaining fields and click Save.
If the purchase order name is not unique for the ordering agency, the Save button will remain grayed out to the user until the purchase order is given a unique name.
Duplicate PO Name Detection When Editing the Name of an Existing Purchase Order
To change the name of an existing purchase order:
- Within the purchase order, click the PO Name.
- The field for the name will become editable.
- Enter the new purchase order name.
- Click anywhere outside the box and the name will update.
If the purchase order name is not unique for the ordering agency, the purchase order will not be updated with the new name. Instead, the user will see the Duplicate Purchase Order Name Warning Dialog within the purchase order.
When a duplicate purchase order name is detected during the renaming of an existing purchase order, the user may:
- Click View PO to view the purchase order with the matching name. The purchase order will open in a new tab.
- Change the name to make it unique.
Activating your purchase order
When the appropriate criteria have been met the state of the purchase order will change to Pending/Activable. You can proceed with the following:
- Click the button Activate Order.
- When you activate the order the bibliographic records and copies will be imported into the catalog using the Vandelay interface, if not previously imported. See the Load MARC Order Record chapter for instructions on using the Vandelay interface.
- The funds associated with the purchases will be encumbered.
If you are activating an order that requires your to import records, after you click Activate Order, you will be presented with the record import interface. Once you complete entering in the parameters for the record import interface, the progress screen will appear. As of Evergreen 2.9, this progress screen consists of a progress bar in the foreground, and a tally of the following in the background of the bottom-left corner:
- Lineitems processed
- Vandelay Records processed
- Bib Records Merged/Imported
- ACQ Copies Processed
- Debits Encumbered
- Real Copies Processed
Activate Purchase Order without loading items
It is possible to activate a purchase order without loading items. Once the purchase order has been activated without loading items, it is not possible to load the items. This feature should only be used in situations where the copies have already been added to the catalog, such as:
- Cleaning up pre-acquisitions backlog
- Direct purchases that have already been cataloged
To use this feature, click the Activate Without Loading Items button.
Activate Purchase Order with Zero Copies
By default, a purchase order cannot be activated if a line item on the purchase order has zero copies. To activate a purchase order with line items that have zero copies, check the box Allow activation with zero-copy lineitems.
Troubleshooting Purchase Orders that will not Activate
Check to see that all items have required fields
Required fields are:
Check to see if items are linked to deleted bibliographic records:
As part of your acquisitions workflow, particularly if there has been a gap of time between the date/time the purchase order was created or items were added and the time a cataloger is attempting to activate the purchase order, we recommend checking to see if the PO will not activate because one or more of the bib records are deleted. If so, a cataloger should do a thorough search of the catalog to see if there are existing, undeleted records that match the items currently on a deleted record and transfer items to that undeleted record. If there is not an undeleted matching record, please be aware that undeleting a bib record can have an unexpected impact on the OPAC visibility of the bib record and attached on order items. Please do an OPAC (not staff client) search to see if the bib and items are visible in the catalog. If not, please submit a help ticket.
Check to see if line items are linked to the catalog:
Note: Evergreen cannot handle very large loads of line items. We recommend limiting purchase orders to 40 line items or less. If you attempt to activate a PO that is too large, you will not receive an error message, you will just see that the activation progress bar stalls and the activation fails.