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Purchasing Items

By purchasing items, you are making them immediately available in the CMDB rather than ‘on order’ as is the case for an ordering transaction.

You can add multiple purchases of an item. A record is created for each purchase you add. If there are multiple purchases, vFire Core automatically calculates the total quantity of items in all the purchases, as well as the number of items at a particular state, to display in the Item Summary on the software product or inventory details window.

Before you start

Order/Purchase must be selected within the Execute Transactions sections in the CMDB Items tab of your Configuration Management security role.If you have jurisdictions, and want to create purchases in jurisdictions other than your own, All Jurisdictions must be selected in the Order/Purchase/Transfer section on the same window.

The inventory or software must exist on the CMDB. You can add them using the Inventory Details and Software Product Details windows.

The title and any description of the current software product or inventory appear at the top of this window. The Transactions window also has two tabs:

Orders

This tab allows you to add and manage your orders, that is record the number of items of a software product or inventory item you have ordered but have not yet received.

Purchases

This tab allows you to view and manage your purchases, that is the number of items of the software product or inventory item you have purchased as well as received from an order. The state of these items can change, that is they can be on-hand, in use, reserved, and retired. Each state (also referred to as a “transaction pool”) is represented by the tabs or views in the Purchases view (that is On Hand, In Use, Reserved, and Retired).

Select the Purchases tab . This is just below the Description field. This tab has two browse tables. The top browse table is the list of purchases, and has columns for all the purchase transaction details. The bottom browse table has four tabs or views, On Hand, In Use, Reserved, and Retired. Each view represents the state of the purchased items after a particular transaction was performed.

You can select below the table to show or hide columns. A blank value in a column means that this transaction detail was intentionally left unspecified or it is not relevant to the particular transaction.

Select the Show transactions for selected purchase only radio button above the browse table to only display the items in the bottom browse table for a selected purchase. Clear this option to list the items in all purchases.

Select from beneath the top browse table to display the Transaction Details New Purchase window .

If there are existing purchases, and you want to use one as a basis for the new order, select it and then select.

Complete the details.

Configuration Item	The CMDB item identified in the original window is displayed. This is a read only field.
Status	Select the status of the items you are purchasing. The statuses are defined in the Asset Management - Transaction Status window. Only the statuses that apply to purchasing appear in the Status list.
Quantity	Specify the quantity of the item to be purchased.
Cost Center	Identify a cost center, if applicable, using the Search button. If you are in a jurisdiction, the cost centers you can select are restricted to those in the jurisdiction unless All Jurisdictions is selected in the CMDB Items tab of your Configuration Management security role. Jurisdictions are allocated to analysts through the Person Details window.
Organization	Identify an organization, if applicable, using the Search button. If you are in a jurisdiction, the organizations you can select are restricted to those in the jurisdiction unless All Jurisdictions is selected in the CMDB Items tab of your Configuration Management security role. Jurisdictions are allocated to analysts through the Person Details window.
Location	Identify a location, if applicable, using the Search button.
External Supplier	Identify an external supplier, if applicable, using the Search button.
Contract	Identify a contract, if applicable, using the Search button.
Warranty Start	Use the button to identify a start date for the warranty, if applicable.
Warranty End	Use the button to identify an end date for the warranty, if applicable.
PO Number	Key in the PO number, if available.
Invoice Number	Key in the invoice number, if available.
License Type	If you are purchasing software, specify the license type. This field is only displayed for Software Products.
License Key	If you are purchasing software, specify the license key. This field is only displayed for Software Products.

Select . The items are displayed in the On Hand List in the lower browse table. If you cannot see this, select the On Hand tab in the lower set of tabs .

The Item Summary on the inventory details or software product details is updated automatically. The Purchases quantity shows the total number of items you have purchased, and the quantity for the particular transaction pool into which the items were received (On Hand – Available, On Hand – Unavailable, etc) is also updated.

