The Maximo supply chain process for external purchases can start with either a desktop requisition (Create Requisition) or a work order. From here a Purchase Requisition (PR) and then a Purchase Order (PO) is created. In between PR and PO there could be a Request for Quotation (RFQ). There are two Receiving applications. Receiving is used for external purchases or those made against an internal PO. Shipment Receiving is used when there has been an Inventory Usage document of type Transfer which is being tracked through a shipping notice. The Inventory Usage document handles the transfer out of one storeroom and the Shipment Receiving application handles the transfer in to another storeroom. The Invoices application is used to register the vendors invoice and perform a three-way match to PO and Receipts. But it can also be used for other purposes as we will later find out.

Company Master

The Company Master application resides at the set level, a company set. It is used for sharing companies across the organizations belonging to the company set. They are not the records referenced on purchase orders and invoices, those records exist in the Companies application.

If a Maximo client has one organization then there is a setting on the Sets application to Automatically Add Companies to Company Master. With this setting these Maximo clients will never have a need to go to the Company Master application as new records added to Companies application will be maintained in the Company Master application. If a Maximo client has multiple organizations belonging to the company set, then new companies will be added through the Company Master application and an action Add Company Master to Organization is used for each organization that will make purchases or contracts or otherwise use this company. There is a check box on the Company Master record which when set will Update Related Companies.

A Company Master has a type field, Vendor, Manufacturer, Courier or Internal. When there is an integration to a finance or ERP system the vendors are likely to be mastered in that system, but there will still be a need to create company master records, at least for the numerous manufacturers of the thousands of assets a Maximo client has. An internal company may be used for inter-site transfers of inventory or assets.

Otherwise the Company Master application is used for setting up default fields for the associated Companies, a default currency will be required. There are tabs for Contacts and Addresses, two addresses can be added, a general address and a remit to address, the address which is to be used for payment of the company’s invoices. You might observe that there is no New Row button on the Contacts tab, this is because it can only contain two records corresponding to the contact field related to each address.

Companies

The records found in the Companies application are the ones referenced in other Maximo applications. The main tab has a similar set of fields to the Company Master application but additionally has the various general ledger control accounts. There is no status on a company record, but there is a checkbox called Disqualified Vendor which when set will remove it from selection on purchasing documents (PR, PO, RFQ, Invoices) and other applications that reference vendors.

A two-level hierarchy of companies is supported, the company and its branches. There is a Branches tab, and on this tab, you can set the branch to use the remit to address of the parent company. The Company Master application doesn’t have branches.

In the Companies application you can set the general and remit to addresses, and add new contacts on the Contacts tab, the contacts are not Maximo person records. There are actions to allow you to associate one or more Commodity Groups and Commodity Codes and create new commodity records. An action is provided to view the contracts that the company has with you.

Desktop Requisitions

A desktop requisition is a self-service module of applications designed for all users of an organization that need to either requisition items from storerooms or request materials and services to be purchased. Some Maximo clients do not use a desktop requisition because a work order performs a similar function, they both create reservations on a storeroom or a purchase requisition for external materials and services.

The module has four applications:

Create Requisition

The Create Requisition application is built like a wizard with three steps.

The first step creates the header information for the desktop requisition. Fields will need to be entered for the description, required date, priority and who it is being requested for, if this is not the logged in user. The Shipping Information and the Charge Information should be defaulted from the person’s profile details but might need to be modified if this is not correct.

The second step are the desktop requisition lines. There are buttons for Select Materials, Favorite Items, Spare Parts, Existing Requisitions or the New Row button. A user can save a set of favourite items or search for the spare parts of an asset or search based on previously submitted requisitions or templates. A template is used for frequently ordered sets of items and can be applied at the header level to create a set of items where you might change the quantity or delete lines if they are not required this time.

The New Row button gives the flexibility to order a variety of different line types. Item, Standard Service and Tool will all require an item to be selected, these are the three types of items, an Item in this case is a registered material item. The options for Material and Service will not require an item to be selected instead a description of the material or service will need to be entered. The last option is a Special Order which when used will create an item number. For an Item the only other field which will be needed is the quantity required but with the other types the user may be required to enter an order unit and unit cost. If the item has a classification, then the Attributes table window may have other details that should be entered. For stocked items and tools, the reservation type will be defaulted, probably to AUTOMATIC, this will create a hard or soft reservation on the storeroom depending on the required date and considering the lead time for the item.

