Unprocessed Purchases

FlexNet Manager Suite 2019 R2 (On-Premises Edition)
Tip: This page includes only purchases related to software licensing, so that only the following purchase types are included here (with other types being available in the All Purchases page):
  • Not set
  • Software
  • Software baseline
  • Software maintenance
  • Software subscription
  • Software upgrade.
Tip: Purchases with a Status value of Cancelled are not listed on this page. You can access cancelled purchase records from the All Purchases page (see All Purchases).
The purchases on this page are not yet contributing their total value to your recorded entitlements to help balance license consumption. They may be here for any of the following reasons:
  • You just created new records and have yet to link these to a license.
  • You may have split the purchase across multiple licenses, and so far, not all of the entitlements (or maintenance coverage) is assigned to licenses (something remains in Available quantity).
  • You have not allowed automated processing, and have therefore mandated manual validation of recommendations. (For automation preferences, navigate to the system menu ( in the top right corner), choose System Settings, and select the Purchases tab.)
  • Automated processing was not possible because:
    • The purchase order did not include a recognized software SKU, and
    • The PO description did not match any existing license (either by license name or through the name of any linked application(s)).
Tip: A purchase that was fully processed/assigned (and therefore not listed on this page) may re-appear in this list if you make changes that free up some entitlements. Examples include:
  • Removing some of the entitlements purchased here from a license, so that they become unassigned
  • Deleting a license, which frees up all the entitlements that were assigned to it, from all its linked purchases
  • Edit the purchase to increase the number of available entitlements (these do not automatically 'follow' any previous assignments, and must be assigned separately).

Actions you can take

In alphabetical order:
  • Accept your preferred recommendation in the Recommended licenses column. You can also select multiple rows that you approve, and accept them all at once. "Accept" means you are applying the proposed changes unchanged ("Make it so").
  • Create a purchase record if none of the ones already here suit your purposes. If you save and close the properties of your new software-related purchase without linking it to a license, it will appear in this list (you may need to refresh).
  • Defer one or more purchases that you can't work on now (for example, you may be structuring work by dealing with one publisher at a time, so that you defer purchases for all other publishers). When you select the purchase(s) and click Defer, they move to the Deferred Purchases page.
  • Delete a selected purchase record.
    CAUTION:
    Deleted purchases are no longer available across the system. There is no undo. If you delete purchases already linked to licenses, then the entitlements and compliance calculations are affected. When deleting purchases, make sure that you remove them from any imported source to prevent them from being imported back into FlexNet Manager Suite. As an alternative to deletion, consider setting the purchase Status to Cancelled and removing links from this purchase to any and all licenses.
  • Open the property sheet of a selected purchase. Alternatively, you can Ctrl+click on the Description, which opens the property sheet in a separate browser tab. In the purchase properties, you can make changes that improve automatic recommendations, including:
    • Adding a SKU
      Important: In any mismatch between the purchase type and a recognized SKU definition, the SKU has priority. This means, for example, that where a SKU mandates a maintenance purchase, and the SKU is shown in the Part no./SKU field of the purchase properties (and marked either Previously processed or In SKU library), the purchase is always processed (and linked to a license) as a maintenance purchase, regardless of the setting for the purchase type.
    • Linking it to an existing license (useful when it is the first from a set of purchases that reference a common SKU or share a common Description, as the other members of the set receive recommendations that follow the same matching)
    • Correcting the purchase description to be an exact match of an existing license name or application name.
    (After saving the changed properties, use Recalculate.)
  • Process one or more selected purchases (for multiples, the button is enabled only when they all have a consistent Purchase type and similar maintenance provisions). "Process" means to start an interactive process where you can modify the outcomes using the processing wizard. Only select multiples when you intend for the purchases to end up linked to the same license with the same dates. Since the behavior of the following wizard varies based on the type of purchase, choose one of the following topics for more information:
  • Recalculate one or more selected purchases. Use this after you have edited purchase properties (or made other changes) to improve automated recommendations. Regardless of your automation settings, the purchase remains in this list for you to inspect the changed recommendation and, if you like, to Accept the result. (Changed and new records are also reassessed at each full inventory import and compliance calculation, and may show new recommendations afterward.)
  • Save view as. The Save view as feature of FlexNet Manager Suite enables you to create customized management views of a page by saving the applied user interface settings. For more information, see Creating Management Views.

