8 Work with Orders on Hold

This chapter contains these topics:

You can put a hold on an order to prevent it from being processed. You might want to do this because:

  • You have yet to settle prices and terms with the supplier

  • You are not sure if you want to use the supplier

  • The supplier's minimum order amount is not being met

  • The order exceeds the budget

You cannot print or receive orders on hold. You must release the hold to continue processing the order. To release an order on hold, you must have the correct password.

8.1 Entering Purchase Order Holds

You can place an order on hold to prevent it from being processed. You might want to put an order on hold if you have yet to reach price negotiations with the supplier or if the order exceeds budget.

Two types of order holds, budget holds and regular holds, are available in the Procurement module. Budget holds are for orders that exceed the budget. Regular holds are for all other types of holds.

You can put an order on hold one of three different ways:

  • Assign a hold code to the order manually.

  • Assign a hold code to a supplier in Procurement Instructions (P4306) so that each time you enter an order for the supplier the system assigns the hold code to the order.

  • Specify a budget hold code in processing option 35 for the Enter Orders program (P4311). If budget checking is activated, the system assigns the code to orders if detail lines exceed budget.

8.1.1 Before You Begin

8.1.2 What You Should Know About

Topic Description
Committing costs for orders on budget hold When an order is on budget hold, the system does not commit costs to the PA and PU ledgers, in which commitment amounts and units are stored. You must release a hold to have the system update the PA and PU ledgers.

See Chapter 6, "Work with Commitments and Encumbrances" for more information about working with the PA and PU ledgers.

8.2 Releasing Purchase Order Holds

Navigation

From Non-Stock Procurement (G43B), choose Order Gen/Approve/Release

From Order Generation/Approval/Release (G43B13), choose Release Held Orders

You must release the hold on an order to continue processing the order.

To review and release regular holds, you use Release Held Orders (P42070). To review and release budget holds, you use Release Held Orders (Budget) (P43070). The procedures for releasing regular holds and releasing budget holds are identical.

To release purchase order holds

On Release Held Orders

Figure 8-1 Release Held Orders screen

Description of Figure 8-1 follows
Description of "Figure 8-1 Release Held Orders screen"

  1. Complete the following fields to review orders on hold:

    • Branch/Plant

    • Doc Ty. (Document Type)

    • Hold Code

    • Person Responsible

    • Supplier Number

    • Order Number

  2. Complete the following field:

    • Password

  3. Type 7 in the following field for all orders you want to release and press Enter:

    • O (Option Exit)

Field Explanation
Hold Code A user defined code (table 42/HC) that identifies why an order was placed on hold (for example, credit, budget, or margin standards were exceeded).

Form-specific information

Enter a specific code in the first Hold Code field to display only orders on hold for that particular reason.

The second Hold Code field contains the hold code assigned to that line of the order.
Person Responsible The address book number of the person that is responsible for reviewing and releasing orders placed on hold.
Password A series of characters that you must enter before the system updates a table. In the Distribution systems, the password secures commissions' setup and the release of held orders. Only users with access to the password can release an order. The system does not display the password on the form. You should not enter blanks anywhere in the password.

8.2.1 What You Should Know About

Topic Description
Orders with multiple holds A single purchase order can have multiple holds. To view all of them, you might want to search for an order by its order number.
Reviewing the budget before releasing held orders You can review the budget before releasing orders on budget hold by accessing Budget Comparison by pressing F10 from Release Held Orders (Budget).

For more information, see Section 7.2, "Reviewing the Budget."
Releasing budget holds for orders awaiting approval You cannot use the Release Held Orders (Budget) program to release an order on budget hold if the order is assigned an approval route. You must use the Approval Review program to approve and release the order.
Hold does not release If the Release Held Orders screen allows you to release the hold code for an order, but the order does not actually release, verify the hold code is set up for the appropriate branch/business unit in Order Hold Information (P42090).
Order hold files The system maintains order holds by order number, document type and business unit in the Held Orders file (F4209). The system also maintains the hold code for an order in the Purchase Order Header file (F4301).

See Also: