A purchase order is the process of requesting the items needed at the store from the vendor. The vendor receives the request via the purchase order number (electronically or manually) and fulfills the request for items in the order. The vendor sends back the ordered products as an invoice, which would then be received in the system. The store receives that invoice and will add new inventory to the quantity on hand. This article focuses on creating, editing, and deleting purchase orders, as well as merging multiple purchase orders.

Reaching "Purchase Orders" 

To reach "Purchase Orders": 

1. Log into Control Center
   
2. Choose Point of Sale
   
3. Choose Inventory
   
4. Choose Reorder 

                                                                                                Figure 1

Understanding "Purchase Orders" Layout

Please see the images labeled Figure 1 and Figure 2 for a description of the buttons and fields that appear on the screen.

 

1. Fields:

See Figure 3:

1. Location: This field lets you select one or many locations for which you wish to create an order of products/items. 
   

2. Vendor: Select the name of the vendor from whom items are going to be purchased. 

3. Order Comments: Mention any general comments that support/explain the purchase order. 

4. Order Filters: This field further gives you two choices (explained below): 
   

1. All: If selected, it will include all the items that the vendor supplies. 

2. Custom: If selected, this will customize the item order according to a category, department, manufacturer, and tags. See Figure 4 for a more detailed description. 

1. Use Order Requirements From: This field does the pricing and makes sure that your vendors get their money on time. It is because even if there is a price hike, your vendors wouldn’t want you to stop doing business with them. They would want you to buy at least 20% of the products bought last month. 

This feature isn’t used anymore. This was a legacy feature that was used earlier, specifically in the tobacco industry. 
1. Create As Transfer From Store: If this option is toggled to YES, it will create a TRANSFER instead of creating an order. If you toggle this option to YES, it will direct you to the TRANSFER FORM. 
   

1. Store Review Not Required: This option is not for the storefront but for corporations to generate an order and send that to the store, and then the store reviews the order and makes the required changes and sends that back to the corporate for review. If this is toggled to YES, then the company will send it to the store. 
   

1. Send to Store: This option is for the company that generates an order and sends it to the store for review. This option is not available if the above option, “Store Review Not Required,” is toggled to NO. 

To automate an order, it is necessary for a product to have a vendor part associated with the vendor you are generating an order for. 

If you select Custom as the order filter, the "Manage" button will appear, as seen in Figure 4. The button leads to the Manage Filters pop-up, which is explained in Figure 5. 

1.4.1. Manage Filters: 

See Figure 4:

                                                                      Figure 4

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Figure 5 

                                                                                            Figure 6

1.4.2 Save Filters

You can also save the configured custom filters for future use. By clicking the "Save Filters" button, a pop-up will appear to allow you to enter the name of the custom filter.

                                                                                    Figure 7

2. Order Methods 

This field offers a variety of methods for a system to generate an order. See Figure 3.  

                                                                                      Figure 8

2.1. List All Products from Vendor 

When you select this option, this method will list all the items that the selected vendor, e.g., DemoVendor1 is selling. If you have some departments through order filters, this method will display items from all the selected departments only.

See Figure 9.

                                            Figure 9

1. Create a Negative Order: This option reverses the flag of the items in an order and is only used when you wish to return items to the vendor. This option is occasionally used, as there is an entirely different method to return items. 
   

This method is less likely to be used as analyzing sales history is a better metric than min/max.

2.2. Reorder by Min/Max 

This method will allow you to order items based on min/max values. Each product is tagged with its minimum and maximum value.  Whenever the system goes below the item’s minimum value, it will order whatever is needed to get you up to that maximum value. It is done for each item. In short, this method allows you to fine-tune your inventory level to have a specific quantity per item. See Figure 10. 

                                                                      Figure 10

1. Include Packs to Calculate Carton Qty on Hand: Check this option if you wish to use the child item (pack) to calculate the parent item (carton) on hand. 
   

1. Require Multiples of: This method will let you order the items from the selected vendor in multiples of the entered number. For example, if the value entered is 10 in another case, then it allows you to order the items in multiples of 10, i.e., 10, 20, 30, and so on.
   

1. With a min order % of: This is a rounding feature when you have to order in sets. For example, the value for "Require multiples of" is set to 10, which means that you can only order values of 10/20/30/40/, etc. But along with it, if the value for "With a min order % of" is set to 50%, it means that if the system evaluates and believes you need to order 5, then it will round up to 10. If the system believes you need to order 25, it will round up to 30. If it believes you need to order 22, it will round down to 20. So essentially, sets of 10, rounding to the closest 10 in between the sets.
   