The third step is a review of the information entered. Here you will see the total cost and buttons to Submit, Go Back, Save As Draft, or Cancel. When submitted the desktop requisition is at approved state, but there is a limit which can be set in a security group to stop the approval if it is over a certain amount. The supervisor defined on the person record of the requester will be able to see the desktop requisitions created or saved as draft for all the people who are below him/her in the hierarchy. There is a standard Workflow with a simple approval process based on a low value threshold of 500, this can be used as the starting point for more complex workflows.

View Requisition

The View Requisition application is split between a set of query fields in the top half and the list of submitted requisitions in the lower half of the screen. There is a Find button to execute the query and the query once set up can be saved for reuse at another time.

In the Requisitions table window the requisitioner or their supervisor can go to the requisition to review the details. The history tab shows the status history, workflow history, and the history of follow-on purchase requisitions (PR), requests for quotations (RFQ) or purchase orders (PO) allowing the user to follow the supply chain process. There is a button to create a template, if the requisition will be used again, and to change the status. If a workflow process is enabled and active, then the user can Route Workflow and follow the steps using the Workflow Map. A PR will be created for approved requisitions that require external purchases.

View Draft

The View Drafts application is similar to View Requisitions application in that there is a split screen between the query fields and the Draft Requisitions table window. There is no history tab or ability to change status but instead the user can use the Create/Edit Requisition button to go to the Create Requisition application and re-enter the wizard.

View Templates

The View Templates application also has a split screen between the query fields and the Requisition Templates table window. From here the user can use the Create Requisition button which creates a new desktop requisition based on the template. Alternatively, they can navigate to the Template Requisition and edit it or delete it.

Purchase Requisitions

A Purchase Requisition (PR) is generally created as a result of an inventory reorder process for stocked materials, approval of a work order that requires direct issue materials or services, or on approval of a desktop requisition requiring non-stocked or special-order items. A PR can of course be created manually. A direct issue is Maximo’s term for saying that something will go via the PR route rather than creating a reservation against a storeroom. The item will be issued directly to the asset, locationA physical place where assets exist and where work can be performed. More or work order on receipt and will not go via a storeroom where balances would be adjusted, hence services are always direct issue. The PRs for direct issue items and services are created as a result of running the reorder process in the Inventory application but this can be, and is often, set-up to run as a background process (Cron Task).

A PR is defined at the site level in Maximo. It has a set of statuses, waiting to be approved, approved, closed or cancelled. The amount which a user can approve on a PR is governed by a limit on the security groups to which they belong. The PR may automatically move to CLOSE status when all of the PR lines have been added to a PO or Contract. When a PR is created it can reference a Purchase or Lease/Rental contract which must be approved and active with respect to the contract’s start and end dates. If a contract is referenced, then all of the PR lines must reference items on that contract.

A PR is normally placed against a vendor, but the vendor field is not mandatory, as a requisitioner you may not know against which vendor the buyer will place the order, and several PR lines may end up on multiple Purchase Orders (PO) placed with different vendors. Some fields on the company record for the vendor are copied across to the PR, for example whether or not the items purchased will require inspection or whether there is an agreement to pay the vendor on receipt, in which case Maximo will create the invoice when the items are received.

A PR can also be an internal order which is used for the transfer of stock between storerooms, there is an OrganizationsA structural element of a Maximo database which is used for data sharing and is often aligned to a legal entity of an organisation. More setting to determine when this applies.

On the PR Lines tab multiple lines can be created. There are buttons for selecting contract items, items previously supplied by the vendor, or the spare parts of an asset, but often the New Row button will be used. When a new row is created the line type will need to be selected from Item, Material, Service, Special Order, Standard Service, or Tool and depending on what is selected the item field will either become required, filled or made read-only. This functions the same as on a Desktop Requisition. A PR line of type Standard Service or Service does not require a quantity or unit cost, a lump sum total cost can be supplied instead.

