Tracking Purchases on Work Requests

This article explains how to associate purchases with work requests (maintenance requests, project requests, etc.) to track job-specific costs and outlines the best practices for avoiding common accounting errors.

💡 Note: To use this feature, the Purchasing module must be enabled for your organization. Your ability to view total costs on a work request depends on your user permissions; you must have access to all active cost categories (e.g., labor, inventory, and purchasing) to see the final total.

Understanding job costing

Job costing is the practice of tracking all expenses associated with a specific job or work request (such as a maintenance request, technology work order, or project request). In FMX, you can link a Requisition or a Purchase Order directly to a work request. When payments are logged against the associated Purchase Order, the costs automatically appear on the work request, giving you a clear view of your expenditures for that specific job.

Required user permissions

To link purchases with work requests, an administrator must first ensure users have the correct permissions enabled in their assigned User Type. These settings can be found by navigating to Admin Settings > Users & Contacts and editing a User Type.

Under the Purchasing Access heading, a user must have the ability to create the purchase itself. This means enabling either the Create requisition or Create PO permission.

Methods for associating a purchase

There are two ways to link a purchase with a work request in FMX, depending on where you prefer to start the process.

Method 1: From the purchasing module

You can create a new purchase order or requisition and link it to an existing work request.

1. While creating a new order from the Purchasing module, locate the Associated work requests field.
2. Click into the field and select the relevant work request(s) from the dropdown menu.
3. Complete the rest of the purchase details and save or submit the order.

Method 2: From a work request

You can also start directly from the work request that requires a purchase.

1. Navigate to the detail page of the work request.
2. Click the New button in the top right corner.
3. Select either Associated Requisition or Associated Purchase Order from the dropdown menu.
4. This will open a new purchase form with the work request already linked in the Associated work requests field.
5. Complete the rest of the purchase details and save or submit the order.

Reviewing purchase costs on a work request

Once a linked Purchase Order has been marked as purchased and payments have been logged against it, the costs will automatically roll up to the associated work request.

You can find these expenses in the Costs section of the work request detail page, under the "Purchase order" category. The total displayed is the sum of all completed payments on purchase orders associated with that request.

Choosing the right job costing workflow

To ensure your costs are accurate, it is critical to choose a workflow that matches how your organization manages inventory.

⚠️ Warning: The most common job costing error is double-counting the cost of an inventory item. This happens when the cost is recorded once at the time of purchase and a second time when the item is used on a work request. The workflows below are designed to prevent this.

Workflow 1: For organizations that track inventory in FMX

If your organization uses FMX to manage a warehouse or stock of inventory items, you should use a combination of tools to track costs accurately.

• For one-off items bought for a specific job: Create a Purchase Order or Requisition and link it to the work request using the Associated work requests field. These should be "one-off" items, not items you track in your FMX inventory.
• For using stocked parts from your warehouse: Use a Supply Request to log the use of inventory items on a work request. This correctly assigns the cost of the item from your existing inventory to the job.
• For restocking your warehouse: Create a Purchase Order to buy more inventory items. Do not link this type of PO to a specific work request. The cost of these items will be accounted for later when they are used on a job via a Supply Request. Associating a restocking PO with a work request will lead to double-counting.

Workflow 2: For organizations that do not track inventory in FMX

If your organization does not track inventory items within FMX and instead purchases items as needed for every job, the workflow is simpler.

• For every item needed for a job, create a Purchase Order or Requisition and link it to the work request using the Associated work requests field.
• When adding line items, always ensure the “One off” box is checked, as you are not pulling from a pre-existing inventory stock.