A Purchase Order (often referred to as a “PO” for short) is a one-page document that a Production Company sends to a vendor, which outlines what the production will be receiving from them and the expected amount the production will owe them. Therefore, the Purchase Order Log is used to track all the invoices you expect to receive from your vendors.
Some Production Companies don’t use Purchase Orders, and some vendors do not require them. If the Production Company doesn’t use them, you can still use the Purchase Order Log to track all of the invoices you receive.
Filling out the Log
The Purchase Order Log has the following columns:
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Line – this is where you input the Line Number associated with the PO. In addition to the Line Numbers found on the detail budget pages, you may also choose to actualize to Lines 19-23 and 27 of the Cost Summary sheet. To do so, input “CS”, followed by the Line Number. For instance, if you want to actualize to Line 19, enter “CS19”. Please note that you must have this feature turned on in the main Options menu, on the ‘Actual’ tab. Refer to this article for more information.
In addition to inputting Line Numbers, you may also indicate if the Purchase Order is being used to pay for Payroll or for Petty Cash. If it is being used to pay for Payroll, input “PR” in this column. If it is being used to pay for Petty Cash, input “PC” in this column. The amount entered will now appear in a certain cell on those logs.
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Payee – this is the name of your vendor.
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PO – this is where you input the Purchase Order number. These numbers are usually assigned by the Production Company at the beginning of the job.
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Date – this is where you list the date that the Purchaser Order was issued.
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Pay ID – this is where you indicate how this invoice has been paid. For instance, if you pay it with a credit card, you could put “CC”, followed by the last 4 digits of the card. If you paid via check, you could put “Ck”, followed by the check number.
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Amount – this is where you list the amount you owe the vendor.
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Line Description – this column will be automatically filled in, based on what you input in the Line column.
You may sort the Purchase Order Log by any of these columns (except Line Description). To do so, click the header name you want to sort by.
Note: some Purchase Orders will require more than one Line Number. For instance, you might rent your production supplies and walkie talkies from the same vendor, and they might include them both on the same invoice. However, you would probably want the amount for the production supplies to be coded to Line 204, with the amount for the walkie talkies to be coded to Line 200. In order to do this, simply use two rows on the log for this invoice, using the same PO number in both rows.
Notes
The Purchase Order Log also has a Notes column, but it is hidden by default. To make it visible, click the ‘Show Notes’ button at the top of the sheet.
Adding & Deleting Rows
If you need to add rows to the log, use the ‘Add Rows’ button at the top of the sheet. It will ask you how many rows you’d like to add.
If you need to delete rows, first highlight a cell in all of the rows you wish to delete. (Note: the rows you choose must be consecutive.) Then press the ‘Delete Rows’ button.
Creating Purchase Orders
With TrueBudget, you can create the Purchase Orders themselves. To do so:
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Enter a PO number in the PO column on a blank row of the log. Then make sure to select the cell with the number you just entered.
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Click on the ‘Open PO’ button. This will open a sheet called the ‘PO Form’.
To learn more about using the PO form, you can read this article.
If you wish, you may enter more than just the PO number on the log before you press the ‘Open PO’ button. You can enter the Payee, Date, and Pay ID, and all of that information will appear on the PO Form once you press the button.
Exporting Purchase Orders or Purchase Order Log
You can export all of the Purchase Orders or the Purchase Order Log as separate Excel documents. To do this, press the ‘Export’ button at the top of the sheet, and then select the option you need; either 'Export PO's' or 'Export PO Log'.
Custom PO Builder
In addition to using the standard PO Form that comes with TrueBudget, you can also create your own customized version. This video will explain how to do that.
Options
Click the ‘Options’ button at the top of the sheet to open the Purchase Order Log Options menu.
Allow Filtering
If you’d like to turn on the Excel function of filtering on the PO Log, you can do so with this checkbox. You will then be able to filter the log by each heading. To do so, click the down arrow to the right of each heading name and then use the checkboxes to show or hide the rows based on the values you want. (Please note that the sorting part of the filtering menu will not work in TrueBudget. This is due to a limitation in Excel. If you wish to sort the PO Log, click on the header you wish to sort by.)
Show row numbers
By default, TrueBudget displays the row numbers on the right side of the log. If you do not wish to see them, you may uncheck this box.
Always update a PO that I've generated when I press 'Open PO'
If you check this box, whenever you click on the ‘Open PO’ button, it will update your PO based on any changes you’ve made to that PO on the log. If you uncheck this box, the PO itself will remain unchanged, even if you change the information on the log for that PO.
Lock the rows associated with PO's that I've generated
If you have created any PO’s using the PO Form, the data from those PO’s will automatically appear on the log. You can ‘lock’ the rows associated with those PO’s, so you don’t accidentally make changes to them. If you’d like to do that, check this box.
Note: if you don’t have this box checked, you will be able to make changes to any row on the log, even those associated with PO’s that you’ve created. However, please know that changes you make on the log will not be reflected on the PO’s themselves. To do that, you’ll need to use the ‘Update PO’s’ button on the Options menu of this sheet. (We’ll cover that in more detail in just a moment.)
If you do check the box, you then have the option to check the box underneath it, labeled ‘Make an exception for the Pay ID column’. This is so you can quickly enter the Pay ID’s on the log without having to open each PO individually.
Place a red dot at the end of rows associated with PO's that I've generated
If you’ve created any PO’s using the PO Form, you can have the associated rows on the log appear with a red dot at the end of them. This way, it will be very easy for you to tell which PO’s have been generated and which have not.
Selecting your PO Form format
If you’ve created a Custom PO and wish to use it instead of the standard PO Form built-in to TrueBudget, select the option button for ‘Custom’. Otherwise, you will be using the PO Form that comes built-in to TrueBudget.
You’ll also find these three buttons on this Options menu.
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Auto Generate PO’s – if you have PO’s listed on the log that you have not generated PO’s for, you can have TrueBudget do it automatically by pressing this button. You must have something in the PO column of the particular row for this to work. Otherwise, that row will be ignored.
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Update PO’s – if you’ve made changes to the rows on the log for PO’s that you’ve previously generated, you can use this button to update the PO’s themselves. Without using this button, the changes you make on the log will not be reflected on the PO’s.
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Delete all PO’s – if you want to delete all of the PO’s that you’ve created, you can do so with this button. This will not delete any of the rows on the log; it will only remove the PO’s themselves.
Questions? Need more help?
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