Getting Started with Purchasing

The following steps are recommended to help get you started. You don't have to strictly follow all steps in order, but they provide a general guideline for getting the most out of Purchasing.

Part 1. Before Entering Information

  • Decide if you want to enter or import purchase details. For example, if you have an existing spreadsheet of purchase records, you can start by importing that information, and then enter information about future purchases as needed.
  • Determine if you want to create custom order fields or custom line item fields. Once you've created custom fields, you can then fill in those fields as you enter orders and add line items to them.
  • Determine if you want to use contracts to ensure compliance with your licensing agreements. You can create contracts at any time, but by creating them before you enter purchasing information, you can easily apply line items to contracts as you create the line items. Note: If you plan to use License Analytics to analyze purchasing data, you'll need to perform some steps in CAM Administrator and Purchasing. It's strongly recommended that you refer to Best Practices and Purchasing for complete instructions.
  • If you plan to use CSM authentication, see How to Set Up CSM Security Groups, Teams, and Users for procedures to complete in Cherwell Service Management before proceeding.

Part 2. Entering Purchasing Information

As mentioned above, you can use either method or a combination of both to enter purchasing information.

Importing Purchasing Information

Follow these steps, in order:

  1. Prepare CAM Administrator for importing purchasing data
  2. Prepare Purchasing for importing purchasing data
  3. Prepare your spreadsheet
  4. Import data into Purchasing

Entering Purchasing Information

To enter, rather than import, information, follow these steps. You can switch up the order of the steps, especially when editing orders and line items later on, but it's best to follow this order when getting started.

  1. Enter a new order. Optional: You can also attach purchasing documents to an order.
  2. Add line items to an order. Optional: You can also associate line items with contracts to help ensure compliance with product use rights (PURs). See the Note, above.

Part 3. Assigning and Reconciling

You may perform these tasks as you fill in the fields when you enter an order or line item, but there may be times when you don't have the information you need. Click one of the following for help performing these tasks after the order or line item was initially entered:

Part 4. Housekeeping

It's a good idea to:

  • Check the Status panel often, to evaluate purchasing data you've collected so far.
  • Address any outstanding tasks and reminders by selecting their hyperlinks.

Part 5. Other Tasks

The above lists the basic steps for getting started with Purchasing. For a complete list of the tasks you can perform, see How to....