Enable Retention on a Purchase Order or Subcontract

Objective

To enable retention on a purchase order or subcontract using the project's Commitments tool. 

Background

Depending upon the accounting method set on a purchase order or subcontract, you can enable one or both retention settings on the contract. To learn about setting the accounting method, see How do I set the accounting method for a contract or funding?

		Accounting Method
Retention Type	Definition	Amount Based	Unit/Quantity Based
Completed Work Retention	An agreed-upon percentage amount on a contract is withheld from a subcontractor to ensure the work is satisfactorily complete on the project.
Stored Material Retention	An agreed-upon percentage amount allocated on a contract for stored materials to ensure sufficient materials are available to complete work.

Things to Consider

• Required User Permissions:
  • To enable retention on a purchase order or subcontract:
    •  'Admin' level permissions on the project's Commitments tool.
      OR
    • 'Read Only' or 'Standard' level permissions on the project's Commitments tool with the 'Create Work Order Contract', 'Create Purchase Order Contract', 'Update Work Order Contract', and/or 'Update Purchase Order Contract' granular permissions enabled on your permission template.
• Additional Information:
  • To enable these settings on all of a project's new commitments, see Configure Settings: Commitments.
  • To apply sliding scale retention to the commitment's payment applications, see Enable Sliding Scale Retention Rules on a Commitment's Payment applications.

Prerequisites

• Create a Commitment
• Set the contract's accounting method. See How do I set the accounting method for a contract?

Steps

1. Navigate to the project's Commitments tool.
2. Click the Contracts tab. 
3. Locate the commitment to work with.
4. Click the Number link to open the commitment. 
   
5. Click the Advanced Settings tab.
6. Click Edit.
   
7. Scroll to the Payment application section and choose the options that correspond to the contract's accounting method (see How do I set the accounting method for a contract?):
   1. For contract's using the Unit/Quantity Based accounting method:
      Place a mark in the Enable Completed Work Retention tickbox. Contracts using the Unit/Quantity Based accounting method can only be used to bill for completed work. This method cannot be used to bill for stored materials.
      
      OR 
   2. For contract's using the Amount-Based accounting method:
      Place a mark in one or both tickboxes:
      
      • Enable Completed Work Retention. Mark this tickbox to enable retention for completed work. To learn more, see Set or Release Retention on a Subcontractor Payment application. 
        AND/OR
      • Enable Stored Material Retention. Mark this tickbox to enable retention when billing for stored materials. To learn more, see About Stored Materials on Payment applications.
   3. Click Save.

See Also

• Create a Subcontractor Payment application