Let’s talk about the NetSuite Blanket Purchase Orders feature. Blanket POs help your buyers to be more efficient with their time while also minimizing the potential for error. Let’s dive in!

NetSuite Blanket Purchase Order Overview

Blanket purchase orders are used for recurring purchases. They lock in prices for specific items with a vendor for a designated period of time. To start out, you would create a new blanket purchase order, similarly to how you would create a regular purchase order. Then, you’ll send it to your vendor. Your vendor will look over the terms that you set and decide whether to accept it or not. Once your vendor accepts the terms of a blanket purchase order, those terms become binding for the set time period. A blanket purchase order is similar to a purchase contract in that the terms are binding, but a key difference is that while blanket purchase orders become contracts, a purchase contract does not necessarily convert to a purchase order.

Setting Up NetSuite Blanket Purchase Orders

To set up NetSuite for blanket purchase orders, you will need to enable Purchase Orders as well as Blanket Purchase Orders. Both of these features are located on the Basic Features section of the Transactions tab in Enable Features. If you want to be able to add expenses to blanket purchase orders, turn on the preference Allow Expenses on Purchases, which is located in Accounting Preferences.

Using Blanket Purchase Orders

Once you have the features and preferences that you need, how would you go about using NetSuite blanket purchase orders?

Create a Blanket Purchase Order

First, create a new blanket purchase order. You can do this by navigating to Transactions > Purchases > Enter Blanket Purchase Orders.

Blanket Purchase Order – Header Level

Create NetSuite Blanket Purchase Order

On the header level of a blanket purchase order, you will provide the order number and select the vendor this order applies to. You can also associate an employee with this order. The Date field will auto-populate with the current date but can be changed. You will set the effectivity period of the blanket purchase order using the Start Date and End Date fields. If purchases will be made from this PO on a schedule, then the Start Date field signals the first day an order is placed and the End Date field signals the final day an order is placed according to the blanket PO terms.

If you have NetSuite OneWorld, you will want to connect this PO to the correct subsidiary. The subsidiary you select here must match the vendor’s subsidiary. The other fields and field options in the Classification field group will adjust based on the subsidiary you select.

Blanket Purchase Order – Line Level

Add Items to NetSuite Blanket Purchase Order

You’ll use the Items subtab to add items and expenses. The items, rates, and accounts that display here are connected to your selected subsidiary. For both expenses and items, you can have NetSuite create purchase orders on a schedule. To do that, use the plus icon in the Schedule column.

Set Expense Schedule on NetSuite Blanket Purchase Order

You can schedule POs manually or you can select a release frequency and have NetSuite autogenerate these POs. Having a set schedule for these items or expenses is an excellent way to ensure your purchasing stays within budget.

To wrap up the blanket purchase order, you’ll want to make your selection on some of the other subtabs. Under the Terms subtab, set your payment terms. The Special Instructions subtab allows you to define things like your billing or product labeling preferences. You can include a contact for this blanket purchase order using the Relationships subtab and attach things like tasks, calls, or files using the Communication subtab.

Release Items on a Blanket Purchase Order

Before a scheduled purchase order can be created from your blanket purchase order, you will first need to release those items. If you set the Create Purchase Orders field on the PO schedule to be based on “At Lead Time,” then NetSuite will automatically release items when they reach their reorder points. If the schedule is set to create purchase orders manually, then when you order items from this blanket purchase order you will need to open the schedule and select the box in the Release column next to your desired line items.

Conclusion

Using the NetSuite Blanket Purchase Orders feature helps streamline the entire purchasing process, saving you time on manual data entry and regulating procurement spending. If you enjoyed this blog, be sure to subscribe to our mailing list below to receive each week’s latest NetSuite blog post directly in your inbox.