On selecting an item (material, service or tool) then fields from the Item Master, Service Items or Tools application will be copied, for example the last price received from the vendor will be used as the unit cost. If defined on the item a classification may be entered and the Specifications tab will show the attributes associated with the classification, this helps the buyer understand what is being requested. To be populated the classification needs to be defined to be used with the object PRLINES.

If an item is referenced on an approved and active contract, then it will be defaulted onto the PR line and the unit price on the contract used as the unit cost. You will not be able to change the unit cost unless a setting on the contract allows you to do so. You should be able to change the quantity unless the contract forbids this. If there are multiple active contracts for the item, then a warning message will be shown, and you’ll be guided towards using the View Contracts button to select the vendor contract to apply.

Normally the PR lines will be charged to either a work order, storeroom, location, or asset. This is done in order to derive a GL account for charging purposes. One or more components of the GL account may also be derived from the commodity group of the item. GL Account validation is a setting which may be disabled for an organization, but if it isn’t then it is best to ensure that all components of the GL account are filled for each PR line as it will stop a PO from being approved if this is not the case.

If the PR is being created manually through the Purchase Requisition application, then below the PR lines table window are some fields which act as defaults when a PR line is created. This default table data will help to fill-out the charge to fields on each line so that the GL debit account is derived, very useful if the PR is to have many lines.

There is a button called Distribute Costs which will allow a PR line to be charged to multiple GL accounts based on a percentage or amount. This can only be done for direct issue items and non-rotating items, services can be split. For example, ten PCs are being purchased, five will go to one department, two to another and three to a third department. We want to issue a single PO line for the ten PCs where each department will be charged according to the quantity they will receive. There is no practical limit to the number of GL accounts involved in the cost distribution.

The Ship To / Bill To tab is used to specify the shipping and billing address, mostly this should be defaulted to the addresses set up for the site in the Organizations application, but it can be changed to one of the other addresses, it might also be derived from a contract.

From the PR there are actions to Create PO or Create Contract, only the three types of Purchase Contract can be selected by Maximo clients (Purchase, Pricing or Blanket). There is also an action called View Related Records for viewing the related POs, RFQs, Material or Service Receipts, Invoices, Invoice Transactions and Contract References.

There is a Log tab with the ability to create log notes on the PR. For users with privilege they can modify the work log or delete unwanted log notes. There is an action Create Communication to create an email and relate this to the PR so that it is can be seen from the Communication Log tab.

Request for Quotations

The Request for Quotation (RFQ) application will typically be used for high value items or services prior to raising a PO, or for a number of stocked items belonging to the same commodity group as a precursor to awarding a contract. An RFQ can be created for an existing Purchase Contract which is useful when retendering the contract. A new RFQ can be created and PR lines copied to the RFQ. Ultimately the RFQ will be awarded to a vendor and the vendor’s quotation lines used to create a PO or Contract. An RFQ exists at the site level.

The RFQ starts at a status of in progress. The RFQ header will define the relevant dates, required, reply by, the date when quotation entries will close. The header also has a ship to and reply to address which must be addresses that have been referenced against the site in the Organizations application.

The RFQ lines tab is very similar to that for a PR. All the same line types are available and if an item references a classification the attribute details are shown on the Specifications tab, in this case the use with object is RFQLINE. As you add lines then if the items have been purchased previously the vendor will be added to the RFQ Vendors table window. When all RFQ lines have been added and the final set of vendors determined for the RFQ then the status is changed to Ready to be Sent. When the quotation has actually been sent to all vendors then further change the status to Sent to Vendors. At either of these statuses the RFQ lines will be made read-only and no new lines can be created, also no new vendors can be added to the RFQ.

On the Quotations tab there are two sub tabs, Vendor and Item. When a quotation is received back from a vendor the vendor is selected and the button Select RFQ Lines is used to pick all lines or those for which a quotation response was made. The unit cost, economic order quantity and delivery time should be recorded if they have been provided by the vendor along with any relevant remarks.

When all vendors have provided a quotation, or the close date has been reached then the RFQ Vendor Comparison report can be used to assist in the decision making on which vendors will be awarded the RFQ or who might be awarded particular lines. The Items subtab provides a direct comparison to be made between the vendors for each item of the RFQ. As you select the vendor and check the Awarded field or use the Award All button then the same checkbox will become read-only for the other vendors who supplied a quotation and were ultimately unsuccessful. At this point the RFQ status can be changed to completed.