The percentage actually defines the direction in which it is used to round off the value (lower or higher).

                                       Figure 11

See Figure G

Taking current day = Friday, if the default value for Start Date Offset is set to 0, and the value of Date Range From is set to 2 weeks. Then: 

1. The value 0 represents yesterday, i.e., Thursday.
   

         The system will count 2 weeks backward from Thursday.

1. 1 represents 1 day before yesterday, i.e., Wednesday. 
   

        The system will count 2 weeks backward from Wednesday.

1. 2 represents 2 days before yesterday, i.e., Tuesday. 
   

        The system will count 2 weeks backward from Tuesday.

1. Days of Inventory: This defines the average sales per day on hand. So, if you enter 10 as the “Days of Inventory” value and the average sales per day of an item is 1, it means you have 10 selling days of inventory on hand. If you have QOH for that item equal to 3, then you have to order 7 more to meet that requirement. and you already have 10 items as "Quantity on Hand" value, then you don't need to order anything at all.
   

This method uses real historical data to generate average sales per day. So, if you already have 10 units of any item in the inventory whose average sales per day are 1, then you don’t need to order anything at all because you already have what you need.  

1. Use item Min Qty: If this option is checked, it will make sure that regardless of what the system is ordering, it will have some fixed (minimum) quantity on hand (say 10). Example: If the system is suggesting 7 units of any item whose minimum quantity is set as 10, and you have 1 quantity on hand, then the system will automatically add 2 more quantities so that the ordered quantity becomes equal to 10 (the preset minimum quantity). This option, when toggled to YES, will never let you go down to the minimum quantity. 

1. Include Sold Items with “O” Order Qty: Toggling this option to YES will let you know the item is sold on their order form, even though it may have not met the threshold otherwise to generate an order. Doing so enables you to make a judgment call on whether to order that item or not.
   

1. Require Multiples of: This method will let you order the items from the selected vendor in multiples of 30 or the entered number.
   

1. With a Min Order % of: This is a rounding feature when you have to order in sets. For example, the value for "Require multiples of" is set to 10, which means that you can only order values of 10/20/30/40/, etc. But along with it, if the value for "With a min order % of" is set to 50%, it means that if the system evaluates and believes you need to order 5, then it will round up to 10. If the system believes you need to order 25, it will round up to 30. If it believes you need to order 22, it will round down to 20. So essentially, sets of 10, rounding to the closest 10 in between the sets.
   

The percentage actually defines the direction in which it is used to round off the value (lower or higher).

                               Figure 12

1. For example: If you are selling cigarette packs, not cigarette cartons and you enter a value above 50%, say 70%, and since there are 10 packs in a cigarette carton, the system will round up the order to 10 i.e., a carton. Alternatively, if the value is below 50%, then the system would round down and wouldn’t order anything at all. 
   

1. Date range from: You are allowed to choose a date range by weeks (1-8 weeks), months (1-3 months), by custom # of days (select number of days through counter), custom range (select an appropriate date range from the drop-down calendar) for which you wish to calculate average sales. 
   

1. Start Date Offset: The offset is how far back you would want to go to start the data analysis. The default value is 0, and 0 represents yesterday. So, if the date range is 2 weeks, then it would go back to the range of 2 weeks from yesterday to evaluate. If that offset is set to 2 and the date range is set to 2 weeks, then it'd go back to 2 days back in time (say, if today is Friday, it will go back to Tuesday and now Tuesday in the past will become the starting day for that 2-weeks range) and evaluate the 2 weeks before that in the past.
   

1. Use QOH as Reorder Point: This option is useful when you wish to set Quantity on Hand as a Reorder Point. Suppose, if your inventory is showing 5 units of an item as quantity on hand, you can use this QOH as a reorder point. 
   

