Encumbrance Management

Closing Purchase Orders

POs are closed by Business Services on a monthly basis to help better manage open encumbrances displayed in WISDM, reduce the need for manual requests for closure, and to relieve the buildup of POs to be closed at fiscal year end. POs that meet the following criteria will be closed every month:

Monthly PO Auto-Closing Criteria

PO Types

Close Monthly
Orders with a PO End Date

Automatically close 90 days after the end date listed on the purchase order.

  • Note: The funding used on your order may also have a project end date separate from your PO end date.  The close criteria refer to the end date on your PO, however; if your funding has an end date, POs should not be written to exceed that date.
  • A Continuing Order Requisition (COR) will be produced approximately 3 months before the end date to remind the user to recreate the order if necessary
Specific Orders Automatically close 90 days after the last payment if*:
  • at least 95% liquidated and
  • the balance does not exceed $1000

Orders that do not fit the above monthly closing criteria can be closed via an approved Encumbrance and PO Management form submitted from your Dean’s office to Purchasing Services.

How Does This Affect Campus?

  • The PO Close Process runs on a monthly basis according to the established close criteria listed above and reduces the need to request a PO close.
  • Dean's Offices and Departments will NOT need to complete the PO and Encumbrance Management form for their POs to be closed according to these criteria, this will happen automatically when Business Services runs the close process monthly.
  • Invoices arriving for payment after a PO is closed will be paid as a Direct Payment referencing the PO number in the Description column.  This means that inquiries in WISDM for invoices against the PO number will NOT show the direct payment.  However, queries in WISDM looking for the PO number in the Description field will show the payment.  No one search method for an individual PO will capture both payments.  However, both payments will show up if you are viewing a summary report for an entire department or project, or if searching for all payments made from a specific vendor.

*At fiscal year end, a special close for specific orders takes place that will not use the 90 day activity criteria, meaning any specific PO that is at least 95% liquidated and has a balance less than $1000 will be closed.