The buttons to Create PO or Create Contract are then used, and a PO or purchase contract will be created for the vendor and the awarded lines. A checkbox on the RFQ line can determine whether the item can be copied to a contract, or not. The status of the RFQ may automatically move to close when all RFQ lines have been awarded and a PO or Contract raised for them, there is a setting in Organizations application for this. On the RFQ line in the Related Records section the PO and PO line, or Contract and Contract Line will be shown.

There is a tab to enter Terms and Conditions for the RFQ and a table window to associate terms and conditions specified by the vendor.

Purchase Orders

The Purchase Order (PO) application has a similar layout and set of tabs as that found on the Purchase Requisitions (PR) application. There are differences and the most notable is that a PO can be revised. If a PO is not revised then it is expected to have the following statuses, waiting on approval, approved, in progress, closed. But when the Revise PO action is used on an approved PO it is moved to pending revision status and the revision number is incremented. The new revision is a complete copy of the previous revision which is zero for a new PO. When the status on the new revision is changed to approved, the original PO is changed to a status of revised and is now marked as in history and so will be hidden unless you specifically search for it. There is an action to View Revision History which shows a summary of the lines, their changes and additions made at each revision. Similar to PR the amount which a user can approve on a PO is governed by a limit on the security groups to which they belong.

A PO has to have a vendor unless it is an internal order on a storeroom, a PR doesn’t. The default PO type is STD – Standard, you might change it to PART – Parts or SERV – Service if the PO is a material only or service only purchase order. It may also be set to REL – Release when the PO is a release created from a blanket purchase contract. When reordering consignment inventory the reorder process will create a PO of type CONSIGNMENT. This behaves similarly to a standard PO except that only items marked as consignment can exist on the PO lines, the only line type can be Item.

On the PO Lines tab the set of fields is similar to that found on the PR Lines tab of the Purchase Requisition application. There is an action to Copy PR Line Items To PO, which allows lines from different PR’s to be brought together on the same PO. Maximo supports centralised purchasing; the PR’s can be ordering materials for storerooms on different sites, the SiteA structural element of a Maximo database that is used for data separation. More field in the Delivery Details section indicates the destination site for what is being ordered. There is no function for consolidating like items from different PRs to the same PO line. The classification if it was used on the PR line will also need to be enabled for the POLINE object for it to be shown along with any attributes on the Specifications tab.

The main difference on the PO line which is not seen on the PR line is the Receipts section. This not only shows what has been received against the PO line, but it is also where you can enter a receipt tolerance percentage, a receipt tolerance quantity, or if the line type is service and no quantity is given then a receipt tolerance amount.

There is a function called prorate service which allows the amount of standard services to be spread across the other lines of the PO. A standard service might be freight costs or an installation charge. The distribution of the standard service cost across the other lines of the PO is performed in the Invoice application.

Below the PO lines table window is a button called Vendor Analysis which can be applied to the active PO line. A dialog opens to show the item and the vendors where it has been previously purchased. It shows price, promised lead time, actual lead time and information about rejected quantities. A useful piece of information for the buyer to check whether the vendor is the correct one to use for this item. A button is available for setting a vendor as the primary vendor for the item.

Another button below the PO Lines table window is Distribute Costs. This can only be used on direct issue items, not ones destined for a storeroom and it can only be used for non-rotating items. It allows the cost of the PO line to be distributed across multiple GL account codes.

There is an action to Complete Receipts, but it is normal to use the Receiving application instead. There is also an action to Move/Modify Assets, this also appears in the Receiving application. Otherwise the actions and tabs are as found on the Purchase Requisition application.

Receiving

The Receiving application has two tabs, one for material receipts the other for service receipts. You are receiving against a PO. For receiving items into a storeroom where the items have been transferred from another storeroom using an inventory usage document, then the Shipment Receiving application should be used.

The PO must be in approved or in progress state to be able to receive the items or services.

