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AboutRead In 4 Minute
Keep Procurement On Schedule
One key element of planning major projects is to plan the purchases and contracts ahead of time that need to be in place for the project’s execution. This is tied to, for example, the scheduling of certain materials to be delivered to the jobsite on a specific date. Well before that date, however, the supplier needs to be identified, the purchase order issued, the materials shipped, and so forth. 4castplus includes powerful Milestone Planning tools for all the key events that need to take place on all purchase orders and subcontracts by identified dates leading up to final delivery. These events, or milestones, are fully customizable and can include deliverables such as drawings, fabrication, shipping, logistics, etc. The screenshot below shows a few examples.
Each milestone can be setup with an initial Schedule date for when the milestone is planned to be completed. In addition to a Forecast date to reflect any changes in that planned schedule date.
Milestones can be initiated at the Purchase Requisition stage – prior to moving on to RFQ or purchase order. This allows for pre-planning, and the creation of an overall Procurement Plan even before any purchase order is created.
Payment Events
You can also configure certain milestones to act as Payment Events to be part of a purchase order Payment Schedule. This is the mechanism 4castplus enables for paying subcontractors and/or suppliers based on milestone payments. Users can select which milestones will act as payment events once the milestone is marked as completed.
Looking at the screenshot below, each payment event is given an amount (or percentage), along with a schedule, forecasted and actual dates.
Expediting & Receiving
The milestones setup for any purchase order will also be available to monitor and update during Expediting. Let’s say, for example, you’re using “Fabrication Complete” as a milestone. And it is additionally a payment event. From within the Expediting module, users can update that milestone to be completed (with any associated notes, documentation, etc.). Since it’s a payment event, the system will automatically trigger a Receipt for the amount of the milestone payment. This will also trigger the system to incur the cost on the project, raise the equivalent accrual and even update the project’s progress – if applicable.
Learn More
Let us know if you’d like to learn more about procurement milestone planning, payment events, progressing or anything else in 4castplus.
