Subcontract items on purchase orders

You can now create specific purchase order lines for subcontract services such as galvanizing, freight, and subfabrication.

Previously, any subcontract services such as fabrication, surface treatment, and freight would need to be added to a purchase order as a regular line, which meant that users had to have a set of dummy shapes, grades, and sizes to represent them.

Now there is an easy way of recording and tracking the costs of subcontracted work. This feeds into job costing and results in a better and more complete picture of the project health. Users can distinguish between material and subcontract purchases, not only to make job costing easier and more accurate, but also to simplify the ordering workflow and remove unnecessary workarounds.

Before you start

In the address book, you can mark a company as a subcontractor, so that you can pick that company as a vendor on a purchase order. Selecting a company as a subcontractor adds the possibility to select the Default Cost Code and Default Cost Type.

Once Is Subcontractor is selected, you can create, issue, and receive subcontract purchase order items and services.

Previously, firms were required to be designated as a Vendor, Supplier, or Subcontractor so that purchase orders could be created within Tekla PowerFab. This no longer applies for subcontract materials and services.

Add subcontract items to a purchase order

In the PO # dialog box, there is a new tab, Subcontract Items, dedicated to subcontract items.

You can type subcription items in the Description field.

The Weight value on the item details row is calculated based on what has been defined within Subcontract Items and not the actual material weight (if existent).

You can select if the Subcontract Items tab is visible on a purchase order in PO Type Maintenance.

The default PO Type is Regular, but you can change it and also add here subcontract-specific PO types such as Galvanizing.

Add subcontract items to a purchase order from a load

It is also possible to add subcontract items to a purchase order or create a subcontract purchase order directly from a load in Production Control. When you have loads in your production control jobs that need to be sent for painting or galvanizing, for example, the materials can now be loaded directly onto a purchase order.

Clicking Add to Purchase Order opens the Add to Subcontract Purchase Order Options dialog box.

You can select from two options:

One Summary Line: A single line displayed on the purchase order that represents the entire load
One line for each assembly / part: A multiline entry on the purchase order that includes complete assembly information from the load