Please Note
This section includes information about a feature that may not be available for your account and the included screenshots may look slightly different from your portal experience.
Purchase Policies allow you to configure specific eligibility requirements around future charges to ensure there are no charges raised that do not meet your strategic purchasing needs.
Purchase Policy Types
The available types of purchase policy controls that can be enabled include:
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Purchase Order (PO) Number Required
- A charge cannot be raised unless a PO number is provided
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PO Number Required Over Specific Amount
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This is included as a sub-option to ‘PO Number Required’ and adjusts the requirement to only be valid when the transaction amount is equal to or greater than a specific amount (configured by you)
- Example: Setting this to $1000 USD would ensure that a PO Number is only required for charges that are equal to or greater than $1000 USD
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This is included as a sub-option to ‘PO Number Required’ and adjusts the requirement to only be valid when the transaction amount is equal to or greater than a specific amount (configured by you)
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Unique PO Number Required
- A charge cannot be raised unless the PO number provided is unique (and no duplicates exist on your account)
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Valid PO Number Format Required
- A charge cannot be raised unless the PO number provided matches a strict pattern and format (configured by you)
Configuring Purchase Policies
You can configure specific purchase policies for your account by:
- Navigating to the ‘Purchase Controls’ page under the Admin Settings in the Customer Portal
- Once there, click the ‘Manage Policies’ button under the ‘Purchase Policies’ section
PO Number Required & Unique PO Number
The ‘PO Number Required’ and ‘Unique PO Number’ options are configured by simply toggling them on or off.
When the ‘PO Number Required’ option is toggled on, you can also check the ‘only require when purchase amount is above’ option and provide an amount to enable enforcement of this policy in such an instance.
Validate PO Number Format
This option is configured similarly to the others by toggling it on. However, for the policy to be enforced, you must first create one or more active PO number formats. This can be done by clicking on the ‘Add Format’ button (only seen when this Purchase Policy option is toggled on).
Please note that toggling this option off and then toggling it back on will restore the previous set of PO number formats.
Create a PO Number Format
There are two ways of creating a PO Number Format:
- Format Builder: The ‘Format Builder’ option offers an easy and stepped approach through the process of creating a PO number format and does not require knowledge of regular expressions. Learn more…
- Custom Regex: The ‘Custom Regex’ option allows those familiar with regular expressions to define a PO number format in regex form. Learn more…
Scheduling Start & End Dates
You can schedule a start date for a PO number format that defines when it should become active and an end date for when the PO number format should become inactive. As an example, a customer may want to provide a start date of 6/1/24 as this set will not be valid until June 1st and an end date of 12/31/24 as this format should not be valid in the year 2025.
Reference Labels
You can provide a reference label to aid in describing the intention or use of a specific PO number format. As an example, a customer may want to provide a reference label of ‘Kansas City’ for a PO number format they’ve created specifically for purchases raised by their Kansas City office.
