In this article, we will guide you through the process of creating and managing Labor Purchase Orders (LPO) on the platform.

What is a Labor Purchase Order?

A Labor Purchase Order establishes an agreement between your company and a freelancer for a specific project. It helps ensure proper authorization and budget control before the project starts, provides a clear record for accounting and auditing purposes, and clearly defines the scope and expectations for both the client and the service provider.

Real life examples

Getting started with Labor Purchase Orders

To start using LPOs, there are a few things you need to do first: 

• Configuring the user role permissions.
• Setting up the crew expenses.
• Setting up the crew rates.

User role permissions

To enable a user to generate and manage Labor Purchase Orders, you need to assign some permissions to their user role in the settings Configuration module. 

Permissions

Permissions	Action required	Why
Power user	You must be a power user	Certain of the following permissions, shown with a , are only accessible to power users.
Crew planner	Activated	Necessary to have access to the "Change schedule" permission.
Crew planner > Change schedule	Selected	Necessary to have access to the Crew scheduling tab of your projects. This is where you generate the LPOs.
Purchase orders	Activated	Necessary to have access to the LPO feature.
Purchase orders > Visible purchase orders	"All purchase orders"	Necessary to have access to the "Add crew activities to purchase orders".
Purchase orders > Create and edit purchase orders	"All purchase orders"	Necessary to add information to existing LPO, even those not created by you.
Purchase orders > Approve purchase orders	Selected	Necessary to self-approve purchase orders.
Purchase orders > Cancel purchase orders	Selected	Necessary to cancel purchase orders.
Purchase orders > Complete purchase orders	Selected	Necessary to mark purchase orders as "Completed".
Purchase orders > Add crew activities to purchase orders	Selected	Necessary to create an LPO.

 

Set up crew expenses

Crew expenses are ancillary costs, beyond standard labor rates, that can be shown on the LPOs you generate in Rentman. In Rentman, they are grouped into four categories: Catering, Travel, Accommodation, and Other. To make sure they are included correctly, you must add them to the functions. 

Set up crew rates

Crew rates are the costs assigned to each crew member or function (role) for the work they perform. They represent the labor cost per hour, day, or event for each type of crew. 

Crew rates can be configured before being assigned to specific functions or individual crew members.

You can also assign an individual rate to a specific crew member, for example, if you have a special agreement with them.

Crew expenses

In addition to regular labor rates, you can include extra crew-related costs, called Crew expenses, on the LPO, such as meals or travel. They are grouped in Rentman under four categories: Catering, Travel, Accommodation, and Other.

Note: On U.S. accounts, Lodging is used instead of Accommodation, and Meals is used instead of Catering.

Create a Labor Purchase Order

1. Enter the project of your choice from the table_chart Projects module.
2. Go to the Crew scheduling tab.
3. Hover over the name of the planned crew member for whom you want to create an LPO.
4. Click on more_vert next to menu_openDetails
5. Select Add to Purchase Order
6. In the Add to purchase order window, click on Confirm
7. Once the purchase order form appears, enter any necessary information. 
8. Save

In your project’s Crew Scheduling tab, use the Crew Members filter to view all functions assigned to a specific crew member.

Bulk create Labor Purchase Orders

1. Enter the project of your choice from the table_chart Projects module.
2. Go to the Crew scheduling tab of your project.
3. Select the planned crew members for whom you want to create an LPO.
4. From the blue bar that appears on the top, click on more_vert
5. Select Add to Purchase Order
6. In the Add to purchase order pop-up, click on Confirm
7. Use the buttons chevron_left and chevron_right in the upper-right corner of your screen to navigate to the next or previous LPO.
8. Once the purchase order form appears, enter any necessary information. 
9. Save

Add to purchase order

The Add to purchase order pop-up appears when you create one or more Labor Purchase Orders. It provides a summary of the action(s) you are about to perform. 

• If no LPO exists yet for the selected crew member(s), in this (sub)project, or if an existing LPO has the status Completed or Canceled, a new LPO will be created for each selected crew member.
• If an LPO already exists, with a status other than Completed or Canceled, the selected crew members will be added to their respective existing LPO(s).

Cost Comparison

If you want to verify that the approved amount for your Labor Purchase Order aligns with the final total cost, you can use the Costs Comparison line. For more information, please refer to this article.

Statuses and Labor Purchase Order History

Throughout the LPO creation process, the document will transition through multiple statuses. You can also review the complete status timeline for any specific LPO in the Purchase Order History section. To understand how the Purchase Order History section, and each status function, please refer to this article. 

The statuses available for Labor Purchase Orders are the same as those available for regular Purchase Orders. However, the workflows for each feature may differ, so you might not need every status when managing your LPOs. For example, you may not require an approval step for Labor Purchase Orders, but the approval status still exists, and each LPO must be moved to “Approved” before it can be sent.

Create a document

After the LPO is approved, you can generate a document and send it to the crew member.

1. In the Purchase orders tab of your project, select the purchase order you want to create a document for.
2. In the blue bar at the top, click Edit
3. Select Create document
4. In the pop-up, choose the document template and the letterhead you want to use.
5. Click Generate

Document template

By default, there is a single document template used for both Labor Purchase Orders and standard Purchase Orders. You can choose to add an information module, called "Crew Costs Breakdown", to the template to display crew expense details. This information module will appear when generating a Labor Purchase Order, but it will not be shown on standard Purchase Orders.

 

1. Navigate to settings Configuration module>Communication>Document templates. 
2. Select the Purchase order document template.
3. In the blue bar at the top, click Edit
4. Duplicate the template by clicking on Click here to duplicate the template at the top.
5.  In the right-hand menu, click on add_circle .
6. Drag and drop the Crew costs breakdown module from the right-hand side into the section of the document of your choice.
7. Save. Rentman Tip: Alternatively, you can use two separate templates: keep the original template for standard Purchase Orders, and create a copy specifically for Labor Purchase Orders where the crew expenses information module "Crew Costs Breakdown" is included.

FAQ