Automating Emailing Purchase Orders to Vendors

• November 3, 2016
• Kathy Jastrzebski

Did you know that you can automate emailing Purchase Orders to your Vendors? Even better: did you know you can set this up in just 2 easy steps? Why go through the extra step of emailing a purchase order when you can have Intacct do it for you automatically by simply checking a box?

In this post, we’ll explain how to add a custom checkbox on your purchasing transaction(s) so that checking that box will automatically send the Purchase Order to the Vendor without you having to do anything more than simply check the box.

So let’s get to the steps!

Step 1: Add the Custom Fields

We’ll need to add the custom fields to the following transaction definitions:

• Purchase Request
• Purchase Order

Go To: Platform Services > Custom Fields > Add

Step 1: Choose the Object (Purchase Order Transaction) and the Document Type (Purchase Order)

Step 2: Choose the Custom Field Type: Checkbox

Step 3: Choose the Field Characteristics

Label: Auto Send Purchase Order

Default Value: Unchecked

Field ID: AUTO_SEND_PURCHASE_ORDER

**Important: We’ll use the same exact name for the Field ID when we create this custom field on the Purchase Request.

Step 4: Save!

Step 5: Duplicate the Custom Field (Edit the Custom Field you just created and click Duplicate!)

Step 6: Change the Document Type to Purchase Request

Step 7: Save!

Step 8: (Optionally) View the new fields you created on your purchasing transactions

Note: The reason for adding the field to the purchase request is so that the person requesting the purchase can elect to auto-send the PO to the Vendor if they know that at the time of request. If that is not known, you could always check the box on the PO itself. Checking the box on the Purchase Request will not cause the purchase request to be auto-sent until the PO is created.

The great thing about custom fields is that as long as you use the same Field ID on each transaction in your workflow, they will propagate through each step of your workflow. This means, if the box is checked on the purchase request, then converted to a purchase order, the box will already be checked automatically for you on the PO!

Step 2: Create the Smart Event Email

Now that the fields are on the transactions we need, let’s tell Intacct what to do if those fields are checked by adding a Smart Event Email.

Go To: Home button >Applications > Platform Services > Smart Events > Add

Step 1: Choose the Object (Purchase Order Transaction) and the type of transaction (Purchase Order)

Step 2: Set the Event Properties

Action: Email

Event: Add (I want the email to fire only when a new PO with the Auto-Send PO checkbox is created, otherwise the email would send every time someone goes in to make a change to that PO).

Condition: I want the Purchase order to only automatically send when that box is checked. If it is not checked, I want to send it myself and don’t want Intacct to send it for me.

So we look for the merged field that I just created: {!PODOCUMENT.AUTO_SEND_PURCHASE_ORDER!} and we tell the Smart Event to only fire if this field is “true” (checked).

Step 3: Select Email Properties

Note that you can use merge fields here. This way, we can send the purchase order to the email address on the Vendor’s record in Intacct and include any required information specific on this PO transaction.

Note: Selecting the Attach PDF checkbox actually uses the Intacct PO Document Template that a normal PO sending would use so it matches your standard format.

That’s it! Go ahead and test it out. If you have any questions, (or even would like to automate something else and want to know if it’s possible) feel free to reach out to your CLA Intacct team!

Tags: Custom Field, Email, Purchase Orders, Smart Event, Accounts Payable, Automation and Customizations, Purchasing | No Comments »