Deferring PO Line Workflow
This page gives an overview of the PO line deferral workflow. For instructions on how to defer a PO line see Deferring PO Lines. For information on the overall purchasing workflow see Purchasing Workflow. For an overview of working with acquisitions in Alma, including links to relevant sections such as Infrastructure, Invoicing, Configuration, etc., see Introduction to Acquisitions.
Deferring a PO line enables you to save an order for a later time.
The Defer action is not supported for PO lines with the following Acquisition methods:
- Purchase at Vendor System
- Approval Plan
- Approval Plan With Letter
The following is an illustration of the deferred PO line workflow that governs how a PO line is handled, from its deferral until it is either reactivated or canceled.
Deferring PO Line Workflow
The following is a detailed description of the steps within this workflow (with the numbers corresponding to the numbers in the diagram):
- The deferral process commences when you select a PO line for deferral. You can defer any PO line except those with the Acquisition method of Approval plan or Purchase at vendor system. PO lines that you want to defer must be at one of the following stages in the purchasing workflow (see Purchasing Workflow):
- In Review – PO lines in review, waiting for correction or to be completed.
- Manual Packaging – PO lines that are complete and ready for packaging, and are configured for manual packaging.
- PO > Review – PO lines that have been packaged but have not yet been approved. Before you can defer a PO line in this status, you must remove it from the PO. If the PO line is packaged with other PO lines, the PO line is removed from the PO, but the PO can still be sent, with the remaining PO lines. If the PO line is the only one in the packaged PO, the PO is deleted when you remove the PO line from it.
- You defer the PO line by selecting Defer for the PO line, and then entering a date on which you want to be reminded about the PO line and a reason for the deferral. Once you have done this, the Workflow Step (status) of the PO line becomes Deferred.
PO line deferral reasons can be configured by an administrator on the Acquisitions Configuration menu (see Configuring PO Line Deferral Reasons). For details on deferring a PO line, see Deferring PO Lines.
- At a later time, you review the deferred PO line and decide how to handle it (see Reviewing Deferred PO Lines).
- You can perform the following actions on deferred PO lines:
- Edit – Edit any of the fields in the PO line. After editing the PO line, you can either save it or reactivate it. When you save the PO line, its status remains Deferred. If you reactivate the PO line, it is once again normalized and validated. If the PO line passes the normalization and validation phase, it moves to the next step in the purchasing workflow (see Purchasing Workflow). If the PO line is still incomplete, its status is set to In Review, and remains thus until it is corrected. For details on editing a PO line, see Editing Deferred PO Lines.
- Assign to or Release assignment – For more about the Assigned to Me, Unassigned, and Assigned to Others tabs, see Assigned to Me, Unassigned, Assigned to Others Tabs.
- Order now — Move the PO line to the purchasing workflow, where it is normalized and validated (see step 5) before being packaged (see step 6) and sent (see Packaging a Deferred PO Line into a PO).
If you select Order Now, you receive a message (Order Now Letter) after the order is sent for processing. For information on the Order Now Letter, see Configuring Alma Letters.
- Reactivate – Reactivate a PO line, which returns it to the stage of the purchasing workflow that it had reached before deferral. The PO line is normalized and validated (see step 5) before being returned to either Review or Automatic/Manual Packaging (see step 6). For details on reactivating a PO line, see Reactivating Deferred PO Lines.
- Relink – Link the PO line to a different bibliographic record (see Relinking PO Lines).
- Cancel – Cancel a PO line that is no longer required (see Canceling Deferred PO Lines).
- Delete – Delete a PO line from Alma (see Deleting PO Lines).
- When the PO line is reactivated or processed using the Order Now option, it moves back into the purchasing workflow (see step 2), where it is normalized and validated.
- Depending on whether the PO line passes the normalization and validation stage, the workflow proceeds as follows:
- If the PO line does not pass the normalization and validation stage, it remains In Review until corrected.
- If the PO line passes the normalization and validation process, it moves to the packaging stage in the workflow. It is sent after packaging is complete.