Transmit a Purchase Order Electronically

After a purchase order is released, you can send it electronically if the supplier accepts purchase orders via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).

Important:
To communicate with a supplier via EDI, you must first contact your Polaris Site Manager or Implementation Manager to obtain a license, then contact your supplier and get specific information to set up EDI ordering in Polaris. See Prepare for EDI Ordering. Then, set up the supplier record with the information you gathered. See Enter the supplier’s EDI ordering data.

To send a purchase order to a supplier via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI):

Important:
Check with your supplier to find out if ISBNs are required in purchase order line items.

1. Open the Purchase Order workform.
2. Select File > Send.

The purchase order is sent electronically via EDI.

3. To see details about the file transmission, select View > Charges. The Charges view displays the EDI file name, Date created, and Time created boxes filled in.

Related Information

• Retransmitting a purchase order - If you get the EDI File Sent Warning message that the purchase order was transmitted to the supplier, click Continue to retransmit the purchase order, or click Cancel if you do not want to retransmit the order.

Note:
You may want to check with your supplier before retransmitting the order, to avoid filling the order twice.

• Enriched EDI Ordering overview - See Enriched EDI Orders and Shelf-Ready Items.
• Setting up EDI ordering - To communicate with a supplier via EDI, you must first contact your Polaris Site Manager or Implementation Manager to obtain a license. Then contact the supplier and get specific information to enter in Polaris. See Prepare for EDI Ordering.
• Entering EDI information in the Supplier record - Set up the supplier record with the information you gathered from the supplier. See Enter the supplier’s EDI ordering data.
• Polaris EDIAgent - The Polaris EDIAgent is a SQL job that scans the supplier’s file transfer protocol (FTP) server for files in the library’s directory, retrieves the files, and saves them in the Polaris database. For more information, see About the Polaris EDIAgent Job..
• Electronic Purchase Order Acknowledgment - After the supplier receives the EDI purchase order, if the supplier uses EDI confirmations instead of email, an electronic purchase order acknowledgment is placed on the supplier’s FTP server. The Polaris EDIAgent retrieves the file and saves it in a directory on the library’s server. You can generate the Electronic Purchase Order Acknowledgment from the Utilities menu. See Acquisitions Reports.
• Receiving the EDI invoice - After the purchase order is received, the supplier puts an invoice on their FTP server. The Polaris EDIAgent picks up the file and uses the data in the invoice file to create one or more invoice records in Polaris. For more information, see Review automatic EDI invoices.