Important PO Reminders and Tips

PO Process for Educational Activities

Please remember to put the student’s name and student number into the description of a PO for an educational activity. Just selecting a “student” PO and choosing their name on to top portion of the PO Request form will not tell the vendor which student this PO is for, as that part is not sent out on the official PO that goes to the vendor.

If a student is planning on taking the class for the whole semester, DO NOT make the PO out for the whole semester, but break the semester cost up over months, weeks, or days of that class. If the student drops from the class earlier than expected, you will need to communicate with the vendor the drop date for your student. After talking with the vendor, then submit a PO inquiry. Give the last date the student attended and state that you have communicated this with the vendor on (date).

Ordering Computer Programs

When ordering computer programs please indicate on the PO which platform (windows, Mac or both) you are ordering. This will help insure that the proper items are received.

POs with long “descriptions”

Occasionally PO's are received in which the information wrapped around to the second line. When the PO is printed the vendor sees only the first line. Example is PO 25398 the vendor sees 9 ordered with the description being Washable paints: 1 each, red, blue, yellow, green what the vendor does not see is it continues to say is orange, violet, brown, black, and turquoise on the

wrap around line. The vendor sent 2 of the colors which printed out on the PO. Only those items written on the main line will show for the vendor, so when you need more space to write than one line will hold, move the cursor to the next line and continue typing... do not allow the typing to "wrap" as the wrapped portion will not show when the PO is sent to the vendor. You should see a helpful alert on this if you mark done, but for Stop-POs, you do not mark done and will need to note this yourself. The office will not take care of this step for you.

Always double-check Item numbers before marking a PO as “Done” or at “Stop-Po Done”

Most vendors process PO's by catalog/item number. If the catalog /item number and the description on the PO do not match, the vendor will generally ship according to catalog/item number. When this happens you can email vendor relations stating the PO number and your error and they will attempt to get the correct item. Please note that the ES’s If account will be charged to pay any shipping costs and restocking fees if the vendor is willing to take the item back. Restocking fees could be up to 20% of the cost of the item shipped. And, we do have some vendors who do not allow returns. In this case, the IF account cannot be credited for this error.

PO Process for Marking Orders In

To cancel an order, do not mark the “cancel” column of the PO. You will need to complete a PO Inquiry in Webfiles for the PO number you wish to cancel.

Please check the packing list carefully to see if a missing item is a backorder or if the vendor cancelled the item. These are handled differently by the office, and you are the only one viewing the packing list! Payment is not made to a vendor until all items on the PO are received by you. Therefore if a vendor marked the item “cancelled”, and you check it in the “Backorder” column, no check will be sent out. This causes some vendors to not want to work with us any longer.

A PO that is received by you with some items cancelled are usually cancelled by the vendor for a number of reasons. Some of these are: Out of stock, no longer carry that item, wrong item number—unable to identify what you wanted, religious item they have been instructed not to send out. The IEM office is not able to help you with any of these types of problems with a vendor. We suggest you order the item from another vendor if you would still like to receive it. This is the only case when you do mark “Cancel” on the PO for that item the vendor has indicated they have cancelled.

The ES does not need to mark a service PO complete, nor does the ES need to mark a service PO as "received". Those fields are for products only. When you look at your service POs, be sure to look at the “date signed off” field. If this file remains blank and you know the student finished the course please submit a PO Inquiry. This will help in keeping your accounts current. If we have not received an invoice from a vendor and it has been 60 days since the service PO ended, you can be sure that something is wrong.

PO Requests info and Family Budget info

You are able to view your families account balance on the PO Request layout in Webfiles. Please do not submit an order with a negative family balance. Most POs are caught for you and not processed, but occasionally this will not happen. You, the ES, are responsible to stay in the black with every family.

Canceling a PO Request

If you wish to cancel an order that is still in PO Requests, just use the delete button instead of emailing the office to delete it for you. Once you have checked “Done”, you may uncheck “Done”, and delete. After a PO is no longer viewable under PO Requests, and has been moved into the PO files, it has been sent out to the vendor. You may submit a PO Inquiry and ask for the PO to be cancelled. They will do all they can to catch it, but if it has been mailed, you will need to either ask for it to be returned (if it is a vendor that accepts returns), or “sell” the items to another family or ES using the Materials section of ES Webfiles.

Equipment Serial numbers

Please remember that it is an important step for you to enter the serial number for all equipment in the mateirals /serial number tab in Webfiles after you receive the item and before you place the items iwht a student. Some of you are entering a model number. This will not be helpful when you are requesting warranty service for that item. Please review all of your equipment items periodically to see if you remembered to do this. (Note: A model number is NOT the right number).

How POs payments are processed

POs are paid exactly as you have written the PO. If it is written per day, per month or if specific dates are designated, the AP department follows your lead. Make sure the PO is written for correct dollar amounts per day or month. If classes fall between the PO dates and a student attends before the next approved PO then the student may end up having to pay for those dates attended without and approved PO, as the office does not pay for any dates that do not fall between the dates you list on your PO, or for any amount over what you have approved (sometimes you will be asked by email to approve/deny a small overage).

When to check on your POs

Remember to wait 3-4 weeks for an item to arrive before entering a PO Inquiry. This should always be done in ES Webfiles, not by an email! Go to View/PO's. Click on the PO number of the order you are concerned about. Click the yellow PO inquiry button, and be very clear about what the issue is with this PO or items on this PO.

Check back periodically (once a month--add to your calendar) on your list at View/PO's using the button "Sort Completed First". Scroll to those not completed and if the "submit" date is over 60 days, it will show up as red to indicate that you MUST now do a PO inquiry. This will then alert the PO department to check on that item and allow the monies to be unencumbered if the items will not be arriving.