Improvements to purchase processing

FlexNet Manager Suite version 2021 R1
Several improvements have been made to purchase processing to help make the system more transparent:
  • For all of the pages that list Unprocessed Purchases, Processed Purchases, and Deferred Purchases, the Expiry date column has been added. For all purchase types that may include software maintenance (or support), this shows the end date for maintenance covered by each purchase (editable in the General tab of the purchase properties page).
  • For those same three listings, and also on the All Purchases page, two new columns have been added to make your record management faster:
    • License type is available when the purchase lists a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) code that is matched in the downloaded SKU library. This identifies the recommended license type for this purchase (although it does not enforce any restrictions on what license you may actually link to the purchase). When there is no SKU in the purchase, or one is present but is not matched in the SKU library, the column remains blank. Any value displayed here is also available in the General tab of the purchase properties, when you use the down arrow next to the recognized Part no./SKU field to expose additional properties related to that SKU.
    • SKU Description is available under the same conditions, when there is a recognized SKU in the purchase, and reflects the Description field in that same expanded set of SKU properties.

As well, improvements have been made to the purchase processing wizard (a blue workspace available on the Unprocessed Purchases page when you select one or more purchases and click Process). Processing a purchase that includes maintenance no longer updates the record of the purchase itself, and instead only writes data forward into the linked license record. The goal is to write a maintenance end date in the Support upgrades until a set date field in the Upgrade rights section of the User rights & rules tab of the license properties – since continuous maintenance is usually a prerequisite for software upgrades at no additional charge.

The calculation is in two stages:
  1. A start date is taken from the first available of:
    • Maintenance Effective date on the General tab of the purchase properties
    • The Invoice date on the Financial tab of the purchase properties
    • The Purchase date on the General tab of the purchase properties.
    (In each of the above cases, if you are processing multiple purchases and the first available property is the same on multiple of those purchases, the latest date is the one used.)
  2. Given a start date, the suggested end date is calculated by the first available of these methods:
    • If an Expiry date is shown in Maintenance section of the General tab of the purchase properties, this date is used as the end date
    • If a recognized SKU is referenced in the purchase, and the standard SKU definition includes a maintenance period, then this period is added to the start date to give the end date
    • One year is added to the start date to give the end date.
Again, if there are multiple purchases being processed, the date used is the latest one available.

The wizard also allows you to manually enter a date where none is available, or even override the calculated value (although a better path is to set the dates correctly on the purchase[s]).

Together, these more accessible properties for purchases quoting recognized SKUs, and the simplified purchase processing, make it easier to manage software purchases, especially those that contribute to software maintenance coverage.

FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)

2022 R1