Cross Department PO Receiving
By default, a Purchase Order (PO) can only be received (turned into a GRN) from the same department that created it — if a PO is created while working in Pharmacy, only a user working in Pharmacy can see it on the receiving list.
Some hospitals split this workflow across two departments: the PO is created in Pharmacy, but goods are physically received into Store. Cross-Department PO Receiving is an opt-in setting that allows a PO created in one department to appear on the receiving list for any other department in the same hospital, so staff working in Store (or any other department) can create the GRN against it.
This setting is off by default for every hospital. It must be turned on by an administrator for hospitals that need this workflow.
Turn this setting on when:
- Purchase Orders are raised by Pharmacy staff, but goods are physically received and counted into a separate Store department.
- Any similar split where the department that requests/orders items is not the department that physically takes delivery.
Leave it off (the default) if your hospital always creates and receives POs from the same department — this is the standard workflow and needs no configuration change.
- Navigate to Administration → Manage → Application Options.
- Click List Application Options.
- Type
Cross-Departmentinto the Key filter box. - Find Pharmacy - Allow Cross-Department PO Receiving in the list.
- Click the Edit (pencil) icon next to it.
- Toggle Key Value to On.
- Click Save.
Note: This is a hospital-wide setting — once enabled, it applies to every department in that hospital, not just Pharmacy and Store specifically. Any department with the Goods Receipt privilege can then see and receive POs created by any other department in the same hospital.
Once the setting is enabled, no extra steps are needed for day-to-day receiving — the workflow is identical to a normal GRN:
- Log in and select the department that will physically receive the goods (e.g. Store).
- Navigate to Pharmacy → Procurement → Purchase Orders for Receiving.
- Search for the PO (by PO number, date range, distributor, etc.). POs created in any department of the hospital will now appear, alongside the ones created locally.
- Click Create GRN on the relevant PO and complete the GRN as normal (batch number, expiry date, sale rate, invoice details).
- The resulting GRN — and the stock it creates — belongs to the department you were logged into when receiving (e.g. Store), not the department that originally created the PO.
Example — before enabling the setting, a user working in the Store department searching for a PO created in Main Pharmacy sees nothing:
After enabling the setting, the same search from Store shows the Main Pharmacy PO and lets the user create a GRN against it:
The GRN is then saved under the Store department, exactly as if it had been created there directly:
For comparison, a user working in the department that actually created the PO (Main Pharmacy) always sees its own POs regardless of this setting:
- "No purchase orders found matching your search criteria": Either no PO matches your filters, or the setting is off and the PO was created in a different department. Check the setting with your administrator if you expect to see POs from another department.
- Only enable this setting if your hospital genuinely splits ordering and receiving across departments — enabling it unnecessarily means any department with Goods Receipt access can see and act on every other department's POs.
- Make sure the receiving department's staff have the Goods Receipt privilege assigned for their department — this privilege, not the new setting, is what actually controls who can open the receiving page and act on a PO.
| Setting | Location | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pharmacy - Allow Cross-Department PO Receiving | Administration → Manage → Application Options | Off | When on, the Purchase Orders for Receiving list (and its variants) shows POs from every department in the hospital, not just the currently selected one. |
This setting does not change who can create a PO, only who can see and receive it. It also never shows POs from a different hospital/institution — only departments within the same hospital are affected.
Q: Does turning this on let Store see POs from every hospital in the system? A: No. Only departments within the same hospital (institution) are affected. POs belonging to a different hospital are never shown, regardless of this setting.
Q: If I turn this off again later, what happens to GRNs already received cross-department? A: Existing GRNs and their stock are unaffected — the setting only controls what appears in the receiving list going forward.
Q: Do I need a new privilege for staff in the receiving department? A: No new privilege is introduced. Staff need the existing Goods Receipt privilege assigned to whichever department they are working in when receiving.