General Tab
- Purchase order section
- Purchase details section
- Related contract section
- Maintenance section
- Volume purchase program section
- Notes section
Purchase order section
The Purchase order section is editable only when you first create a purchase order (manually). Once a purchase has been saved, or if the purchase details were imported, the fields in this section are read-only. If you need to edit the details of the purchase order in an existing purchase, click Edit this purchase order at the top of the section.
The following controls are available in this section (listed here alphabetically):
| Control | Comments |
|---|---|
| Copy to a new purchase |
Opens a new set of purchase properties, with all the Purchase details values blanked out, and the same values for the Purchase order header values displayed as read-only. This allows you to manually complete details of another purchase that forms part of the same overall purchase order. (Only available after purchase details have been saved.) |
| Edit this purchase order |
Converts the read-only fields describing the purchase order into editable fields.
Note: Changes to the Vendor or Purchase date values
affect all linked purchases. A change to the Purchase order no.
moves this purchase to a different purchase order record, leaving any other
purchases on the original purchase order unchanged.
|
| Purchase date | The date that goods were ordered. This date is common to all purchases ordered on the same purchase order. To change the Purchase date on an
existing purchase, first click the link Edit this purchase
order. This converts the read-only fields describing the purchase
order into editable fields, and you can edit the Purchase date value.
Important: Changes you
make to the purchase order details on this purchase affect all other purchases
recorded on the same purchase order.
|
| Purchase order no. | The purchase order number that authorizes this purchase. All purchases from a single purchase order must have the same value in this field. If this field is read-only, and you need to correct it, click Edit this purchase order at the top of the section. Mandatory field. Enter the number assigned to this purchase. This may be
a number assigned by another computer system, or printed on a pre-numbered form. You
can enter digits, letters, punctuation and special characters.
|
| Purchases on this purchase order |
Displays the count of individual purchases (including the current one) that share the common purchase order header data. |
| Vendor | This is the name of the reseller who sold you this product. (The publisher of the software, who created the license, is listed in the Publisher field.) For example, suppose that you obtained an application made by Adobe Software, purchasing it through a reseller called City Software. In this case, the Vendor is set to City Software. There are occasions when you purchase software directly from the publisher. In these few cases, the same value can be entered for the Vendor and Publisher fields. The vendor must be recorded in IT Asset Management before being used in this field (if not, navigate to (in the Vendors group)). When editing the record of an existing purchase, first click the Edit this purchase order link to allow changing the vendor name. Use the search facility to select the appropriate reseller. |
Purchase details section
The following controls describe the individual item purchased. Controls are listed here in alphabetical order.
| Control | Comments |
|---|---|
| Description | Details of the item purchased. When no SKU is recorded for a purchase, this description may be used by
IT Asset Management to make recommendations for linking the purchase to the
appropriate preexisting license. For this to work, a candidate license must be
linked to only one product (although there may be multiple
applications, versions or editions of the same product, linked to the
license); and either:
This description appears in lists and reports to help identify the
contents of this purchase.
Tip: For purchases of software licenses,
there is a second reason to make this description a thorough identification of
the licensed application (for example, including name and version). If you make
future upgrades to the software license purchased here, this purchase may later
be linked to a different, upgraded license. In that case, a complete description
entered here will be helpful in auditing the original purpose of this
purchase.
|
| Effective date |
Only appears for purchases of type Software subscription. The first date that this purchase contributes to the software subscription you purchased. If this is the first purchase for a particular subscription, then this is the first date you are permitted to use the software. If this is a later purchase for the same subscription, it acts as a renewal of the subscription for the next period. In the renewal case, it is normal to set the Effective date to the next day after the previous purchase expired. Either:
|
| Effective quantity | The total number of units that are acquired with this purchase, particularly applicable where the purchase was of some kind of bundle of multiples. 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.
|
| Expiry date |
Only appears for purchases of type Software subscription. The last date on which this purchase authorizes use of your software
subscription. (To allow continuous use of the software to which you have subscribed, be sure
that there is a subsequent purchase with an Effective date of the next day after
this.)
Tip: If the expiry date was automatically given a default value, check
it for accuracy. For example, the subscription may default to a year, but you may have
purchased a longer subscription; and the date may increment to the anniversary of the
effective date, rather than to the day before when your subscription actually
expires.
