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Purchase Order Forms in Escape

One of the steps required in implementing Escape-Purchasing in your office is to order PO forms compatible with Escape. This write-up is intended to help you complete the task successfully!

PO Form Overview

Before ordering your forms, be sure to send us your artwork for review. Once you receive the printed forms, please send us 30 or so copies to use in testing the setup. If you decide to design your own PO form, use your old PO form and a sample you like as a starting point, taking into consideration printing and field limitations. You can do this by photocopying the sample, then penciling in the changes. Keep in mind that elimination of copies (parts) of the form is a worthwhile consideration. Since your system will be on-line, maybe some departments won't need a copy of the order. Once you have a basic layout, the steps are:

Send your mock-up to Escape Technology, along with a sample of your old form. We will review your design, and return it to you with recommendations. Have a forms vendor do artwork based on the mock-up. Have them send the actual artwork to Escape Technology for approval. We will return it ASAP, with recommendations for change if needed. When correct, we will approve the artwork.
Order the forms from the vendor. Order as few as possible, in case you discover that the form needs modification after you begin using it. Make sure that the pin feed perf is GLUED AND CRIMPED on BOTH SIDES. This is a little more expensive, but well worth it.
When you get the forms from the vendor, send 30 copies, to Escape Technology to be used in setting up the program to print on the forms. DO NOT TEAR THE FORMS APART IN ANY WAY!
When the program setup is completed, we will install and test it with you. Have your forms printer set up well before the forms get back from the forms vendor.

Printing Considerations

Many Escape customers include legal requirements on the reverse side of the vendor copy of the PO. If you plan on including that, please discuss it with your printer. In addition, request the printer glue and crimp the form perforations. Another printing consideration is the number of copies you plan on using. In other words, how many "parts" will there be to the form? One copy each for the vendor, accounting department, purchasing department file, the requisitioner and warehouse are the most common. When deciding how many parts there will be in the PO, check your printer's user guide or technical manual to see how thick a document it can handle. Most printers cannot handle more than six parts. We suggest reducing to a minimum the number of parts to your PO.

Shipping Instructions & Address

Most customers print standard shipping instructions on the PO form. Escape can print the carrier, ship date and other unique information. You may want to leave an area for "ship to" address because the Escape program can print this address on each PO, even for the warehouse.

Field Width Guidelines

The standard Escape PO form provides exactly the right amount of space for the various pieces of information, or fields. Why? Because some fields in Escape must be printed in their entirety and cannot be truncated (cut off) when printed.

Attached is a complete list of the fields which customers may choose to place on their PO form, along with the width in characters and a short description of the field. You will notice that the fields are divided into categories to help you locate field(s).

Remember: Please send us a proof of the PO form you design before you have them printed, so we can review it and make sure it is compatible with the software!

Printing Pitch

Escape PO's are designed to be printed using "10 pitch," meaning the size of the characters the printer must print is 10 characters per inch and 6 vertical lines per inch. This is a very standard print size option on most printers.

Accounts

Please consider how many digits (including spaces, dashes or other "delimiters") comprise your account numbers. Escape can handle up to 40 digits, including "delimiters." Please also consider where you would like to print the account number(s). Many customers leave a box at the bottom of the PO for up to two or three accounts. If the PO has more than that, the accounts print in the body of the PO. A standard message can be placed on the PO to let the reader know that the PO has "split accounts" and to look at the last page for the accounts and distribution amounts.

Multiple Copies

You can print print a single PO in a variety ways using a POname.CTL file. When purchase order are printed, Escape checks for a file with the same name as the PO form with an extension of CTL (e.g., PO.CTL).

The CTL file contains the Escape strings that you want to precede each copy of the PO. For example, if you have 4 parts, then you will have 4 lines in the file. Escape captures the contents of the printed PO in memory and then inserts the contents of each line from the CTL file before printing the PO contents.

The following example would print two copies of the PO from the default printer tray and one copy from the lower printer tray (which could have a different color paper!).

