OneSite Purchasing in Action

OneSite Purchasing users begin by creating a new purchase order. The purchase order form is simple in appearance and allows rapid entry of multiple orders at one sitting.

Creating a Purchase Order

To create a purchase order, the user must first select a vendor. The entire vendor list from your company’s enterprise resource planning or accounting system is filtered for each property so that only the vendors used by that property are listed. The user can find the correct vendor by vendor name, vendor number, city or state, or by searching by the first letter of the vendor name. The vendor address is shown to help confirm that the correct vendor is selected. Once the vendor is selected, the user begins entering the line items. Line items can be added to the purchase order using one or more predefined shopping lists, or by selecting individual line items. The user can select from any line items previously ordered from this vendor, or can add a new item. For each line item, the expense and capital general ledger account, the last known price, the vendor part number, and the description are “memorized” by the system. In addition, each line item is categorized for reporting purposes. Once all of the line items are entered on the purchase order and any additional comments have been entered, the purchase order is submitted for approval.

Quick Budget Check

At any time during the addition of line items to the purchase order, a quick budget check can be performed. The check highlights any over-budget conditions for the pending order.

Purchase Order Approval

Your company can establish purchase order approval logic to control how budget limits—and user level limits—affect the creation of open purchase orders. OneSite’s inherent flexibility as a web-based application will allow the process of purchase order approval to be controlled and defined by each company to fit your unique requirements. When a purchase order is submitted, the approval logic will run automatically. For each over-budget condition, the system can either warn the user that the condition exists (for example, warning that the month-to-date budget for a particular general ledger account has been exceeded), or require approval. When approval is required, the user is prompted to select an approver and enter a message or justification for the approver.

Managing Purchase Orders

OneSite Purchasing includes an easy-to-use list of purchase orders for each property. The list can be sorted by purchase order status, vendor, or date created. Each purchase order in the list can be viewed, edited, approved, or voided (depending on its current status).

Creating an Invoice

The central activity of OneSite Purchasing is the recording of invoices. Companies will be able to establish those vendors for which purchase orders are required, and those for which invoices can be entered directly. Users start by creating a new invoice. The first step in this process is the selection of the vendor, using the same simple interface used to select a vendor for a purchase order. Once the vendor is selected, the user can add items to the invoice by direct entry, by copying items from a purchase order, or by using a predefined invoice template (for frequently purchased items). As line items are entered in the invoice, the form can automatically calculate subtotals and the allocation for shipping, tax, and discounts. Once the line items on the invoice have been entered correctly, the invoice will be submitted. The invoice is marked “pending” if approval is required. Once approved, the invoice is marked as “ready to transfer.”

Exporting Invoices to Your Company Accounting System

Each property will be responsible for determining which items are “okay to pay” and ready to transfer to the company accounting system. Each invoice that is marked “ready to transfer” will be transferred at the next manual or automatic transfer event. The actual data transfer from OneSite to your system can be initiated manually or scheduled. OneSite exports invoices using industry-standard extensible markup language (XML) schema. The XML schema used by OneSite are already supported by a large number of accounting systems for the importing of payables data.

Account Payables Reporting

OneSite Purchasing comes standard with a set of convenient property operational reports. These include a budget variance report, a purchase order register, an invoice register, a new vendor request form, and various setup audit reports.