Use Alternate Purchase Units in Purchase Orders

Alternate Purchase Units are available for the following transactions:
  • ORBO Purchase Order
  • ORBO Receipt Without PO

After you select a Subsidiary and Vendor, the available Items and Units depend on the purchase unit permission assigned to the user’s role.

Table 4-2 Alternate Purchase Unit Role Permissions

Role Permission Available Items and Units
Use Preferred and Default Purchase Units only Active, eligible native vendor purchase price records and custom Alternate Purchase Units marked as Preferred or Default.
Use Alternate Purchase Units only All active, eligible custom Alternate Purchase Units for the selected Vendor and Subsidiary, including records configured for All subsidiaries. Native vendor purchase price records are not included.
Use all Units Standard NetSuite Item and Unit selection. You can select any unit in the Item's native Unit Type, even if no Alternate Purchase Unit or vendor purchase price exists.
If a role has more than one of these permissions, the following precedence applies:
  1. Use all Units
  2. Use Alternate Purchase Units only
  3. Use Preferred and Default Purchase Units only
For restricted purchase unit modes, the initial Unit is selected in the following order:
  1. Default
  2. Preferred
  3. First eligible Unit

The transaction Rate is populated with the Discounted Price per Unit from the selected record. When you save the transaction, the system validates the selected record's eligibility and pricing again.

The PO Location does not affect Alternate Purchase Unit eligibility.

Add Multiple and List/Search

Purchase unit permission filtering applies to inline Item selection, List/Search, and Add Multiple.

In restricted purchase unit modes, Add Multiple opens an Alternate Purchase Unit selector that displays only eligible Item and Unit combinations. The selector displays the following information:

  • Item
  • Unit
  • Default
  • Preferred
  • Discounted Price per Unit

Select one or more rows, and then select Add Selected.

The standard unrestricted Add Multiple functionality is available only when the role has the Use all Units permission.

No Purchase Unit Permission

If the user's role does not have a purchase unit selection permission:

  • For a new transaction, the following message appears:

    No purchase-unit selection permission is assigned to this role. Contact your administrator.

  • Item and Unit selection and controls for adding items are disabled.

  • The transaction cannot be submitted using the restricted purchase unit selection flow.

  • For an existing transaction, previously saved Item and Unit values remain visible but cannot be changed. You can modify and save other transaction fields.

If an Item and Unit combination is no longer permitted when you save the transaction, the transaction is not saved and the following message appears:

One or more Item and Unit selections are not permitted for this role, Vendor and Subsidiary.