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Entering POs with Limited License/App Info

Hi!  I am having some trouble with determining best practice when entering Purchase Orders where there is:

1)  Limited info

2)  No license to allocate the purchase to

3) No evidence or "installed application" data

I want the records to be available in licensing and do  not want to defer the Purchase Orders.  What I have been doing (in limited cases) is looking for the Publisher and selecting a product (typically without consumption) and creating a "dummy" license based on that record, thus creating a purchase with a license record.  The record will still show no consumption but I thought it would be easier for me to manage if these zero consumption records were staring me in the face every day so I can knock them out.  I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not and would like some suggestions on what to do.  I am marking my purchase records with detailed notes on what I did and why.

Thank you guys!

Shelby

(1) Solution
ChrisG
By Community Manager Community Manager
Community Manager

The approach you've described here sounds spot on for what I would recommend. In the real world there are many licenses and scenarios which do not lend themselves to automatically being able to calculate consumption. However it is still useful to track the entitlement by having a license record (often using a license type of "Custom metric") so that you know you both have the right to use the software and that you have to somehow manage that right. Keeping good notes as you're doing is ideal both for yourself and people who will do the job after you - depending on the nature of the notes, it may make more sense to record them on the license record rather than the purchase record.

(Did my reply solve the question? Click "ACCEPT AS SOLUTION" to help others find answers faster. Liked something? Click "KUDO". Anything expressed here is my own view and not necessarily that of my employer, Flexera.)

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(4) Replies
ChrisG
By Community Manager Community Manager
Community Manager

The approach you've described here sounds spot on for what I would recommend. In the real world there are many licenses and scenarios which do not lend themselves to automatically being able to calculate consumption. However it is still useful to track the entitlement by having a license record (often using a license type of "Custom metric") so that you know you both have the right to use the software and that you have to somehow manage that right. Keeping good notes as you're doing is ideal both for yourself and people who will do the job after you - depending on the nature of the notes, it may make more sense to record them on the license record rather than the purchase record.

(Did my reply solve the question? Click "ACCEPT AS SOLUTION" to help others find answers faster. Liked something? Click "KUDO". Anything expressed here is my own view and not necessarily that of my employer, Flexera.)

Thank you for responding!  I feel better about what I'm doing now and will take your suggestion to make my notes at the license level instead of the purchase.

Shelby

@shelby_day  have you taken a look at the Software License Optimization Practice Guide? I think the best practices around handling purchases there might be valuable. 

https://learn.flexera.com/best-practices-for-software-license-optimization-with-flexnet-manager/306397

Natalie

Natalie Overstreet Lias
Senior Product Manager
I don’t speak for Flexera, and we should all be grateful for that
I think Chris etc are right and it's what Ive done in the past as well. Create a dummy PO if you need to and a baseline license and link the two. I'd reflect that its a baseline license by putting "baseline" in the license title. If theres no installer evidence or the app doesn't exist in the ARL, you could manually create one. How does the app install? ie MSI or is it cloud based so how is it "discovered" in the environment. Perhaps talk to your business owners for a report of where its installed and see if you can upload that into FNMS??