How would one go about getting a PO received in that’s for a subcontract operation, but that operation and the job were already completed and closed?
Is there a way to force it to receive to inventory, rather than the job?
(I suppose by creating a new PO line that could be done, but then the line isn’t matching up with vendor invoice–that’s not insurmountable, but also not ideal.)
The “technically correct” answer is that you should reopen the job the PO is for, receive the PO, then close the job again. The job should not have been closed with that PO still open.
If the part coming back from outside service is complete and ready to be put into inventory as-is, you could change the PO line to receive to inventory instead.
If the part isn’t fully ready to be received to stock as-is and you cannot reopen the original job, I would create a new job starting at the subcontract operation, change the PO to point to that job, and then process the part using that new job.
Subcontract PO’s aren’t really inventory. They are for a service. If you look at the part tran for those receipts, you’ll notice that the inventory checkbox isn’t checked. There isn’t actually anything to receive into inventory. The fact that they use receipt entry is a little misleading. They do that, because you are getting back goods so shipping can process the receipts, but it’s not really the same.
I second what @tsmith says, you should re-open the job, receive the PO, then close the job. When you run COS/WIP you will get your requisite variance for the job.
Also, you should prevent jobs from being closed/completed until those outstanding PO’s a received. 
Oh, yes, very good point.
Agreed! Putting it on the to-do list.
Well, maybe. That PartTran debits the WIP account for the job. If you are an average cost user, when the job is received, those costs end up in inventory. If the subcon costs were missing, the average cost will reflect that. Opening the job and posting the receipt will then flush that cost to variance instead of COGS.
That is why a job should never be closed until all costs are accrued. A BPM could even check for open Sub PO receipts to block it.
Sorry, I wasn’t specific enough. It’s eventual inventory cost but not physical inventory pieces at the time of receipt. The point being, you can’t just receive a subcontract PO “To Inventory”.