PURCHASING > Utility > Purge and Archive History > Archived Purchase Orders > Archive closed POs
This utility is used to improve system performance by moving closed (i.e. fully received and invoiced) POs from the Open PO table to the Closed PO Archive.
NOTE: You can still access and report on POs even after they have been archived. Also, some recently-closed POs (as opposed to older orders) will remain in the Open PO table for easy access, even after running this utility. For details, see "Retaining Closed POs Temporarily" and "Impact on Reporting and Related Transactions", below.
Why should I do this?
Unlike other areas/tables in SpendMap that can be purged yearly, open Purchase Orders are an exception.
The Open PO table contains your “open” or "live" POs. Since the Open PO table is accessed for most operations (more than any other table in the system), this file should be kept as small as possible to maximize system performance. When the number of open POs in the system is kept to a minimum, transactions process faster, searches will be faster, PO-related reports will print faster, etc.
In addition, when you have fewer POs in the Open PO table, it will be easier when searching for a PO (e.g. in View PO Status), since there will be fewer transactions to search through.
Therefore, SpendMap offers a two-step process for purging old POs. First, closed POs can be moved from the Open PO table to the Closed PO Archive with this utility. By moving closed POs to the Archive, system performance will be improved for daily activities and transactions that access open POs.
Secondly, the Closed PO Archive can be purged on a yearly basis, like the other areas that accumulate history.
When are POs Considered “Closed”?
If you are using the Invoice Approval Module, a PO is considered “closed” when all line items on the PO have been invoiced in full. These items will have a status of “CLOSED” in the PO Status Utility and related reports.
If you are not using the Invoice Approval Module, PO line items will be closed (auto invoiced) when they are received with the Receiving Module.
If you are not using the Receiving Module, PO line items will be closed (auto received and auto invoiced) as soon as the POs are processed.
Retaining Closed POs Temporarily
Since it is more likely that you will need to access or report on POs that have been recently closed (i.e. as opposed to older orders), you can keep some recently-closed POs in the Open PO table for convenience. That is, running this utility may not necessarily archive each and every closed PO. Typically, a couple months of closed POs will be retained in the Open PO file for ease-of-access and reference purposes but more can be kept if you commonly need to access these POs.
You can establish how long (how many days) closed PO will remain in the Open PO table using the setting "Number of days before closed POs are moved to the Closed PO Archive", in PO Processing Settings. Only POs that have been closed for more than the number of days specified will be moved to the Closed PO Archive when you run this utility.
In addition, there are a few other reasons why Closed POs will not be archived when this utility is run. Here is a complete list...
REMINDER: If need be, you can move closed POs from the Closed PO Archive back to the Open PO table using Re-Activate an Archived PO.
Impact on Reporting and Related Transactions
Archiving closed POs will not impact the other (related) history areas in the system. For example, purchase, receipt and invoice transactions will still show in the other areas of the system that are purged separately, such as on Item History Cards, the Tax/Audit Trail Report, Cost Center History, etc.
More importantly, archiving POs does not remove them from the system, and you will still have the option to include archived POs when running PO-related reports, such as the PO Listing Report.
In addition, archived POs can still be accessed with the View PO Status Utility, can still be copied when creating new POs, and can still be re-printed at any time.
However, once POs are archived, invoices related to those POs can no longer be canceled, even if the POs are moved back to the Open PO table.
