As I revise for the MB2-718 exam (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service) I’m creating blog posts detailing all aspects of my revision. I hope these posts will aid anyone who is also revising for this exam. In this post I will review purchasing in Field Service.
Purchasing is used to request and receive products from vendors (suppliers) to replenish stock within warehouses. It involves creating a purchase order, gaining approval and recording delivery of stock using P.O. receipt. Plus you can record the bill from the customer against the receipt.
Tip: Whilst Dynamics 365 does include a fully functional purchase order capability you may commonly find this is an area of a Field Service implementation when a custom integration with a 3rd party ERP system is required.
The options to create and manage purchase orders can be found in the Field Service menu from the main Microsoft Dynamics 365 ribbon.
Below you can see an example of a purchase order created (in draft status) for a particular vendor. The vendor on a purchase order is actually an account record!
Tip / Suggestion:
Out of the box you can define a re-order level but I’d don’t believe this value is actively used anywhere. It is simply used for reference or maybe as a basis for customizations you might like to create.
Notice the business process flow, this hints are the life cycle of a purchase order.
- Draft– The initial state of any order.
- Approved– Once fully entered the purchase order can be approved.
- Submitted– Once approved the order can be submitted to the supplier. It is at this point that the qty of order is incremented on the inventory items included in the order.
- Products Received– After stock receipts have been registered again the order its status will change to products received.
- Billed– Finally when the supplier sends the bill the order shows as billed.
Having saved the purchase order, you can then add one or more products to the order. Notice that the price on the purchase order has defaulted to the unit cost price on the product. This can be changed if required.
Tip: Each product has three price / cost fields that might not be on your product form by default. They can be added as required. The fields are “List Price”, “Current Cost” and “Standard Cost”. Current cost is the field used to default the purchase price.
Also notice that the product is associated with my warehouse. Additionally, if the product was for a specific job I could have associated it with a work order. (and optionally a booking.)
When the order is first created it is in draft state, and will need to be approved and submitted. (Submitted meaning a copy sent to the supplier / vendor.)
Note: The order will need to be in a submitted status before you can book purchase receipts against it.
Having added three products to my order the order will contain a list of products (as shown below). There is a total order value on the purchase order which will be calculated from a total of the values from these purchase order line items. Also notice that each line has an “Item Status” field, the can be pending, received or canceled.
Purchase Orders Receipts
When a delivery is taken a purchase order receipt is recorded and stock levels automatically incremented. The first step is to create a delivery and associate it with a purchase order. You can also record who received the delivery.
You have two options to creating the receipt. One is to open the purchase order and move the business process flow forward to purchase order receipt. (Selecting “Create” from the Next Stage dialog as you progress.) Alternatively, you could create the purchase receipt directly from the Field Service purchase receipts menu option.
The “header” will show a name for this receipt, the related purchase order, who received the delivery etc.
Having saved the delivery “header” you can proceed to add details of the delivery. To do this select the “Receipt Products” option from the navigation menu.
You will now be presented with a screen that functions a little differently to most in Dynamics 365! You have two options here; one is to use the “scan products” option. Entering the products UPC barcode number (or scanning) into this box will search and display the product.
Alternatively, you can click the “Show Purchase Order Products not fully received yet” option, this will list all items that could be received against this order.
Having found the product (or products) you wish to receive into stock simple enter the quantity directly in this screen. (Or scan the barcodes for the products!) You can also adjust the price if required. Once you have entered the details you must save the receipt by clicking the “Save Changes” button.
We would complete the life cycle of a purchase order by recording the vendors bill against the order / receipt. To do this I will progress the business process flow of the purchase order from the order status of “Product Received” to “Billed”. And in doing so I click the “Next Stage” button and select the Create option to create a purchase bill against this purchase order.
The header of the purchase bill contains information such as the vendors reference for this invoice, the date of the invoice etc.
Having created the header I use the navigation bar to select the Receipt products option.
Now I simply use the add existing purchaser receipts button to link each of my receipts to this invoice.
The total values from each of the receipts will rollup to the bill header. Giving me a total for the bill. Additionally this information is shown on the purchase order. Meaning ultimately I can check that the total amount form my order matches the amount billed.
In terms of our MB2-718 revision, I have therefor covered the creation of purchase orders, progression of these to being an approved order, receiving stock against the order and ultimately also recording the bill. As always I recommend you actually try this as part of your revision for the MB2-718 exam. (Never reply on theory alone!)