1. Include Sold Items with O Order Qty: In the round-up field, if you enter, say, 50%, and you don’t sell 5 packs (sub-units/child items), it will still place that item on the order, but with 0 quantity. Toggling this option to YES will let you know the item is sold on their order form, even though it may not have met the threshold otherwise. Doing so enables you to make a judgment call on whether to order that item or not! So, when you select this option and see some products listed in the order form with 0 quantity, make sure to press “Remove Products with 0 Quantity." See Figure 13 below for reference.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Figure 13

2.5. List All Products from Vendor with Replenishment

This method is a combination of the “List All” and “Replenishment” order methods. It allows you to place an order for all items with the filter, e.g., department, category, tag, etc., from the selected vendor (DemoVendor1). Then, it is going to look for the date range to look up the sales history for that item and place an order (same as replenishment). See Figure 12 and its form for reference. This method is used in rare cases. 

For fields, refer to 2.4. Reorder by Products Sold (Replenishment). 

2.6. Reorder Using Blank Order Method 

When you generate an order using a blank order method, it will create a blank order no matter how many filters you have applied. You must manually add items that you wish to order. See Figure 14.

                                                         Figure 14

2.7. Reorder with Hybrid Days/Replenishment 

This method is a hybrid of days of inventory and replenishment. It is a less frequently used method than the days of inventory and replenishment order method. 

1. Method Purpose: Say you have a brand-new item that has been sold within a week, and you are looking for two months of sales history. Since you've had that item at your store only for 7 days and you are looking at sales history for more than 7 days, say 60 days (about 2 months), the Days of Inventory method won’t generate an order because, according to this method, your average sales per day are low.  

So, even though that item is a hot seller or out of stock, you cannot generate an order. 

This is where the Reorder with Hybrid Days methods come in handy! You can use this method to generate an order for all items based on 'Days of Inventory' other than brand-new items. See Figure 15.

                                            Figure 15

1. For example: If you enter 14 days and the item is newer than 14 days, and filtered by category, department, manufacturer, or tag,  that Item is going to be ordered based on the replenishment order. Any Item that is older than 14 days will be ordered by days of inventory. 

2.8. Weekly Max 

This method is similar to the "Days in Inventory" method, but it utilizes weekly sales data available in the data grid of sales history. This is a great method to make sure that you never run out of stock for your products. For every item in the purchase order, 10 weeks of sales data is shown in the sales history.

                                               

                                                     Figure 16

                                                   Figure 17

1. Number of Weeks: Enter the number of weeks for which the Weekly Max Order is to be applied. Say you enter 6, then the system will look for the previous 6 weeks’ sales history for all the items that are filtered by category, department, manufacturer, or tags. 

Therefore, with this method, you will know that you should have at least 5 of the parent items and 9 of the child items on hand. 

(See Figure 16) You can see some products highlighted in red. This means that you need to pay some extra attention to these fields. These highlighted fields signify that you need to order more than what the system is suggesting.  

1. Example: Consider a regular product that you order every week and is out of stock every week; then you might possibly lose sales. You can manually edit the "Order Qty" and increase the quantity by 1 the following week. If it is still not sufficient, then you can increase the quantity accordingly. 

Doing so will make the system aware of the actual sales number and let it suggest the true needed value for products (not too few, not too many, just what is needed). 

2.9. Items with 0 QOH 

This method will allow you to create a purchase order only for the items in the selected location that have "Quantity on Hand" for those items for the selected department/category/manufacturer/tag equal to 0.

                                                 Figure 18

1. Default Quantity: If the QOH for any item at a location is zero, and the default quantity for the "Items with 0 QOH" order method is set to say 20, then the system will suggest 20 quantities to order and will overlook the Require Multiples of and With a Min Order % of value for this order method.
   

Add New Order Form Buttons

3.1. Creating Order

See Figure 3.

Follow the steps mentioned below to create an order: 

1. On the Add New Order form (see Figure 3), fill in the form with the right order method.
   
2. Click on "Create Order." The order form highlighted in Figure 19 will appear on your screen. 
   

Figure 19 is divided into three parts to describe all the labels in the reports:

                                                                                      Figure 19

Buttons on "Products on Order" Ribbon:

2.1.1. Remove Products with Zero Qty: Clicking on this button helps in deleting the products that have zero "Quantity on Hand."

                                     Figure 19.1

2.1.2. Refresh QOH: This button lets you refresh the data in the QOH column.

2.1.3. Add Back Order Items: This button will help you Append, Replace, or Ignore the items on the back order to the Purchase Order. 

                                                              Figure 19.2

1. When the Back Order form has items listed, clicking on "Apply to Order" will Add, Replace, or Ignore (as per the Manage Quantity option selection) on Edit Purchase Order form.

