This method of creating a Purchase Order will look for any items where the current stock on hand, combined with any demand for customer orders, means that the available stock is at or below the minimum reorder level.
For example, this item would be placed on a Purchase Order:
The min-max range here is 2 - 4, but the Available stock is 1, so 3 would be placed on the Purchase Order.
This item would also be placed on a Purchase Order:
The min-max range here is 2 - 5 this time. The Available stock is 2, which is within that range. However, because it is currently at the minimum level, Cloud POS will still suggest ordering 3 more, as the next sale of this item would result in you dropping below your preferred stock levels.
This item would not be placed on a Purchase Order:
This item is 'safely' within its min-max range, with 3 as the Available quantity.
Remember that the Available quantity takes any stock commitments into account. Therefore, if the item in the screenshot above was on a Work Order, it would then appear on a Purchase Order, because the Available quantity would drop down to 2.
Once your Purchase Order has been created, you will be able to click on the '?' icon next in the ‘Quantity’ column to see an explanation of these calculations:
Creating a purchase order based on reorder levels
1) Within the Back Office side menu, select Purchasing & Transfers, then Purchase Orders.
2) Click on the blue New button in the top left.
3) Choose Inventory-Based Restock from the Purchase Order Type dropdown:
4) Select your store from the Purchasing Store(s) drop-down list:
5) Select the suppliers you would like to order from – you can select from one to all:
If any of the suppliers you select don't have any items that have fallen below the minimum reorder level, then it won't create a purchase order for that supplier.
6) On the Allocations & Item Restrictions tab, you can use these tickboxes to make sure that you don't create duplicate purchase orders for items that are already on a purchase order or transfer.
7) If you like, you can restrict an order to only look at a certain Department or Category, or a particular Brand, using these options:
8) On the Forward Order Setup tab, you can add some additional settings to the items on your Purchase Order. For example, you can make the items on this Purchase Order available for preorder on your Ecommerce site:
9) On the Additional Information tab, you can change the title of the purchase order, and give it a supplier reference and a comment – these are optional. You can also override the due date for when you expect the shipment to arrive.
10) Click on Create Purchase Order(s) in the bottom right to create your purchase order. One order will be created for each of the suppliers you specified at Step 5.
If there are no items needed from any of the suppliers you select, you'll see a message like this in the bottom right:
Viewing and editing a purchase order
1) If you only chose 1 supplier when creating the purchase order, you'll be taken directly to that purchase order, which will be automatically populated with any items that are needed to replenish minimum reorder levels.
If you chose multiple suppliers, you'll see the purchase orders that have been created, and you can double-click on one to open the grid, as above.
2) You can use this grid to check the supplier stock, update the quantity you want to order, see the quantity on other orders, and update cost or pricing information for each of the items. Or you can remove an item from the purchase order by clicking on the red rubbish bin icon on the left.
Items out of stock with the supplier?
If any of the lines on your purchase order are showing as Out of Stock (or with a red dot on smaller screens) next to the Supplier Part Code:
You can remove all of them from the purchase order by clicking on Actions, then Remove Out of Stock.
3) To add more items to your purchase order, you can use the Search and Select Items button, the Scan or type to search field at the top, or the Search SIM option to find more items. Click here for more help with adding items to a Purchase Order.
Any changes you make to the purchase order will autosave, so we'd recommend giving it a final check once you've finished.
4) Once you're happy with the purchase order, click on Mark As Placed.
5) If you wish, at this point you can make further edits to the purchase order, either by changing quantities or by adding or removing items. You will see the Mark As Placed button has now been replaced by a button marked Receive Stock. Clicking this button will open the purchase order at the Goods In stage, where you can then receive the items into stock.