Material Receipts

The easiest method of adding a receipt to a PO is to use the button Select Ordered Items which opens a dialog showing the items that were ordered. If you attempt to receive a quantity greater than that ordered, then you will receive a warning. If you have set up receipt tolerances on the PO line and you receive more than you ordered, then the warning will ask whether you wish to accept the quantity ordered and the tolerance amount. For example, a quantity of ten were ordered, the receipt tolerance is one but fifteen of the items are received, the warning will ask whether you wish to accept eleven. Only those eleven will be added to the storeroom, the remaining four will show up as over received quantity and should be returned to the supplier. Transactions which are only part of the quantity ordered are acceptable.

If the PO line is marked as Inspection Required then when you receive a quantity the inspection status will be changed to WINSP – waiting inspection, the To location will be set to the holding location for the destination site. After inspection you use the action Change Inspection Status and on this dialog you can enter the accepted quantity and if necessary the rejected quantity and a rejection code. A rejection will create an additional transaction of type RETURN with a negative of the quantity that you rejected.

For rotating items, after you have changed the inspection status it will move to WASSET – waiting for serialization, otherwise it moves to COMP – complete. There is an action Receive Rotating Items which opens a dialog with one line for each quantity received. Ideally your site will have been set-up to use auto-numbered assets in which case you use the Autonumber button and this creates an asset number for each record. You should enter a serial number for each record and if there is an item assembly structure defined for the item then the Apply IAS button can be used on each record to create the asset’s subassemblies and spare parts. When you have completed the serialization the inspection status moves to COMP, for stocked items the issue type is TRANSFER to indicate that it is transferred to the destination storeroom.

A receipt status on the PO will show as NONE, PARTIAL or COMPLETE depending on how much of the quantity of each item has been received.

If you make a mistake the receipt can be voided by using the button Select Receipts to Void. This creates a similar entry but with a negative quantity and a type (issue type) of VOIDRECEIPT instead of RECEIPT.

If a quantity of item needs to be returned to the vendor because they have been found to be faulty, or the wrong item has been ordered, then the Select Items for Return button can be used if it is a non-rotating item, alternatively use the Select Rotating Assets for Return for rotating items. This creates a new transaction record of issue type RETURN with a negative quantity, the transaction can then be selected, and a rejection code entered.

If the item ordered is on behalf of a work order, location, asset or GL Account then the Issue on Receipt flag will be checked and the storeroom will be read-only, no storeroom balances will be changed by this type of transaction.

There is a New Row button where you could enter the PO line number or the item number, but if either doesn’t exist on the PO you will receive an error message, nothing will be gained by using this button over the others provided.

A rotating item or rotating tool that was ordered against a PO as a direct issue item and that has now been received and the asset created can now be moved to the requesting location using the action Move/Modify Assets. If assets are received into a storeroom then they must be issued from the storeroom.

Service Receipts

The receiving of services is similar to that for materials (or tools), but you use the Service Receipts tab. The Select Ordered Services button is used and if a quantity was on the PO you enter how many of the service are being received. If there is no quantity the quantity due field will be read only but after you have closed the dialog you can amend the line cost to reflect how much of the cost is being received. There is a field for entering a percentage, in which case Maximo will calculate the cost based on this percentage. With services a claim number can be entered, this might be a reference given by the supplier of the services.

If the PO line was marked as Inspection Required then the inspection status will move to WINSP and the action Change Inspection Status is used, if necessary a rejected quantity can be entered, the same as for material receipts. You can void a service receipt when a mistake is made in its processing. You can also use the button Select Services for Return if you do not wish to accept the whole quantity of the service or its cost. There is no reason to use the action Receive Rotating Items and all service items are marked as issue on receipt, no storerooms are involved.

When a work order has planned services you use the Reorder option in the Inventory application to raise the PR and then create the PO. You can only receive the services using the Receiving application, you cannot receive from the Actuals tab on the Work Order Tracking application. You can add actual materials on a work order in the Work Order Tracking application, but not actual services. A work order service will normally go through the PR, PO, Receiving processes unless it is processed directly in an invoice without a PO (see later).

Invoices

The Invoice application has a header page and invoice lines. Often the invoice header will be entered as soon as the invoice has been received. The matching of the invoice lines to the receipts and PO, the 3-way match, being performed at a later stage. A PO need not be referenced on the Invoice header as Maximo supports an invoice where the lines may reference different POs.