3.1.4. Add: This button helps you add items to a purchase order from Edit Purchase Order.

                                        Figure 19.3

1. Select the product and fill in the item-related information in the form. Once done, click on "Apply" to save the changes, and it will be added to the purchase order on the Edit Purchase Order form.

3.1.5. Search:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Figure 19.4

3.1.2 Settings: 

1. Clicking on the "Settings" button will display the screen highlighted in Figure 19.4.1.

                                          Figure 19.4.1

1. Days Left From: This column lets you select the number of weeks that will help you identify the estimated survival time for the "Quantity On Hand" value of that product at the store.
2. Columns: This option will let you select the number of columns that are to be displayed in the purchase order form. Check the boxes against the options that you wish to include in the purchase order form.
   
3. Show All Products: This option lets you choose the list of products, i.e., the data you wish to display in the purchase order form: Show All Products, Show Ony Products with 0 Qty, or Show Deleted Records.

                                   Figure 19.4.2

                                                                    Figure 19.5

1. Product: This defines the product's or item's name that is ordered.

2. Sug. Qty: The suggested quantity is auto-calculated and generated by the system. This value is calculated as per the values in Manage Location: Min/Max and On-Hand Quantity Value. 

                                        Figure 19.5.1

                              Figure 19.5.2

1. (See Figure 19.5.1 and Figure 19.5.2) In "Products," for the location Cobleskill, the Min quantity is set to be 5 and Max quantity is said to be 50. As soon as Quantity on Hand reaches below 5 for a selected product, it will suggest the suggested quantity as Max quantity order for that product with with maximum quantity, i.e., 50.

3. Store Qty: It is also a system-generated value that is based on a suggested quantity.

4. Actual Qty: This column can be edited with the product quantity value that is actually needed at the store location.

5. Order Qty: By default, the actual quantity is the same as the system-suggested quantity, but it can be edited as per the need after creating an order and before completing it.

6. Back Order Qty: This column describes the items that are in the back order.

7. Qty On Hand: This field gives the value of the Quantity on Hand of that item at a particular location as a parent/child value.

8. # Days Left: This column gives an estimation based on past inventory data/trends in order to make inventory management effective for the future. This column will display the number of days for which the listed item in the inventory will survive with respect to the selected "number of weeks" values under "Days Left From." 

1. Say, if the number of weeks selected here is 3 weeks, now based on the last 3 weeks of sales data, the system will calculate the average sales per week in the Avg Sales column and give out the lasting estimation for that product in terms of days in the # of Days Left column, which implies that the product has enough Quantity on Hand for that product to last for the "x" number of days given in that column.
   

                                                                              Figure 19.5.3

The red-colored data in "# of Days Left" denotes the shortage of the inventory for that many number of days, and the green-colored data denotes that the inventory is sufficient for that many number of days.

9. Week 1: This column shows the sales of the most current week with child/parent breakdown (explained below in 52 High and 52 Low). If the Weekly Max order is used to order the products, the weekly sales data for the first six weeks is important to find out about the week that has the most sales.

10. Week 2-Week 9: In these columns, the weekly sales numbers of the weeks are displayed, respectively.

11. Week 10: This column shows the sales of the past 10th week with a child/parent breakdown. 

12. 52 High: If the row displays the number of parent and child items as 445/0, which means 445 are the parent items for that product and 0 is the child item quantity that was sold at max in 52 weeks in the previous year.

13. 52 Low: If the row displays the number of parent and child items as 0/0, which means 0 are the parent items for that product and 0 is the child item quantity, this means no item was sold, and it was the lowest value to be sold in 52 weeks of the previous year.

14. Cost Each: This is to define the cost of each item on the order.

15. Vendor Part #: This column displays the vendor part number, a unique number provided by the vendor for the product included in the purchase order.

15. Vendor Part Kit #: It is a unique number that is assigned to a vendor part kit (a group that comprises different but related products). It has one part number with multiple UPCs, e.g., chocolate with multiple flavors. 

16. Units: Here, the number of units of items is mentioned.

17. Cost: This field defines the total cost of the items.

18. UPC: This is the Universal Product Code for the items to be ordered.

19. Original On Hand: This field gives the original value of the Quantity on Hand of that item at a particular location as the parent/child value.

20. Retail: This column gives the total retail value of the items that are being ordered.

21. Alt Vendor: If you are allowed to buy the same product from a different vendor if the price is low, then this field comes in handy. For this, you will have to toggle "Check for Alternate Vendor" ON.

