Ad-hoc Purchasing in MWO

Ad-hoc purchasing allows mobile users to quickly purchase parts from a registered supplier and complete the receipt at the supplier's counter. This feature is available for Work Tasks that originate from Work Orders or Service Requests in IFS Service MWO. 

Note: This solution is only available when the mobile device is online.

This function primarily supports the ad-hoc (unplanned) purchasing needs of mobile users executing Work Tasks.

Ad-hoc Purchasing Basic Data

The following basic data must be defined in the Ad-hoc Purchasing Basic Data page in the IFS Cloud Web.

• Users: Registering users per company for ad-hoc purchasing is a mandatory step in order to enable the ad-hoc purchasing feature in MWO Service Management. 
• User Groups: Defining user groups is optional. User groups are used to apply common restrictions for the amount in the Maximum Purchase Amount tab. 
• Maximum Purchase Amount: Define an Amount Limit per user/user group for suppliers. This step is optional. If defined, the system will warn users if the amount exceeds the limit during the ad-hoc purchasing process.
  Note: This is a warning, not a hard restriction. 
• Ad-hoc Prefix: This is a mandatory step. Define the prefix for a supplier to generate a unique reference for an ad-hoc purchasing instance. This reference will also serve as the purchase order number for back-office administration. 

Initiation and Execution of an Ad-hoc Purchase Request

Mobile users can initiate an ad-hoc purchase by registering an Ad-Hoc Purchase Request in the mobile app. To do this, use the New Ad-Hoc Request command available from the Ad-Hoc Purchase action on Work Task. 

When a new request is initiated, the system creates a Purchase Request with a registered supplier and generates an Order Reference with a supplier prefix. This reference number is used at the trade counter during the actual purchase.

The user can choose to enter the purchased part details immediately or Save and Exit from the request to enter the details later. In such cases, the request status is set to Pending, and the user can Continue the Session later to complete the request by entering the necessary details.

Alternatively, the purchased part details can be automatically obtained for the pending request through EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) from the supplier, or someone like the Service Manager can manually enter the purchased part details from the backend and complete the request.

If the total order amount exceeds the maximum purchase limit defined for the user or user group for a supplier, a Limit Exceeded badge will appear on the request. However, this does not act as a hard restriction.

Once the ad-hoc purchase request is completed, the associated purchase order is created and closed in IFS Cloud, and the work task is updated with the relevant purchase cost.

Mobile users can access both pending and completed ad-hoc purchase requests through the following places:

• Ad-hoc Purchase (Task Action)
• Purchase Handling (Home Screen)

Additionally, mobile users can view the details of a completed purchase request in read-only mode on the mobile app.

In situations where the mobile user cannot create ad-hoc purchase requests from mobile due to access restrictions, etc., a Service Manager or similar can create the request in IFS Cloud and provide the Order Reference, which the user can present to purchase the required parts from the trade counter.