Duplicating materials and equipment when creating a PO

[JerryCobb]

I tried looking through the 925 or so discussions on PO's for a solution with no luck.

For many of our services we have material connections which automatically adds the materials used to the invoice for job costing.

We sell equipment which then also adds the equipment to the invoice for job costing.

I recently turned on the purchasing module so we could create PO's the right way, but now when the materials or equipment are added to the PO it duplicates the cost.

Any solutions or am I doing something wrong? The last company I worked at using ST didn't have this problem and I'm not sure why this one is.

[michael21]

At least with what's installed in Next now, it doesn't work on either equipment or materials.  More detail in other thread.  I suppose its possible that Match on item quantity on job calculation for equipment isn't turned on but I will ask our CSM to check that for sure.

[JerryCobb]

It's not working for equipment, unless it waits until after hours, just added the correct equipment to a PO that had that same equipment on it and still duplicating costs. @rstare I'm going through and adjusting PO's to at least give me some semblance of costing, will the update retroactively apply the changes to previous PO's or should I put this on hold until it's done? The invoices are already batched and posted, so I'm getting creative and just adjusting the PO's to get the correct Total cost on each job.

[rstare]

This used to only work with equipment, but it should work with materials now, upon the new update, I bleive it's the current in progress update, so test that out in the next couple weeks and let me know if you're still seeing the issue.

[JerryCobb]

It's not working for equipment, unless it waits until after hours, just added the correct equipment to a PO that had that same equipment on it and still duplicating costs.

[michael21]

Hi @JerryCobb Go to the post: "Inventory tracked or serially controlled items on a job PO".  @rstare posted a workflow there that I think, in conjunction with the other discussion in that point, might help with this problem.  I don't think it will totally eliminate it, but it will avoid the double costs.  Also, you might right about "Match item quantity" not helping with material since material is more likely to appear more than once and there is nothing to differentiate legitimate vs duplicated entries.

[rstare]

Ask your CSM to turn on the FG called "Match on item quantity on job calculation for equipment". This will 'detect' when there is a piece of equipment on an invoice that is also on an associated PO, and it will $0 the cost of the equipment on the invoice.

[JerryCobb]

I have that turned on, seems to be hit or miss, but I'm still in the process of reconciling and doesn't seem to help with materials

So far I have been going through and receiving the PO's and just balancing the totals to match the PO since we don't send the PO's directly to vendors at this point, the orders are called in, but this can't be a sustainable or correct way to do this. 

I want the techs in the field to be able to pull their own PO's as opposed to having a person in the office dedicating half their life to this.

[michael21]

Hi @JerryCobb.  The problem you are encountering is the result of what I consider to be a bug in Titan but they consider it a feature.  If you book a PO on a job, and the PO contains any inventory tracked items, (items in either the materials or equipment section of the price book), Titan will record the cost in the PO section.  Since the items are also listed as materials and equipment, cost is messed up.  ST did make a change a short time ago that is suppose to carry these items to the PO at 0 cost, but I haven't tried that because: that's not the worst problem, with this.  Tracked items on this purchase order will be recorded on the job but will also be added to the inventory location indicated on the PO, thus adding stock to inventory that isn't real.  The only solution I have found is NEVER book an inventory tracked item on a job PO.  Instead, we book the PO to be received into inventory, (no job reference on the PO).  Then on the job, we change the items that are already listed to come from the inventory location the PO went to.  Extra work, I know, but its the best I have come  up with.

[JerryCobb]

We don't manage our inventory yet through ST, that's the end goal though. Right now I'm just trying to find a way to get accurate job costing and have the techs held accountable by pulling their own PO's instead of dedicating an office person to it.