Authorise purchase orders
Find this screen
Open: Purchase Orders > Processing > Authorise Orders in the Sage 200 desktop.
Open: Purchase Order Processing > Purchase Order Authorisation workspace in the Self Service web app.
How to
Authorise an order using the desktop
Open: Purchase Orders > Processing > Authorise Orders.
- The orders that are available for you to authorise are displayed.
- To check the details of an order, select the order and click View Order.
- To search for an order in the list, click Find.
If you have the Super Authoriser permission, you can select Include "Super Authoriser" orders, which will show all purchase orders that require authorisation, including those that are not specifically assigned to you (according to authorisation rules). If you do not select this option, you will only see purchase orders that are specifically assigned to you for authorisation (according to authorisation rules).
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Choose the orders to authorise by selecting the check box next to the order.
As you select orders, the Total to authorise displays the amount of the selected orders. The value is the gross order amount in the base currency.
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To authorise the selected orders, click Authorise.
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When the orders have been authorised, the message Authorisation process finished is displayed, and you can click on this link to see the Authorisation Results.
The authorisation status of the orders is set to Authorised.
- If you use Check budgets when authorising purchase orders, a warning will be displayed if the value of any item on the purchase order will exceed the nominal budget linked to that item, or if any item contains a blank or invalid nominal code. Reports will provide details about the relevant purchase orders or nominal accounts. See Check budgets when authorising purchase orders.
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Authorise an order using the workspace
Open: Purchase Order Processing > Purchase Order Authorisation in the Self Service web app.
Open: Purchase Orders > Processing > Purchase Order Authorisation in the Sage 200 desktop.
- The orders that are available for you to authorise are displayed.
- To narrow down the list of orders, use the filter options to find the orders you require.
If you have the Super Authoriser permission, you can filter the Requires Super Authority column to show all purchase orders that require authorisation, or just orders that are specifically assigned to you (according to authorisation rules).
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Choose the orders to authorise by selecting the check box next to the order.
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To authorise the selected orders, click Authorise Orders.
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When the orders have been authorised, the authorised orders are added to the My Purchase Order Authorised List.
- The authorisation status of the orders is set to Authorised.
- If you use Check budgets when authorising purchase orders, reports will be displayed if the value of any item on the purchase order will exceed the nominal budget linked to that item, or if any item contains a blank or invalid nominal code. See Check budgets when authorising purchase orders.
Query an order
If there is a problem which prevents the order from being authorised, you can raise a query with the order originator.
If you query an order, the order must be amended and re-saved, before it can then be authorised.
When the order is queried, you can add a message to the notification. This notification can be viewed by the order originator, so you can inform them why you have not authorised the order. They can then amend or cancel the order as appropriate.
To query an order:
- Select the order(s) and click Query in the desktop, or Query Order in the workspace.
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Enter the reason for querying the order, which will be included in a notification sent to the order originator.
The authorisation status of the orders is set to Queried.
Useful info
About alternative authorisers
If you have set up authorisation rules for purchase orders or requisitions, you can choose alternative authorisers who can authorise an order or requisition on behalf of the original authoriser. This is useful when people are not available due to sickness or holiday.
- An alternative authoriser can view and authorise any order or requisition that can be authorised by the original person (set in the authorisation rule).
- If the alternative authoriser also sets up an alternative, this new authoriser becomes the alternative authoriser for both people.
- If the original person is a Super Authoriser who can authorise any order or requisition, the alternative authoriser does not inherit their permission to view and authorise any order or requisition.
Notification messages
Sage 200 automatically sends notification messages to inform the people involved in authorising purchase orders; for example, when an order requires authorisation or has been queried.
- You can view notifications by using the Amend Purchase Order Notifications screen or Purchase Order Notifications workspace.
See Purchase order notifications.
Check your budgets
If you Check budgets when authorising purchase orders, reports will be displayed if the value of any item on the purchase order will exceed the nominal budget linked to that item, or if any item contains a blank or invalid nominal code.
The value of items in the purchase order for each nominal account is compared against the remaining annual budget for that account.
- The remaining budget takes into consideration what you've spent against that nominal account budget, which includes:
- Actual values posted for the nominal account.
- Committed costs for purchase orders, which includes the value of purchase orders you've raised and not yet invoiced.
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The value of the items in your purchase orders is the net value minus any discounts.
- Only purchase orders with a document date in the current financial year are included.
Only orders that are dated inside the current financial year will be compared against the budget or included in commitment reports.
If you have recently moved to a new financial year, and an order's Document date is in the previous year, the order value will not be compared against the current year's budget, and it will not be included in commitment reports.
If you enter a purchase order near the end of a financial year, consider whether the order is likely to be paid within the current year. If you don't pay for the order in the current financial year, the order will be outstanding in the next financial year, but will be dated in the previous year. Therefore, if the order is not going to be authorised or paid this year, then you could change the Document Date on the order to be in the next financial year.
If you have purchase orders that you have not yet sent to suppliers, or have not yet received the goods or services, then you may want to cancel the order and recreate it in the new financial year, so that the commitment value will be shown on reports.
If you want to check budgets, enable Check budgets when authorising purchase orders in POP Settings. See Setting up purchase orders.
View authorisation activity
You can use the Authorisation Audit Log to view any activity relating to authorisation; such as order authorisation, notifications, changes to rules, or changes to alternative authorisers.
The authorisation audit log records event details when:
- An order has been created that requires authorisation.
- A person has authorised an order.
- An authoriser has queried an order.
- An order originator has responded to a query.
- An order has been authorised and printed.
- An order notification has been sent to an authoriser.
- An order notification has been sent to an order originator.
- An alternative authoriser has been specified or removed.
- An authorisation rule (for orders or requisitions) has been created, edited or deleted.
View the audit log
Open: Purchase Orders > Adjustments > Authorisation Audit Log.
- Select the type of event to display from the Show Audit Log Entries list.
- Click Display to show the log entries.
Clear the audit log
If you clear the log, this will permanently remove authorisation log entries.
- Select Clear Log.
- Choose which entries to remove from the audit log.
- To remove older entries up to a particular date, select Clear all entries from before this date and enter the date.
- To remove all entries, select Clear all entries.
- Click OK to remove the entries.
Questions
Nothing. The orders remain in Sage 200 until you authorise them. If you want someone to authorise them on your behalf while you are away, see Alternative and out of office authorisers for purchase orders and requisitions.
The purchase order must be authorised again, even if the change does not affect the value of the order, or no changes are made to the order.
An order will not require authorising again if, when it is changed, the value of the order falls below the Value greater than or equal to set in the authorisation rules.
No.
However, if you delete all the lines on an order but do not cancel it, it will have to be authorised if all your purchase orders require authorisation.
Yes, if they are covered by your purchase order authorisation rules.
This occurs if you are a Super Authoriser. A super authoriser can authorise orders that are covered by more than one rule group.
No. You will only receive notification messages for purchase orders where you are a normal authoriser.
Yes, you then authorise or query purchase orders using the Purchase Order Authorisation workspace via the Self Service web app.