After creating, printing and reviewing the Recurring Automatic Purchase Order criteria, you now need to Activate them. This will create the Purchase Order.

You may set the Automatic Purchase Order to activate at a specific time or Activate them immediately. You may set them to activate in the Foreground (you can see the process but the port will not be available until it is completed) or activate in the Background (you cannot see the process but the port is available).

Committing will start the Activation of the Purchase Orders. To Commit, and thus Activate the Automatic Purchase Orders, type a C and press <ENTER>. You will see the item numbers of the items that are being generated.

Activating the Automatic Purchase Order in the Foreground will run on this port and you may view the Activation occurring. The port will not be available until the Activation is complete.

If the Activation is being done in the Background, just press <ENTER> to continue to use this Port.

Activating the Automatic Purchase Order in the Background will run on a Phantom port that will release this port immediately. You will not be able to view the Activation as it occurs.

There will be a Report of the Recurring Purchase Order information that has just been selected. You may Exit at this time and not Activate the Purchase Orders.

Once the Automatic Purchase Order is Activated, you may go to "Purchase Order Entry and Print" (3.2.2) to edit and to Release the Purchase Order. To find the Purchase Order number, go to "Recurring Automatic Purchase Order Entry" (3.2.4.1).

You may View Activated Purchase Order Information. The information on the last five (5) Recurring Automatic Purchase Orders will be displayed at the Help information.

Enter the Recurring Purchase Order number, and press <ENTER>. Enter a </> and press <ENTER> to get to the bottom Help Information. The following information will be displayed:  Purchase Order Number or PO not Generated (if no items to be ordered), Date of Activation, Time of Activation, Port Number Activated (may be phantom port number if activated in the Background), User Id, Program Id  (Example:  PM).

Check Free Freight Minimum Amount - Enter <Y> to compare order totals to the Minimum Amount to receive Free Freight for each Vendor.

If you answer <Y>, all purchase orders that do not meet the Free Freight Minimum will not be created. Free Freight Minimum is setup in Vendor Entry (3.5.1.1 field 25)

<U>nreleasing a PO - The Date Ordered, Due Date, and Backorder Dates will be retained unless manually cleared by following the prompt to <C>lear Dates and confirming <Y>es or <N>o.