Create A PO Change Order in NUFinancials

This guide will walk a Requester/Buyer through the process of creating a PO Change Order.

Primary reasons to create a PO Change Order:

Create a PO Change Order to:

• Change the chart string
• Change the line item Description, Price, Quantity, or Ship To
• Resolve a match exception resulting from line item, price, or quantity discrepancy
• Add a new line item to the purchase order
• Change a PO from receive by quantity to receive by dollar amount

Primary reasons not to initiate a PO Change Order:

• If the requisition has not been sourced into a Purchase Order, you can still make changes to the requisition.
• If a change to the chart string information is needed after the PO voucher has been created, you’ll need to submit a Correction Journal.
• If the invoice amount is less than the PO, a change to the PO isn’t necessary. The invoice will still pay and any remaining balance will be credited back to the chartstring. 

Who can change a PO or submit a Change Order Request Form?

• A school/department user with the role of Requester/Dept. Buyer.

How does the PO Change Order process typically work?

1. When a change is made to a PO, immediately upon clicking on Save, the changes are applied or committed to the PO, and it is routed for approvals. The changed PO is first routed to a Procurement and Payment Services (PPS) Analyst for review and approval.

If Approved by PPS:

• It goes through the normal department chart string approval path.
• If approved by the department and is under $25k, the changes are fully approved, and the PO gets re-Dispatched.
• If approved by the department and is over $25k, it will be routed to a PPS Buyer for approval.
• If approved by department and is grant related, it will route to ASRSP for approval.

2. If requested, the PO can be dispatched to the supplier a second time. Generally, PPS suppresses the re-dispatch of changed purchase orders to suppliers.

Change a Purchase Order

Navigation: Log into NUFinancials > NavBar > Navigator > Purchasing > Purchase Orders > Add/Update POs

The Search Criteria will appear.

1. Enter PO ID.
2. Enter PO Status to 'Dispatched'.
3. Click Search.

Step 2: Make Edits to the Purchase Order

After clicking search, the Maintain Purchase Order page will appear.

IMPORTANT: If your PO falls outside of the 6 month budget period from when the PO was created, change the Accounting Date to the current date. The Accounting Date field is found on the Header Details page. Click on the Header Details link to access this page.

1. Click on the Header Details
2. Under the Press Control Option, change the Accounting Date to the current date.
3. Click OK.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You May want to print and/or save a copy of the purchase order as a PDF before changes are made. To retrieve a copy of your purchase order, click View Printable Version before you start to make changes to the PO. This link gives you a PDF copy of the PO in its current state.

 

Changing PO Description

If you want to change your Line Description:

1. Click on the Line Details

2. Click on the Create Line Change icon (blue triangle).

3. After clicking on the blue triangle, you will see that the Description field is now editable.
   • Enter desired information in the description field.

4. Click Save.
5. After clicking save, you will get the following pop up message.
   • Click Yes if you want to proceed with the change, or No, if you do not want to continue with the change.

 

6. Click on the Line Comments icon to add a line comment.
   • You should always add comments about the changes that you make to a PO for future reference. Under the Comment section, enter your comments.
7. On the ‘Reason Code Page’, click on the search icon for the Reason Code

8. Click on the DIST_CHNG from the search results.
   • Note: Choose your reason code based on the change that you make to the PO.
9. Click OK.

Changing PO Price

You can change the Price on a PO by changing the price on one line or on multiple lines together. To change the Price:

1. Select the line/s for which you want to change the price.
2. In the Price field, change the price amount to the correct price.

3. Click on the Line Comment icon to add a comment to the line.
   • You should always add comments about the changes that you make to a PO for future reference. Under the Comment section, enter your comments.
4. Click OK.
5. Repeat this process if you are making changes to more than one line.
6. Click Save after you are done making changes.

7. After clicking save, you will get a pop up message.

8. Click Yes if you want to proceed with the change, or No, if you do not want to continue with the change.
9. If you click on Yes, the Reason Code Page will display.
10. On the ‘Reason Code Page’, click on the search icon for the Reason Code

11. Click on the PO Price Change from the search results.
    • Note: Choose your reason code based on the changes that you make to the PO.
12. Click OK.
13. You will see the PO Status is now Pending Approval.
    • You will also see how many times this PO has been changed by the numeric value found next to the Change Order

14. To see the Approver List click on the View Approvals hyperlink found at the bottom of the page.

Changing PO Quantity

1. Follow the steps 1 through 4 in the Make Edits to the Purchase Order section.
2. Click on the PO Quantity field and change the value in the PO Qty field to the quantity desired.