Available fields

The following fields are available in the Unprocessed Purchases list (shown here in alphabetical order). Some of them by default appear in the column chooser.
Tip: Any custom properties that you have added for this object are also available through the column chooser. Like other properties, you can also use these properties for filtering and grouping records on this page.
Column name Notes
Action
The system recommendation for processing the purchase. Purchases that have an Action of No recommendation need more information before an action can be determined.
Tip: Grouping the list by the Action column allows easy selection and processing of related proposals. If you expose the members of only one group, and click the selection check box in the header row of the list, only the exposed purchases are selected. Those hidden in closed groups remain unselected. For example:
  1. Group by Action.
  2. Expand the group for Add entitlements to a license.
  3. Click the 'select all' check box in the header.
  4. Review the recommended licenses (deselecting any that you don't like).
  5. Click Accept.

Not editable (although you can trigger recalculation of selected recommendations).

Available quantity

The number of entitlements (either purchased, or covered by purchased maintenance) that have not yet been assigned to any license. This is calculated as Effective quantity less the number already assigned to licenses (with a minimum value of zero). For this reason, when a purchase is presented for processing the first time, the Available quantity is identical to the Effective quantity.

Description

Details of the item purchased.

Editable in the Description field in General tab of the purchase properties (in the Purchase details group).

Effective quantity

Total number of units acquired with this purchase. Depending on purchase type, these 'units' may be license entitlements, or maintenance coverage for this number of license entitlements.

This value is shown as Effective quantity in the General tab of the purchase properties.

This value is not editable. It is calculated automatically by multiplying the Purchase quantity with the Quantity per unit (and as a signed integer, is limited to a little over 2.14 billion).
Note: For appropriate Purchase type values, the Effective quantity corresponds to the number of license entitlements that the purchase contributes to a linked license. Only the Software, Software subscription, Software baseline, and Not set purchase types can increase the license quantity (number of entitlements on a license). Software upgrade migrates entitlements from the previous license to the upgraded one.
Part no./SKU

The vendor's code that identifies the purchased item (the Stock Keeping Unit).

This value is added as Part no./SKU in the General tab of the purchase properties.

Publisher

The manufacturer of the product.

Editable in the General tab of the purchase properties.

Purchase date

The date that goods were ordered.

The Purchase date is recorded when the first purchase from the same purchase order is created. Thereafter it is accessible through the General tab of the purchase properties.

Purchase order no.

The identifying code of the purchase order authorizing the purchase.

Editable in the Purchase order no. field in the General tab of the purchase properties.

Purchase type
The nature of this purchase, such as software, hardware, maintenance and so on. Determines whether automated processing of the purchase can occur, and whether the purchase can contribute to license entitlements.
Tip: At purchase processing time, when the purchase is linked to a license, the purchase type from a recognized SKU is given priority over this Purchase type set in the purchase properties. It is best practice to keep these two values aligned.

The Purchase type value is selected on the General tab on the purchase properties.

Recommended licenses
Shows one or more licenses affected by the recommendation. These may include:
  • From: An existing license, which (in the case of an upgrade) will lose entitlements to a new, upgraded license. When a proposal allowed an upgrade, but no suitable source license candidate was found in the existing licenses, this displays None identified.
  • To: Sometimes this may identify an existing license (for example, when additional entitlements or upgrades have been purchased, or for renewals). It may also display New license whenever the recommendation includes creating a new license to link to the purchase record.
    Tip: Multiple subscription purchases can attach to the same license, since the count of subscribed entitlements can rise and fall over time. However, separate licenses are proposed for subscription and perpetual licensing, and also for distinct products.
  • Additional comments about the maintenance provisions (for the To license).
Tip: When the license name is displayed as a hyperlink, you can Ctrl+click (or middle click) on the link to open those license properties in a new tab. Similarly, you can open the purchase properties in a new tab. This allows quickly switching between tabs to inspect any details in the properties of any affected objects.

Not editable (although you can trigger recalculation of selected recommendations).

Status
Shows the current progress of the purchase through the purchasing process. Values may be:
  • Cancelled
  • Completed
  • New
  • Pending
Tip: These values have no effect on license compliance calculations. If a purchase conveys license entitlements and is linked to a license, the entitlements are counted regardless of this status value. If you intend to cancel a purchase so that it no longer contributes to your license entitlements, be sure to disconnect the purchase from any licenses.

The Status value is selected on the General tab of the purchase properties.

Total price (currency)

The overall cost of this purchase, including tax and shipping.

Read-only calculated value in the Financial tab of the purchase properties.

Vendor

The reseller who sold this product.

The Vendor value is editable in the General tab of the purchase properties.