@ES&l0O@ES&k0S@ES&l7.27C@ES&l2X
@ES&l0O@ES&k0S@ES&l7.27C@@ES&l4H

Line Item Fields

The following fields relate to the actual PO Line Items. With the exception of UNIT, these fields, must be printed in their entirety and cannot be truncated or cut off. Although not mandatory, it is preferable that the fields appear in the following order on the PO.

Field Name	Width	Description
ITEM NUMBER	3	Line Item No.
QTY ORDERED	5	Quantity ordered of line item
UNIT	8	Unit of Order, i.e., case, box, pallet
ITEM DESC	40	Description of the Line Item
UNIT COST	12	Unit Cost of the Line Item
EXTENDED AMT	12	Unit Cost x Qty Ordered of Line Item

The Line Item area should be a minimum of 30 lines deep. In addition, 4-5 lines should be provided for subtotal, tax, freight, and PO total.

Commonly Used Fields

The following are the fields which are most commonly used by Escape customers. They are listed in the order which they most commonly appear, starting from the top of the PO.

Field Name	Width	Description
PO #	12	Number of the PO
PO DATE	8	Date of the PO
BOARD DATE	8	Board of Education‘s Mtg Date
SHIP TO SITE	33	Site/Address for Shipment (4 lines deep)
VENDOR INFO	33	Name/Address of Vendor (5 lines deep)
ORDER SITE	4	Site Which Ordered Items
SHIP DATE	8	Date of Shipment/Delivery
FOB	12	FOB Destination
SHIP VIA	12	Shipping Method or Shipper Name
REQ BY	26	Name of Requisitioner
REQ INFO	60	Misc Field Used at Customer's Discretion
PO TERMS	12	Payment Terms
BUYER	12	Name of Buyer/Purchasing Clerk
BUYER PHONE	12	Buyer’s Phone #
ROOM NUMBER	5	Room Number
REQ NUMBER	12	Requisition Number
VENDOR CODE	6	Code for the Vendor
SUBTOTAL NON	12	Subtotal of Non-Taxable Items
SUBTOTAL TAX	12	Subtotal of Taxable Items
SUBTOTAL	10	Subtotal of all Items
S & H	10	Shipping & Handling
TAX RATE	6	Sales Tax Rate (%)
SALES TAX	10	Dollar Amt of Sales Tax
TOTAL	13	Total Dollar Amt of PO
PAGE #	2	Page Number
PO PAGE CNT	2	Total Number of Pages of PO
ACC AMT OVER	13	Dollar Amt for Account (if multiple)
ACCOUNT #	40	Account Number (if 1)
ACCOUNT AMT	13	Dollar Amt for Account (if 1)
ACCT OVERFLW	40	Account Number (if multiple)

Other PO Fields

The following fields are not used as often as the ones in the section above, but are available for placement.

Field Name	Width	Description
ACCOUNT FLAG	1	Misc field, customer defined
ACCOUNT SITE	4	Site Code in Account Record
GROUP CODE	10	Line Item Grp-Furniture, PE Equip. etc.
LN ITM ACCT #	2	Account Line # (if Tied to Line Items)
LN ITM STK #	8	Warehouse (inventory) stock # *
MRR INFO	20	Name of the Mat’ls RR contact
PICKUP NAME	28	Name of Person Picking up Items
RPQ DUE DATE	8	RPQ Due Date from PO
RPQ NUMBER	12	RPQ # from PO
SITE CONTACT	30	Contact Name for Site
SITE PHONE	12	Site Telephone Number
VENDOR CNTCT	30	Contact Name for Vendor
VENDOR FAX #	12	Vendor Facsimile Telephone Number
SOURCE	12	Funding Source
TODAY’S DATE	8	Today’s Date (date PO is actually printed)
VENDOR ACCT#	17	Account Number for Vendor
VENDOR PHONE	12	Vendor Telephone Number

* This field will print automatically under the inventory item description without placing it on a PO. ONLY place this field if you want the stock # to print in a separate column in the body of the PO.