3. Click on the Line Comments icon to add a line comment.
   • You should always add comments about the changes that you make for future reference.

4. Under the Comment section, enter your comments.
   • You can also flag (check):
     • Send to Supplier if you want this line comment to be sent to the supplier.
     • Show at Receipt if you want this line comment to appear on the receipt.
     • Show at Voucher if you want this line comment to appear on the voucher

5. Click OK.
   • Repeat this process if you are making changes to more than one line.
6. Click Save.
7. After clicking save, you will get the following pop up message.

8. Click Yes if you want to proceed with the change, or No, if you do not want to continue with the change.
9. If you click on Yes, the Reason Code Page will display.
10. On the ‘Reason Code Page’, click on the search icon for the Reason Code
    • Choose QTY_CHNG as reason code

Changing/Editing Distribution Information

1. Follow the steps 1 through 4 in the Make Edits to the Purchase Order
2. Click on the Schedule icon found at the end of the line.

 

3. Click on the Distribution/Chart fields

 

4. In the Chart fields:
   • Change the Account information
   • Change Fund code
   • Change the Dept information
   • Scroll right to change the Project and the Activity information if needed

 

5. Scroll to the right to see the rest of the fields.
6. To add another chart field, click on the plus + icon.
7. A pop up message will appear asking you to enter the number of rows that you want to add.
   • Enter the number of rows that you want to add.

 

8. Click OK.
9. Enter the Quantity, Account, Fund, Dept, and PC Bus Unit to NWUNV information on the new row.

 

10. Click OK.
11. Click Return to Main Page.

12. Click on the Budget Check

13. Click Save.
14. Click View Approvals to see the Approvers list.

REMINDER: You should always add comments about the changes that you make to a PO for future reference. Click on the Line Comment icon and enter comments regarding the changes you made. 

 

Adding A New PO Line

**Adding a PO Line: PO line should ONLY be added in an extenuating circumstance, such as: For the PO to match the invoice or Supplier is requesting to see the revised PO with the additional line. **

1. Click on the plus + icon at the end of the PO Line.

 

2. A pop up message will appear asking you to enter the number of rows that you want to add.
   • Enter the number of rows that you want to add.

 

3. Click OK.
4. Another message will appear saying that this action will create a change order.

 

5. Click OK.

 You will see that a new line has been added to the PO.

6. Enter the Description, PO Qty, UOM, Category, and Price information on the new line.

7. Click on the Ship To/Due Date tab at the top.
8. Enter the Ship To code under the Ship To field.
   • Alternatively, click on the search icon to search for the Ship To code.

 

9. Click on the Schedule

  

10. Click on Distribution/Chart fields.

 

11. Enter Account, Fund, Dept, PC Bus Unit, Project (if applicable), and Account (if applicable) code.

 

12. Click OK.  

 

13. Click Return to Main Page.

 

14. Click Save.
    • The Reason Code Page will Appear

 

 

15. Click the search icon.
16. For Reason Code choose ADD_LINE.
17. Click OK.

 

Adding Header Comments

1. Under the Header section, click on Add Comments.

 

2. Enter your comment in the comment box.

 

3. Use the arrows at the top to see the additional comments.
4. Under the Comment section, you can also flag/check:
   • Send to Supplier if you want this line comment to send to the supplier.
   • Show at Receipt if you want this line comment to appear on the receipt.
   • Show at Voucher if you want this line comment to appear on the voucher.
   • Approval Justification if you want your approvers to see your comment under Approval Justification section on the approver page.

5. Click OK.

Adding Attachments

1. Under the Header section, click on Add Comments.

2. Click Attach and the File Attachment box will appear.
3. Click Browse and select the document you want to attach.
4. Click Upload to transfer your document into NUFinancials.
5. Click OK to finalize the attachment process.