Maximo supports centralized invoicing across the sites of the same organization. The invoice itself exists at the Site level. Centralized invoicing operates when there is both centralized purchasing, a PO may contain lines that originate from PRs from different sites, and de-centralized purchasing, for example each site has its own procurement function and there are no purchase orders with PO lines from different sites. In both cases an invoice may be received centrally. The vendor may reference multiple POs and those POs may originate from different sites.

While the Invoice application is most widely used for invoices and credit notes against a purchase order (PO), not all invoice records need have a PO in Maximo. For example, an invoice for consignment items used does not need a PO, an invoice that supports a payment schedule on a lease/rental contract or a warranty/service contract does not need a PO, approved labor hours against labour rate contracts can be used to create invoices without a PO.

When creating an invoice, you would enter the vendor’s invoice number, invoice date, due date, the company who the payment will be made to, then when you go to select a PO it is filtered by this company. If the invoice references the PO, then entering this first will default the remit to company. To complete the header information, you may optionally enter the pretax total (Net), tax and allow the invoice total (gross) to be calculated. If the totals are not entered on the header then they will be calculated from the invoice lines. A checkbox indicates that tax is paid to the vendor, this defaults from their record in the Companies application but it can be changed.

On the Invoice Lines tab the Copy PO Lines button would be used. This shows all the lines on the PO or those that have not been invoiced. In the case that no PO is entered on the invoice header then this shows all the lines on all POs placed with the remit to company. There are three tabs, PO Lines, Materials and Services, the last two being the received lines. You check the lines that you wish to copy to create lines on the invoice.

The New Row button is only used for adding line types of service and standard service, for example to handle freight charges, which may not be known at the point when the PO was raised. For standard services the Prorate Service check box will be enabled. When checked this allows you to use the Allocate Services action to distribute the standard service cost across the other lines of the invoice. The prorate cost on each invoice line shows the amount that has been prorated. The loaded cost figure shows the line cost plus the prorated cost.

The Distribute Costs button allows an invoice line to be distributed across multiple GL Accounts. This is handled by applying a percentage to each distribution line, the percentages must add up to 100. When distributed a check box will be marked on the invoice line and the button can be used again to view the distribution.

At the end of the Invoice Line table window, and as an action, is the button View Related Records. This shows the invoice line and how it relates to its PR, RFQ, PO, Material or Service Receipt, Contract References and its Invoice Transactions.

The statuses of an invoice are generally entered, waiting to be approved, hold, approved, paid and cancelled. There are two other statuses associated with reversing an invoice, pending reverse and reversed. There is also the status of schedule which is used with invoices created by a contract payment schedule. When you approve an invoice there is the option to close POs where receipts are complete.

The invoice types are invoice, credit and debit. Debit notes may be used as a document detailing the returns of goods to the vendor when they are found to be faulty, it essentially requests the vendor to provide a credit note once they have received the returned goods. However, don’t forget to use negative quantities when using the debit note this way. When you receive a credit note the original invoice can be referenced and the debit note can be cancelled. For a credit note the values entered are all positive on the credit note but the values in the database will be negative.

There are other invoice types. Consignment is used for consignment payment invoices, payment schedule is used with invoicing of contracts with a payment schedule, and labor transaction is used when the invoice records are created from the Labor Reporting application. There are three other invoice types associated with invoice, credit note, or debit note reversal.  For consignment invoices there is only one button below the Invoice Lines table window and that is Select Consignment Transactions.

You can enter an invoice against a PO where there have been no receipts, but you cannot approve the invoice if any of the PO lines is marked as receipt required. You can enter an invoice where there is no PO and therefore no receipt, for example a utility bill or a rental payment. You can also enter an invoice against a contract of type Purchase, Lease/Rental, or Warranty/Service, again without the use of a PO. For example, when invoices are received for services performed by sub-contractors against work orders where there might just be a service contract with the supplier then there may not be a PO because the authority to spend has been granted on the work order. In this case, the service contract is referenced, and invoice lines of type service are entered. Maximo creates the service receipt when the invoice is approved, and this then shows on the work order as actual services. The default table data can be useful to default onto the invoice lines the values for the work order, location, asset or GL debit account.