Either:
|
| Item |
The ordinal value of this purchase within the underlying purchase order. This field is not editable, and reflects the order of data entry of purchases given the same Purchase order no.. |
| Part no./SKU | A Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) number is a code that uniquely identifies
a particular product.
Important: Attempts to
create or update a purchase record may fail if the record has a value in the
Part No./SKU field that contains more than two occurrences of any of
the following characters appearing within the first seven characters: '\' '%'
'_' '[' and ']'.
Entering a SKU for software purchases may enable IT Asset Management to
automatically create or update the appropriate license records. When you enter a
value and leave this field, your value is checked against the library of known SKU
values, and a result appears below this field:
Note: Automated processing of purchases using SKUs that have been
Previously processed recommends linking this
purchase to the same license used most recently for this SKU (assuming that all
other requirements are also met).
Tip: When the down-arrow is
displayed to the right of this field (meaning that the SKU exists in the SKU
library), you may click the arrow icon to review the product details represented
by the SKU code. The values in this panel are not editable. Click the arrow icon
a second time to hide these values.
For information about the product details represented by the SKU code, see Part no./SKU. |
| Publisher |
The name of the company that manufactures the purchased product. If a recognized SKU is found for the product, the Publisher field is populated automatically. (This
check is performed as you exit the Part
no./SKU
field, and may take a moment.) You can also click in the Publisher field to use the Search control and select
the name of an existing publisher, or switch a name that was chosen earlier. For
details about using the search control, see To Use a Fly-Down.
Tip: The publisher
must first exist as a vendor record in your system. If not, navigate to .
|
| Purchase quantity |
The number of units of a product that are recorded for this purchase. Mandatory field. Enter the number of units that were purchased. For example, suppose you ordered three license packs, each of which entitled you to install five copies of the application. In this case, the Purchase quantity value is 3, and the Quantity per unit value is 5. The Purchase quantity value is multiplied by the Quantity per unit value to calculate the Effective quantity. |
| Purchase type |
Use this field to track the kind of purchase. If a recognized SKU has been entered for the product, the Purchase type field is populated automatically. If
necessary, you can still update the value; but there must be exceptional reasons to
make this differ from the value implied by the SKU.
Tip: At purchase
processing time, when the purchase is linked to a license, the type from a
recognized SKU is given priority over the purchase type. If there is a conflict
at that time, this Purchase type is ignored,
and the SKU Purchase type sets the
effect of the purchase on the linked license.
If no SKU is recognized, you can select one of the following options
from the drop-down list to indicate the type of item that was purchased:
Note: Automated processing of purchases for software
licenses can occur only when the Purchase type is set to one of the following:
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.
|
| Quantity per unit |
The number of individual items that are acquired with the purchase of a single group or pack. Single-item purchases (not groups or packs) always have a multiplier of 1. Enter the number of items that are included per product unit that was purchased. For example, you might order a license pack which entitles you to install 10 copies of an application. In this case, you purchase only one product, and the Quantity per unit value is 10. The Quantity per unit value is multiplied by the Purchase quantity value to calculate the Effective quantity. |
| Status |
Each purchase is assigned a status which enables you to track the associated business processes. Select one of the following options from the drop-down list to indicate
the current status of the purchase:
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.
When you create a purchase, it is assigned the default value New. |
Related contract section
Use this section if you choose to link your purchase record to a separate record of a contract, such as a maintenance agreement.
| Control | Comments |
|---|---|
| Contract |
If this purchase is associated with a contract recorded in IT Asset Management, you can link the two records. The contract must be recorded in IT Asset Management before being
used in this field (if not, navigate to Contracts >
Create a Contract).
Tip: If the contract
record has not been created yet, you can skip the contract here, and link to
this purchase later, as you create the new contract record.
Remember: If this purchase covers software maintenance (or support) under
a contract that you model in the system, be sure to establish this link to the
correct contract. This assists in automatic processing of purchases and their
impact on license compliance. Some SKUs include a Maintenance
type of Until end of contract. For
purchases quoting these SKUs, linking the appropriate contract to the purchase
allows automated purchase processing to also link the resulting license to the
contract. Here, an "appropriate contract" means that the contract type matches
the Purchase program referenced by the SKU, or is one of
Software License or Software
maintenance and support.
