Adding a PO number to a job

You can now record a purchase order number against a job at the point you post it. The reference then travels with that job all the way through, appearing on the timesheet and as a line item on the invoice you receive.

For finance teams, this is the useful part. When an agency invoice arrives, the purchase order your team raised is already sitting on the line, so there is no need to work backwards from a date and a site to establish which booking the charge belongs to.

A quick reminder of how posting a job works

Posting a job takes three steps. The PO number sits in the second one.

Step 1: Job details Choose the site and the start date, then the worker type you need. You can add a skill combination and a gender preference if the role calls for it. Underneath, set the shift itself with a start time and an end time. If the cover is split across the day, add a second block rather than posting two separate jobs.

Step 2: Job notes and other Add any notes for the agency and the worker, then the PO number. Both are optional.

Step 3: Summary A read back of everything you have entered, including the site, times, duration, worker type, skills, notes and PO number, so you can check it before the job goes out. Rates are confirmed once a worker is allocated, in line with the relevant agreement. Select Post Job to confirm.

Entering the PO number

Post a job as you normally would and complete Step 1: Job details.
Select Continue to reach Step 2: Job notes and other.
In the PO Number field, enter the purchase order reference your finance team has issued for this booking.
Select Continue and check the PO number appears correctly in the summary.
Select Post Job.

If you leave the field blank, the summary shows the PO number as N/A and the job posts perfectly well without one.

Please put the reference in the PO Number field rather than in the job notes. Notes are visible to agency users and to the worker taking the shift, and anything written there does not carry through to the timesheet or the invoice.

Where the PO number appears afterwards

Once the job is live, the reference is visible in:

The job list, so you can identify bookings by purchase order without opening each one
The job detail view for the individual job
The timesheet for that job, which is helpful when you are checking hours before approval
The invoice you receive, as a line item against the relevant charge

Changing a PO number

A PO number can be edited at any point up until the job is completed. This gives you room to correct a typing error, or to add a reference that had not yet been raised when the booking was made. That second case is common with short notice cover, where the shift is arranged before the paperwork catches up.

Once the job is completed, the reference is fixed, because at that stage it is feeding the timesheet and the invoice. If a completed job carries the wrong reference, raise it with your Care Hires contact rather than trying to amend it.

The habit worth building is entering the reference at the point of posting. Adding it later works, but only if someone remembers before the shift has been worked.

Turning PO numbers on or off by site

PO numbers can be switched on or off for each individual site. Purchase order requirements are rarely consistent across an organisation. One home may raise a purchase order for every booking while another does not use them at all, and there is no reason to prompt for a reference that will never be filled in.

If the PO number field is not appearing where you expect it, the most likely reason is that it has not been enabled for that site. Your Care Hires contact can confirm and switch it on.

Good to know

The field is optional throughout. It never blocks a job from going out to an agency.
There is no fixed format. Enter the reference exactly as your finance team issues it, including any prefix, so that it matches when the invoice is checked.
Because the reference lands on the invoice as a line item, an incorrect number is more likely to delay payment than a missing one. It is worth a glance at the summary screen before posting.
The same reference can be used across as many jobs as you like, so a purchase order covering a week of cover at one site can sit on every shift in that week.