Managing Variances Using the P/O Variance Queue

When physically matching your vendor invoices to purchase orders, you may find there are discrepancies or variances in what you have received to what you originally ordered or a variance in the cost of the items you ordered versus what you were invoiced. Use the Purchase Order Variance Queue to review purchase orders that do not match the received invoice. The system does not remove the purchase order from the P/O Variance Queue until Accounts Payable has the system cut a check to that vendor for the purchase order.

For example, you may have received more or fewer items than you ordered. From A/P Entry, drill into the purchase order and identify which items have been received. When you enter the variance using the Vendor Qty, Vendor UOM, and Vendor Extended Cost fields and the information does not match the original purchase order, the system adds that purchase order to the Purchase Order Variance Queue. From the queue, either purchasing or warehouse users resolve the issue. After resolution, the system removes that purchase order from the queue.

Note: To display summary information for this queue at all times, add a P/O Variance widget to your Solar Eclipse main window.

To manage a purchase order variance:

From the Purchase > Queues menu, select P/O Variance to display the Purchase Order Variance Queue.

In the ShipBranch/Territory/All field and Price Branch/Territory/All, enter the branch, branches, or territories for which to display the purchase orders that have variances and press Enter.

Populate the header fields to limit the queue display results.

Column	Description
Writer	Enter a purchase order writer's name to limit the queue to only orders entered by that user.
Pay-On Date (On or Before)	Enter a date to limit the queue by the pay-on date. The system includes all orders up to and including the pay-on date selected.
Directs	Select whether to include Direct orders in the queue.
Lot Billed	Select whether to include lot-billed items in the queue.
EDI Invoices	Select whether to include EDI 810s with variances in the queue. The system only creates variance records for EDI 810 invoices if the PO Variances For EDI 810 Invoices control maintenance record is set to Yes.
Variance Type	Select how you want to filter the queue for the type of discrepancies or variations you need to review.
Status	Select whether to display resolved, unresolved, or unreceived variances.

Use the columns to review the listed purchase orders. All fields in the columns are view only, but double-clicking a line item launches the associated purchase order.

Column	Description
Type	The type of variance the system recognizes: Quantity - There is a difference between what you received on the purchase order and what the vendor included on the invoice. Cost - There is a difference between the cost on the original purchase order and what the vendor included on the invoice. Both - The purchase order has both a quantity and a cost discrepancy between the received material and the invoice from the vendor.
Rec Br	The receiving branch as displayed on the purchase order.
Vendor	The vendor from which the items were sent to your warehouse.
PO #	The system-assigned purchase order number assigned when the purchase order was created. If the purchase order number does not contain a generation number, the purchase order is still open and has not been received.
Payable #	The number of the payable to which the purchase order is tied. Double-click the field to open the purchase order for editing.
Inv Amt	Total amount listed as outstanding on the invoice.
Var Amt	Amount of difference between the purchase order and the invoice.
Date Recd	The date the items were received in the warehouse.
Pyble/Pay -On Dt	The date payment for the invoice is due to the vendor along with the number of days past due, such as 07/16/2009 (10 Days Ago!). Invoices overdue display in red.
Tot Vars	The number of discrepancies between the purchase order and the variance.
Days in Q	Total number of days the purchase order has been in the queue.
Inv Image*	(View Only) If the system has an invoice image, this column displays an indicator . Click the indicator to view the image. If the invoice was generated from an EDI 810, this column displays an EDI indicator . Click the indicator to view the EDI invoice.
Packg List*	If the system has an packing list image, this column displays an indicator . Click the indicator to view the image.
Status	(View Only) Indicates the status of the variance resolution. The system does not remove the purchase order from the P/O Variance Queue until Accounts Payable has the system cut a check to that vendor for the purchase order. - Resolved - Purchase order requires action from accounts payable. (Blank) - Variance outstanding and needs to be addressed. The variance may be within acceptable limits based on your system requirements, but a payable or invoice may still need addressing. If an invoice displays as resolved after opening the variance resolution window, but there is no resolved check mark in the Status column, the payable may not have been sent.

* To view these images you need the Eclipse Document Imaging companion product. See your Inside Salesperson for more information.

You can reorder the columns as is most useful and the system saves your setup for the next time you launch the queue.

Double-click the purchase order to open it in Purchase Order Entry.

Note: A warning displays if the purchase order has already been resolved.

To add variance details to the purchase order, from the Inquiries menu, select Variance Details and complete the fields to add information for your Accounts Payable person to make the correct decision about creating payables. For example, you indicate that a discount was not made on the invoice that you were anticipating on the purchase order.

Note: If the purchase order has been resolved, this selection is not available.

Your accounts payable clerks can also auto-resolve variance for purchase orders that were open but are now received. For more information, see Automatically Approving Invoices with P/O Variances.

About Widgets for the Queue

To display summary information for this queue at all times, add a P/O Variance widget to your Solar Eclipse main window. For example, the widget for this queue supports variable dating. You create a widget so any purchase orders in this queue that are within three days of the pay-on date display in your widget. This type of filter helps you keep an eye on purchase orders you should be concerned about.

Field	Description
Total Variance Amount	(View Only) Displays the entire invoice variance.
PO Variance Amount	(View Only) Displays the variance difference between the currently displayed purchase order and the invoice received from the vendor.
Additional line(s) on PO, but not on invoice.	Select if the item(s) received is listed on the purchase order, but not on the invoice.
Additional line(s) on invoice, but not on PO.	Select if the item(s) received is on the invoice, but not listed on the purchase order.
Item(s) received are different from both PO and invoice.	Select if you received an item that is not on your invoice or on the purchase order.
Other Variance (freight, handling, etc.)	This is a free form field. List any other variance information that needs to be kept with the purchase order. For example, if the variance is a mismatch in the freight or tax amounts. Indicate what the variance is so the AP person can follow up and approve the payable when ready.