 

Edit Ship To Code

To change the Ship-To Code of a PO:

1. Click the Ship To/Due Date tab under the Line section.

2. Enter the Ship To Code
   • Or, click on the search icon to search for the ship to code.

 

3. If you want to change the Ship To Code for multiple lines, follow the same steps (steps 1 and 2).
4. If the Ship To Code is the only change that you want to make to the PO, Budget check the PO.
5. After budget checking the PO, Click Save, and your changed PO will be submitted for approvals.

Change PO from Receive by Quantity to Amount Only

NOTE: If the PO is a multiple line PO, do not change the Receive by Quantity to Amount Only. Please contact PPS to discuss options. Purchase Orders that have both Receive by Quantity and Amount Only Lines cause larger issues at the end of the Fiscal Year. Typically, these problem POs cannot be rolled and will be closed.

To change PO line(s) from receive by quantity to dollar amount:

1. Click on the Attributes tab under the Line section.

 

2. Choose the line that you want to change to Amount Only.

 

3. Flag the Amount Only check box.
4. After checking the Amount only box, you will receive the following message:

 

5. Click Yes.

Note: This message is saying that if the line you are changing to Amount Only has more than a quantity of 1, upon clicking yes, the quantity will change and save as 1. For example, if the quantity is 2 or 5, it will change to 1 automatically. 

Budget Checking 

1. To Budget Check, click on the Budget icon.

PO Change Order Tracking

There are four different ways to track your PO Change Order: Cognos Report, Review Change Order History, Review Change Order, and Queries in NUFinancials Workflow.

Cognos Report

To get access to the Cognos Reports, you will have to log in using your UserID and Password.

• Go to http://reporting.northwestern.edu/
• Under the overview section, click on the Log In link.

 

3. Log in using your NetID (User Name) and Password

Navigation: Public Folder > Finance Facilities and Research Administration > School > Supply Chain   

4. From the list, click on SC024 – PO Change Order History

 

5. Enter the PO ID in the Keywords

6. Click Search.
7. Select the PO ID under the Result box.
8. Click Insert.

 

9. Once you click Insert, the PO ID will be transferred to the Choice
10. Click Finish at the bottom of the page.

• The Cognos Report will open in a new window in PDF format.

You can download the Report and save a copy on your computer

• In the Cognos report, you will see the original PO’s
  • Line number
  • Due Date
  • Description
  • Quantity
  • Price
  • FOB

You will also see the new or changed values.

Review Change History

Navigation: NavBar > Navigator > Purchasing > Purchase Orders > Manage Change Orders > Review Change History

A Change History Page appears

1. Enter the PO ID in the PO Number

2. Click Search.
3. Select the Change Order Number you want to see from the Search Results.

 

• After selecting the change order number, click on the Ship Changes

5. On the Ship Changes tab, you can see all the changes that have been made to the PO.
6. Click on View All.

Review Change Orders

Review Change Order – Shows before and after. The original values and the changed values.

Navigation: NavBar > Navigator > Purchasing > Purchase Orders > Manage Change Orders > Review Change Orders

A Change Order Batch page appears

1. Enter the PO ID in the PO Number

 

2. Click Search.
3. Click Ship Changes

  

4. Click View All.

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5. If the PO had a Quantity Change, changes are indicated by a number other than (0) zero in the Batch column and are found towards the bottom of the results. Zero indicates the original information, and any incremental change greater than zero indicates the Change Order Batch number or the changes that were made.

6. Click on the QTY_CHNG link to see if the buyer added any comments regarding the change.

Query to help understand changes made to chart strings

To track chart string changes made to the PO, the following query is available in the NUFinancials WorkCenter. The query will show the original distribution line information on the Requisition, and the changed information on the PO.

To run the query, Log into NUFinancials > Employee Self Service > NUFinancials WorkCenter > Purchasing tab > Changes made to Chart string Information on a Purchase Order > PO Number (PO ID) > View Results

Query Name: NU_SC_PO_DISTRIB_CHG_ORD 

Title: PO Chg Order – Chart string Chg

Description: This Query shows a comparison between the original Requisition Chart string Information against changes made to the Purchase Order Chart string Information. Only the most current change to the PO Chart string information will display in the results.

 

For additional assistance please contact the IT Support Center at 847-491-4357 (1-HELP) or email servicedesk@northwestern.edu.