22. Avg Sales: It is analyzed data from Week 1 to Week 10, whatever the average sales per week of that product is defined in this column.

23. Trend: Based on weekly sales history, the system will suggest whether the ordered product is a hot-selling item or not, i.e., whether it is trending up or down.

24. Added: This is the timestamp at which the order is created.

25. Last Update: This is the timestamp when the created order was last updated.

26. Supplier Deposit: This is the money that you have paid to the supplier, which can be used against future purchases.

27. Average Sales per Week. These are different columns to define the average weekly sales as parent/child value (e.g.,178/0) for 10 Weeks.

3.1. Schedule Order

See Figure 2.

Follow the steps mentioned below to schedule an order:

1. Open the Add New Order form, and you get two options: "Create Order" and “Schedule Order,” as highlighted in Figure 2 above. If you wish to automate any order for a particular date and time, then click on "Schedule Order."

1. The form highlighted in Figure 20 will appear on your screen.

                                     Figure 20

Once you click on the "Create" button, it will redirect you to Scheduled Order.

(See Figure 2). The functions of the buttons are explained below:

2. Editing the Order

Follow the steps mentioned below to edit the order:

1. Click the Edit Order button highlighted in Figure 2 above to edit (make changes) a created purchase order before sending it to the vendor.
   
2. The form highlighted in Figure 21 will appear on your screen.
   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Figure 21

The labels and fields are described above under Create Order.

2.1 Print Order Guide:

This button helps you print the order details on the order without the vendor's details. The form is highlighted in Figure 22. Choose the appropriate options and click on "Start Print."

                                                                    Figure 22

Once clicked, the purchase order details are printed in the predefined format (the headers of the columns are predefined) and as per the selected export type (PDF, CSV, or Excel). The order report in PDF format is displayed as highlighted in Figure 22.1.

                                                                     Figure 22.1

1. When you wish to print order details in report format, this option is chosen. See Figure 22 (same as Print Order Guide), if the same options are chosen.
   

1. The order is printed as highlighted in the Figure 23.         

                                                  Figure 25

2.5. Convert to Order:

See the Add New form (Figure 2). This button will convert the items added into an order. If there are items selected in the list, then Figure 25 appears. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Figure 26

1. On the Add New Order form (see Figure 2), fill in the form to create an order.
2. Click on "Complete Order." The form highlighted in Figure 27 will appear on your screen.
   

1. Send EDI: This option is selected to automatically send this purchase order electronically to the vendor on the TP side.

2. Convert to Invoice: This option lets you convert the completed order to an invoice.

1. The order log highlighted in Figure 28.1 will appear on your screen.
   

                                            Figure 28.1

3. Deleting the Order 

                                                      Figure 29

1. Click “Yes, Delete” to continue the process of deleting the order record.
   
2. Click “Cancel” to close the popup and skip the deletion process.

4. Merging Orders

Whenever multiple orders share a single location and single vendor for a particular item, the system will merge all the orders together into one single.

Whenever multiple orders share a single location and single vendor, the system will merge all the orders together into one single order. If one order has 5 units of an item and another has 7 units, then the system will merge these two. This way, the orders are easier to manage for the store as well as for the vendor.

1. Click the "Merge Orders" button highlighted in Figure 2 above to merge an order.
   
2. The form highlighted in Figure 30 will appear on your screen.          
   

1. Single Location: This option will merge all the orders for a single vendor and single location. as depicted in Figure 30.1.
   
2. The orders listed below are all the orders (only the ones SENT FOR REVIEW) under the Show Enteries label.               
   

                                                                    Figure 30.1

1. Select the orders by checking them against their order numbers. Click on Merge Orders to merge the selected orders.
   

1. Multiple Location:  This option also lets you choose multiple orders (OPEN ORDERS) for different locations while sharing a single vendor.
   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Figure 30.2

5. Mass Merging Orders

1. Choose the vendor from the drop-down list and also the set of locations.

1. Click on "Review Mass Merge Orders" to select the open orders for merging.                      
   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Figure 31.1

6. Send EDI

 If you have your EDI/FTP connection set up for your store, you can send the order electronically.

1. You can select multiple orders ordered within the selected date range (which is the previous month) for a single vendor in different locations and send them electronically.

                                                                    Figure 32

1. Click on "Send EDI," and the order list will be sent to the vendor side.