In this industry Change Orders are inevitable. Change orders may also be called variations, variation orders, discrepancies or punch lists. Any modification or change to the work or product order agreed to in the contract is treated as a variation. How you handle these variations within e-manage can differ depending on the situation (i.e. dealer mistake, client taking on additional charges, etc.). We will explore the Change Order process by options so you can decide internally how to best handle each unique Change Order situation. In some cases you may need to use a combination of options.
Option #1: Go back to the source (BOM) to make adjustment(s) and re-process Order entirely
This option may be necessary to ensure all aspects of the Project & Order are lined up for clarity, costing & customer pricing purposes. Essentially this is starting over. If Purchase Orders and/or Customer Invoices have already been generated they will need to be deleted. To delete a Purchase Order see here. To delete a Customer Invoice see here. Make the necessary adjustment(s) in the Bill of Materials, send necessary Action Item and re-process Order. See here to re-process the Order in Order Entry. Re-generate the Purchase Orders (note: e-manage will only produce lines on a Purchase Order that it recognizes has not been generated). Follow your dealership workflow as normal from here.
Option #2: Make adjustment directly in Order Entry
This option may be necessary in addition to Option #3 dependent on how you need the costing to reflect. This one is used in most cases where ONLY the customer order (customer invoice) is affected. See here for how to modify an Order directly in the Order Entry module. You can also manually add a line in the Order Entry module rather than going back to the BOM. Keep in mind if you take this route the Bill of Materials/Estimate will differ from the Order which is OK but something to just keep in mind. See here for how to manually add a line directly in the Order Entry module. Re-generate the Customer Invoice if necessary. We recommend continued use of Action Items where applicable.
Note: Again, if a Customer Invoice has already been generated you will need to delete the invoice to make changes to Order Entry.
Option #3: Make adjustment directly on Purchase Order
This option may be necessary in addition to Option #2 if both the sale and cost are needing adjustments. You would use this method alone if ONLY the Vendor Order/Costing needs adjustments. You would use this Option alone if the Dealership is “eating the cost”. See here on how to manually make adjustments to a Purchase Order and/or manually add a line to a Purchase Order. In some cases, you may want to Revise the Purchase Order to track changes effectively.
Notes to Consider with all Options
Anytime you want the original cost to remain on the Project for costing/commission purposes DO NOT delete the original Purchase Order so you can apply all incoming bills/vendor costs.
If the “change order” falls into the “Punch List” category be sure to follow all recommended guidelines here for Punch orders.
Tip: If you make any changes to the BOM post-processing in Order Entry (has already been converted to a Job) we recommend you re-send your “Process Order” Action Item with detailed information on what has been changed in the BOM so you are communicating the changes through to your Order Processing team so they can take necessary action.
If the “change” is a “Punch List” you really should be creating a “New Option” and processing an additional “Customer Order” and following the “Punch List” protocol. See here for additional information.