12. Create Purchase Orders

Overview

This STEP is OPTIONAL - You may proceed to the next step if you do not wish to create Purchase Orders at this time. This may be done at a later time.

Create POs to your suppliers to increase your stock levels - Home>New Purchase

• Purchase orders can have one of four different status’ or states:
  • Editable - Draft - no effect on stock levels
  • Committed - On Order - Available Quantity Increased by order quantity
  • Completed - All Purchase order activity is done. This Status WILL NOT Receive the Shipment!
  • Canceled - Cancels all Purchase Order Activity including Shipments previously received.

Use the Filter drop-down to select or filter the Purchase Orders in the view. 

Life Cycle of a Purchase Order

• The Purchase Order status represents that overall status of an entire purchase order. The purchase order status does not have a direct effect on stock levels. In particular, moving a purchase order to the Completed status does not update stock levels (since stock levels are updated by receiving purchase order shipments). The purchase order starts with the Editable status which equivalent to draft status. In this status all fields on the purchase order are editable. From the Editable status, the purchase order can be moved to the Committed status. This is not required (a purchase order can have shipments created and received or be canceled or be marked completed even while still in the Editable status) but is used to track which orders are still in the process of being created vs which orders represent firm commitments to suppliers. Items on purchase orders in the Committed status are treated as “On Order” and affect the available to promise quantities for the location selected as the purchase order destination. When a purchase is finished the purchase order can be moved to the Completed status. As mentioned above, this does not affect the quantity on hand in any way. Moving a purchase order to the Completed status release “on order” quantities for any items on the purchase order that were never received. Purchase orders in the Completed status do not appear by default on the View Purchases screen listing purchase orders, but changing the filter on that screen to include Completed purchases will show them. All results of purchase can also be deleted by using the Cancel order menu item on the actions menu of the purchase order detail screen. This changes the purchase order to the Canceled status. As a side effect, it also updates all received shipments for the purchase order and moves them to the Canceled status as well (which means any modifications to stock levels from those received shipments are voided). A purchase order in the Canceled state can be moved back to the Editable status, but any canceled received shipments will remain canceled and have to be recreated.

How to setup Pricing Defaults for Purchase Orders

• To learn more about how to set up pricing on your purchase order go here.

Import Purchase Order Headers

• Create/import PO headers – Home>Import & Export>Import to batch create & update purchases

Import Order items into the Purchase Order

• Create/import PO Line items – From the PO itself, Actions menu>Import order items

Receive Shipments Against the Purchase Order

• Receive shipments against PO increases stock – Receiving Purchase Orders - The purchase shipment represents a single shipment for a purchase order and moves through a life cycle starting as Editable, and then to Received. At any point, a purchase shipment can also be Canceled which voids any modifications to stock levels made by the received shipment. A purchase shipment can never be reverted to a previous state - if you need to change a received purchase shipment then the shipment must be canceled and replaced with a new shipment using "Add new shipment" menu item on the Purchase order shipment screen. An Editable shipment starts out with no products and can't be received until it contains at least one item that contains a product, non-zero quantity, and sub-location. The Update shipment to match order action (blue link in the middle of the purchase shipment screen) will add items for all products in the order that haven't yet been received based on the quantities ordered for each product on the purchase order. Once ready, the shipment can be moved to the Received status. Move the shipment to the Received status using the Receive shipment button. The Receive shipment button is available for shipments once a shipment quantity and sublocation have been assigned for at least one item on the order. Stock levels for items on the shipment are updated effective the date the shipment is received.

• If you are receiving items with Lot Ids or Serial Numbers, Best Buy Dates or Expiration Dates, you do this on the shipments.

• There is a Plus sign that you click to expand the rows on the shipment, and add a row for each specific Lot ID or serial number.
  • Choose sublocation to receive stock into inventory
  • Add LOT Ids/serial numbers/expiration dates at time of receipt all into the LOT ID field

Importing a Purchase Order Shipment

• Receiving Shipments for a Purchase Order by Importing Shipment from Excel

Partial Received Shipments

• Partial Shipments Receiving – Action menu Add new shipment

Setting Up Automated Reordering based on Min / Max or Sales Velocity 

• If you are interested in using Finale to create reordering based on automated rules, please review this "Reordering 101" Article.

How-to Video

Next Step: 12. Create Sales Orders