Use the search facility to
select the appropriate contract. For details, see To Use a Fly-Down. |
Maintenance section
You may associate software maintenance with a purchase, without recording a separate contract record.
| Control | Comments |
|---|---|
| Purchase includes support, maintenance, or other service agreement for the following period |
This control may be set:
Tip: Remember that a license record may also inherit maintenance from an
appropriate contract. If you have a long term maintenance agreement covering many products
(such as Microsoft Software Assurance), you may choose to record this as a maintenance
contract, and link the appropriate purchases and licenses to the contract. This also
allows you to use the contract record to set rights that are dependent on the continuation
of the contract, and have software licenses inherit those rights for as long as the
contract exists. If the contract expires and this is the only source of data about
maintenance recorded in IT Asset Management, you need to change the inherited rights
manually in the contract records. However, if you have also:
If the purchase of software includes a period of software maintenance or support, set this check box. When the check box is selected, the Effective date and Expiry date fields are enabled. |
| Effective date |
The first date from which this purchase entitles you to support or maintenance on your software purchase. (This field is enabled only when you select the check box for Purchase includes support, maintenance, or other service agreement for the following period.) Either:
Tip: When the purchase is of type Software
subscription, this field is
hidden, because maintenance is typically included in the software subscription. Instead, use
the Effective date in the
Purchase
details section of this
tab.
|
| Expiry date |
The last date on which this purchase entitles you to support or
maintenance on your software purchase. (This field is enabled only when you select the check
box for Purchase includes support, maintenance, or other
service agreement for the following
period.)
Tip: If
the expiry date was automatically given a default value, check it for accuracy. For
example, the maintenance may default to a year, but you may have purchased a longer
coverage; and the date may increment to the anniversary of the effective date, rather than
to the day before when your maintenance actually expires.
Either:
Tip: When the purchase is of type Software
subscription, this field is
hidden, because maintenance is typically included in the software subscription. Instead,
use the Expiry date in
the Purchase
details section of this
tab.
|
Volume purchase program section
This section is useful for purchases under a Microsoft Select agreement.
| Control | Comments |
|---|---|
| Product pool |
If this purchase is made under an enrollment (or affiliation) with a Microsoft Select agreement, this is the first of two fields that ensure proper tracking of your Select points per product pool. Ensure that the correct product pool is identified for your enrollment
(or affiliation) with your Microsoft Select agreement. If in doubt, you may be able
to verify the product pool on your corporate price list or by consulting your Large
Account Reseller (LAR, who should be identified on the properties of the enrollment,
which should be linked to this purchase as the related contract).
Note: This value
may have been calculated automatically when you accepted a default action in
purchase processing automation, and linked the PO line item to your Select
agreement. Where the PO line item included a recognized SKU that applies to a
purchase under a Select agreement, but the PO line item was missing the Select
pool or Select points values, the following adjustments were made:
|
| Product points |
If this purchase is made under an enrollment (or affiliation) with a Microsoft Select agreement, this is the second of two fields that ensure proper tracking of your Select points per product pool. Confirm that the correct points are listed for this purchase. This value
is used in accruing points per enrollment to meet the overall commitment required to
maintain discount levels under your Microsoft Select agreement. This value may also
be displayed on your corporate price list; and it is also tracked independently by
your LAR.
Note: This value may have been calculated automatically when you accepted
a default action in purchase processing automation, and linked the PO line item
to your Select agreement. Where the PO line item included a recognized SKU that
applies to a purchase under a Select agreement, but the PO line item was missing
the Select pool or Select points values, the following adjustments were made:
|
Notes section
| Control | Comments |
|---|---|
| Comments |
Free-form comments to help you manage details of this purchase. Enter any special comments or special instructions that relate only to this
purchase. (For example, some comments may have been recorded on the original purchase
order.)
Tip: For purchases of maintenance or license subscriptions, it's handy
to record any known discounts for early renewal and the like. These comments are available
during the renewal process.
|
IT Asset Management (Cloud)
Current