A Purchase Order in QMS is a list of material requirements sourced from a vendor and defines the quantities required, unit rates, delivery dates, and order value.

Once an order is placed, QMS facilitates the expediting of material on order via an expediting module. As material on a purchase order is delivered, the details are recorded, enabling analysis of outstanding and over supplied material as well as reconciliation for accounting purposes.

Purchase orders in QMS can be generated in three different ways:

• They can be generated manually in the Purchase order module
• They can be generated automatically from an Inquiry
• The can be generated automatically direct from the Bills of Materials

All purchase orders in QMS, regardless of how they were generated, must first be prepared as a "draft". While an order remains in draft mode it can be edited and modified as required. Once the order is ready for issue, it is "finalized", at which point it can no longer be edited. Further changes are then made by formally revising the order. A full audit trail is provided to enable historical analysis of changes to orders.

When generating an order automatically from an inquiry, QMS provides the facility to split inquiries across a number of orders. Rates and final quantities can be adjusted and additional line items added which may not have been included in the inquiry.

When generating an order automatically direct from the Bill of Materials, the same options are provided as with the automatic generation of inquiries.