The GL posting date will be set to the vendors invoice date or date/time when the invoice record was created, but it can be changed. At approval of the invoice the GL posting date can be checked to see whether it is in an open financial period, and if it isn’t the GL posting date will be set to the start date of the next open financial period. There are settings in Organizations application for this. They are provided to reduce errors encountered when Maximo invoices are interfaced through to an Accounts Payable ledger of a financial system.

Occasionally there is a need to completely reverse an approved and paid invoice and Maximo supports this. This might occur when a vendor sends a cancelled invoice and provides a new one for a different amount, or when mistakes are made during the data entry of the invoice. The action Reverse Invoice can be used against an invoice, credit note or debit note. It can only be applied against records at approved or paid state, otherwise the Delete Invoice action or change status to Cancel can be used. When the Reverse Invoice dialog opens you will need to use the Autonumber button or enter the new invoice number, provide a reversal reason, optionally change the GL posting date and select the status for the reverse invoice record, pending reversal, approved or paid. When this is set to approved, then all invoice transactions are reversed by writing identical records but with the opposite sign for the quantities and costs. The status on the original record is changed to REVERSED and the Reverse Invoice field is set to the reversing record. On that record the original invoice field will be set so that you can easily track back and forth between the original invoice and its reversal record. You cannot reverse a reversed invoice and you cannot reverse an invoice created from one of the Contract applications or the Labor Reporting application. Only the records manually created in the Invoice application can be reversed.

When approving invoices there is an upper limit defined by a user’s security group. There are also upper and lower tolerances for the total invoice amount, total tax and total of services on the security group. These may result in a particular user not being able to approve the invoice.

Shipment Receiving

The Shipment Receiving application is used for item and tool transfers between storerooms, more specifically it is used for the receiving into the destination storeroom. The whole logistics process starts with the Inventory Usage document of type TRANSFER that contains the items and tools to be transferred. A transfer between storerooms of the same site or between storerooms in different sites of the same organization does not require the items to be shipped, but it might be your policy to go through the shipped status and create a shipment record rather than change status direct to complete, and there is a setting in the Organizations application for this. For transfers between storerooms of different organizations then this is only possible if they share the same item set, and if that is the case then you have to create a shipment record by moving the inventory usage document to shipped status. You have to use an inventory usage document to transfer a rotating item or rotating tool from one storeroom to another.

The Shipment Receiving application has no new record button a shipment record must already exist. There is an expectation that the receiving storeroom has also received some documentation with the shipment that contains either the shipment number or a packing slip number because these are what are used to find the shipment record. With the record selected the Shipment Receipts tab will look familiar to those who use the Receiving application for items and tools. There are buttons for Select Shipped Items, Select Items for Return, and Select Records to Void.

In the Select Shipped Items dialog you pick the items to receive and if necessary you can adjust the quantity received, although this should be rare. If the inventory usage line was marked as inspection required, then on receipt the inspection status will move to WINSP – waiting inspection. At this status it allows you to adjust the bin where the items will be stored. There are two actions that would be used next, Change Inspection Status or Change Inspection Status for Rotating Items. Two transaction records would have been created, one for the shipment and one for the transfer.

If the shipment is to a storeroom in another site and the item or tool is a rotating item, then you will need to use the Receive Rotating Items action. The inspection status on the shipment receiving record will be WASSET – waiting for serialization. You are moving an asset and assets exist at the site level and so there could be a need to create a new asset number in the site of the destination storeroom. The Receive Rotating Items dialog will attempt to use the same asset number as the originating site and it will copy the serial number. If the asset number does not exist in the transfer to site, then the inspection status will be moved to COMP – complete. If the asset number already exists, then you may get an error message as you cannot have two assets with the same number. Maximo will recognise a return of an asset to a site where it had previously existed. Before moving assets between sites there has to be a holding location created for the destination site, this is achieved from the Locations application, by creating a location with a type of HOLDING.

If items have been found to be faulty when they have been received at the destination storeroom then for non-rotating items, the button Select Items for Return can be used. For rotating items, a new inventory usage document will need to be raised to ship the asset back to its original storeroom.

A shipment receipt record created in error can be reversed by using the Select Records to Void button. This allows to you void particular lines of the shipment, or if necessary all lines. You cannot void a shipment receipt line which is a rotating item or one that has already been marked for return.