--- /dev/null
+==== "Blanket" Orders
+
+"Blanket" orders allow staff to invoice an encumbered amount multiple times,
+paying off the charge over a period of time. The work flow supported by this
+development assumes staff does not need to track the individual contents of
+the order, only the amounts encumbered and invoiced in bulk.
+
+===== Example
+
+ . Staff creates PO with a Direct Charge of "Popular Fiction 2015" and
+ a charge type of "Blanket Order".
+ . The amount entered for the charge equals the total amount expected
+ to be charged over the duration of the order.
+ . When a shipment of "Popular Fiction" items arrive, staff creates an
+ invoice from the "Popular Fiction 2015" PO page and enters the amount
+ billed/paid for the received shipment under the "Popular Fiction 2015"
+ charge in the invoice.
+ . When the final shipment arrives, staff select the 'Final invoice
+ for Blanket Order' option on the invoice screen to mark the PO as
+ 'received' and drop any remaining encumbrances to $0.
+ .. Alternatively, if the PO needs to be finalized without creating
+ a final invoice, staff can use the new 'Finalize Blanket Order'
+ option on the PO page.
+
+===== New Components/Terminology/Concepts
+
+ * Invoice Item Types have a new flag called 'blanket', available under
+ Admin -> Server Administration -> Acq -> Invoice Item Types in the
+ staff client.
+ * Any direct charge using a 'blanket' item type will create a long-lived
+ charge that can be invoiced multiple times.
+ * Such a charge is considered open until its purchase order is "finalized"
+ (received).
+ * "Finalizing" a PO changes the PO's state to 'received' (assuming there are
+ no pending lineitems on the PO) and fully dis-encumbers all blanket charges
+ on the PO by setting the fund_debit amount to $0 on the original fund_debit
+ for the charge.
+ * Invoicing a 'blanket' charge does the following under the covers:
+ .. Create an invoice_item to track the payment
+ .. Create a new fund_debit to implement the payment whose amount matches the
+ invoiced amount.
+ .. Subtract the invoiced amount from the fund_debit linked to the original
+ 'blanket' po_item, thus reducing the amount encumbered on the charge as
+ a whole by the invoiced amount.
+ * A PO can have multiple blanket charges. E.g. you could have a blanket
+ order for "Popular Fiction 2015" and a second charge for "Pop Fiction
+ 20156 Taxes" to track / pay taxes over time on a blanket charge.
+ * A PO can have a mix of lineitems, non-blanket charges, and blanket charges.
+ * A 'blanket' Invoice Item Type cannot also be a 'prorate' type, since it's
+ nonsensical. Blanket items are encumbered, whereas prorated items are
+ only paid at invoice time and never encumbered.
+
+