Now you can carry out any of the following with the items in the selected purchase:

Allocate them to people and CMDB items
Reserve them for use by people and CMDB items
Transfer them (for instance to another cost center, or organization)
Retire them (for instance, if they were received in a faulty state)
Change their availability status

Updating a Purchase

Before you start

Order/Purchase must be selected within the Execute Transactions sections in the CMDB Items tab of your Configuration Management security role.If you have jurisdictions, and want to update purchases in jurisdictions other than your own, All Jurisdictions must be selected in the Order/Purchase/Transfer section on the same window.

You can only update a purchase if the items in the purchase are not currently in use, reserved, or retired, otherwise you will get an alert message on selecting Update.

The title and any description of the current software product or inventory appear at the top of this window. The Transactions window also has two tabs:

Orders

This tab allows you to add and manage your orders, that is record the number of items of a software product or inventory item you have ordered but have not yet received.

Purchases

Select the Purchases tab . This is just below the Description field. This tab has two browse tables. The top browse table is the list of purchases, and has columns for all the purchase transaction details. The bottom browse table has four tabs or views, On Hand, In Use, Reserved, and Retired. Each view represents the state of the purchased items after a particular transaction was performed.

Select the purchase you want to update, and then select from beneath the top browse table to display the Transaction Details Udpate Purchase window .
Update the details as required.

Configuration Item	The CMDB item identified in the original window is displayed. This is a read only field.
Status	The status of the items you are purchasing. This is a read-only field.
Quantity	Specify the quantity of the item to be purchased. If you update the quantity of items purchased, the same status is assigned to all items (even if some items had a different status in the original purchase).
Cost Center	Identify a cost center, if applicable, using the Search button. If you are in a jurisdiction, the cost centers you can select are restricted to those in the jurisdiction unless All Jurisdictions is selected in the CMDB Items tab of your Configuration Management security role. Jurisdictions are allocated to analysts through the Person Details window.
Organization	Identify an organization, if applicable, using the Search button. If you are in a jurisdiction, the organizations you can select are restricted to those in the jurisdiction unless All Jurisdictions is selected in the CMDB Items tab of your Configuration Management security role. Jurisdictions are allocated to analysts through the Person Details window.
Location	Identify a location, if applicable, using the Search button.
External Supplier	Identify an external supplier, if applicable, using the Search button.
Contract	Identify a contract, if applicable, using the Search button.
Warranty Start	Use the button to identify a start date for the warranty, if applicable.
Warranty End	Use the button to identify an end date for the warranty, if applicable.
PO Number	Key in the PO number, if available.
Invoice Number	Key in the invoice number, if available.
License Type	If you are purchasing software, specify the license type. This field is only displayed for Software Products.
License Key	If you are purchasing software, specify the license key. This field is only displayed for Software Products.

Select . The items are displayed in the On Hand List in the lower browse table. If you cannot see this, select the On Hand tab in the lower set of tabs .

Now you can carry out any of the following with the items in the selected purchase:

Allocate them to people and CMDB items
Reserve them for use by people and CMDB items
Transfer them (for instance to another cost center, or organization)
Retire them (for instance, if they were received in a faulty state)
Change their availability status

Deleting a Purchase

Before you start

Order/Purchase must be selected within the Execute Transactions sections in the CMDB Items tab of your Configuration Management security role.If you have jurisdictions, and want to update purchases in jurisdictions other than your own, All Jurisdictions must be selected in the Order/Purchase/Transfer section on the same window.

You can only delete a purchase if the items in the purchase are not currently in use, reserved, or retired, otherwise you will get an alert message on selecting Update.

The title and any description of the current software product or inventory appear at the top of this window. The Transactions window also has two tabs:

Orders

This tab allows you to add and manage your orders, that is record the number of items of a software product or inventory item you have ordered but have not yet received.

Purchases

Select the Purchases tab . This is just below the Description field. This tab has two browse tables. The top browse table is the list of purchases, and has columns for all the purchase transaction details. The bottom browse table has four tabs or views, On Hand, In Use, Reserved, and Retired. Each view represents the state of the purchased items after a particular transaction was performed.

Select the purchase you want to update, and then select from beneath the top browse table.
Confirm the deletion. The item is removed from the browse table, the Transaction History is updated and the Item Summary on the inventory details or software product details is also updated.