Purchasing

Purchasing stock / products using stock-tracker

 

Can Stock-Tracker help me automate my purchasing processes?

What different types of Purchase Orders exist on Stock-Tracker?

How do I raise a new purchase order?

What is a draft purchase order?

What happens when I confirm and split a draft purchase order?

Can I view my outstanding purchase orders?

Am I able to allocate a carrier to my purchase order?

How do I add and remove items from my purchase order?

Can I change the status of a purchase order?

When should I change the status of a purchase order?

 

 

Can Stock-Tracker help me automate my purchasing processes?

Purchasing stock or products from suppliers can be a very manually intensive task due to the number of different suppliers you may have.   Stock-Tracker can help relieve the burden of this requirement by automating as many of the processes involved as possible:

What different types of Purchase Orders exist on Stock-Tracker?

There are 3 different types of Purchase Orders:

BACK ORDER

A back order is a purchase order for stock that has already been sold to the customer.  As such the product ordered is already allocated to a specific order.

STOCK ORDER

A stock order is the purchase of stock for your shop or warehouse.  The product won’t have been sold at the point of order (although it may have been by the time it is delivered to you).

SUPPLIER DIRECT DELIVERY ORDER

This type of order is similar to a back order in that the product has already been sold and allocated to a specific sales order but the product is delivered directly to the customer rather than your own warehouse.  SDD purchase orders are raised automatically when your select ‘Supplier Direct’ on a sales order.  The other difference between SSD and a normal back order is an SDD order will only ever have one customers product on it.

How do I raise a new purchase order?

New purchase orders are created from the purchase menu bar on your main screen. Go to Purchasing->Draft Purchase orders->File->New Order.  Alternatively click the New Purchase order quick link on the side of the main screen.

A new purchase order has a few initial settings for you to select:

• Purchase Currency – The currency the purchase order will be placed in, this can be changed later.
• Delivery Address – Select one of the warehouse you have already set up.
• Quick Start – You can select one of the options to quickly create your purchase order:
  • Manual order – Nothing is added automatically to the new purchase order
  • Add All Back Orders – Add all back orders which haven’t yet been purchased.
  • Add Suggested Stock – Based on your re-order levels and quantities (where set), any stock which is low will be added to the order
  • Add Stock and Back Orders – Adds both back orders and suggested stock.
  • Adds ‘Awaiting Stock’ – Add any orders which are awaiting stock
• Description – You can use this to quickly identify the purchase order from a list, for example you may want to call it ‘xmas promotion stock’, ‘new stock lines’ etc.

Once happy click continue and you will be taken to the draft purchase order screen.  A draft purchase order, unlike a normal purchase order, can contain product from any number of suppliers.  This allows you to add anything you like to this purchase order without having to maintain a large number of supplier specific orders.  The draft purchase order is later split into 1 order per supplier when you confirm it (see Split and Confirm).

What is a draft purchase order?

A draft purchase order differs from a normal purchase order in that you can add products from any supplier to a single page, this allows you to change suppliers easily and also see all products required.  This removes the need to have many purchase orders in progress at any one time.  Once the draft purchase order is complete it’s a simple process (click a button) to split the draft into however many purchase orders are required.

Below is the draft purchase order screen.

The screen is split into 3 areas.  The top area shows the order details, the middle shows the product on the order and the right shows the currently selected product.

The example shown has a number of products on it with details of the supplier, expected purchase price and the current stock status.  Selecting any item will bring up further details which you can edit as required on the right hand side of the screen.

Stock Tracker will allow you to specify more than one supplier for a product, you can also order products in any of your predefined currencies.  The supplier drop down list will only show suppliers who supply in the currency you have selected.  You can override this setting and display all suppliers by unticking the box underneath the product image.

Unit price is not required but will help you calculate the cost of your order and also work out sales margins later on.  If the unit prince isn’t know you can leave it at 0.00 for the time being and update it once the supplier has confirmed back to you.

Notes to supplier can be used for order specific comments and will appear on the purchase order when printed or emailed.

What happens when I confirm and split a draft purchase order?

Confirming and splitting your draft purchase order will create a new purchase order per supplier and according to the supplier settings will automatically email the purchase order to the supplier or print it out for posting or faxing.

A confirmation box will appear with a brief summary of the orders created.  These orders will now sit on the outstanding purchase orders screen where you can monitor and update the progress of the orders.

Can I view my outstanding purchase orders?

The outstanding purchase orders screen shows you all purchases which haven’t yet been received in full from the supplier.  You can double-click an order to view it’s details in full, this will bring up a screen similar to that below

There are a few options available to you including marking the order as requiring a proforma payment (from you to the supplier) which is immediately visible back on the outstanding orders screen. You can also edit the purchase price from this screen.

The ordered items are listed at the bottom of the screen along with details of where they are allocated and what their current status is.  You may notice that your original order was for say 50 x foot soak but it now shows 1 + 3 + 2 etc.. this is because some of the 50 have been sold or allocated so they are split from the original bulk quantity allowing you to see where every item is.

Am I able to allocate a carrier to my purchase order?

Yes, you are able to bring up your carrier options for a purchase order via the logistics tab at the top of the page. If your supplier arranges delivery then you need not worry about this option but if you are responsible for collecting the goods this tab will allow you to select a carrier, print a delivery request and change the collection or delivery address as required.

You can also add carrier instructions which appear on the delivery request.

How do I add and remove items from my purchase order?

The tool bar allows you to add any new back ordered product, new stock or remove any items already on the order.

Adding Back Ordered Items

To add back ordered items click the button on the tool bar.  If there are any items awaiting back order you will see a list of them on the following screen.  Simply tick the items you wish to add to your order and click save to continue.

Adding Stock

To add general stock, click the button on the tool bar.  You will be presented with a list of all your currently active products.  Select the items to add to your order and click the Add button.  You’ll see a popup box asking you to enter the quantity you require.  Anything on the right-hand side of the screen will be added to your purchase order when you click Accept.

Removing Items

You can remove items from your order by clicking the remove button.  If you are removing stock the items will simply be deleted.  If you are removing back ordered products they will be removed and available to add to your next purchase order.

Can I change the status of a purchase order?

Yes, the status of a purchase order can be changed by clicking on Tools->Change Status within the Purchase Order edit screen.

When should I change the status of a purchase order?

The purchase order status should be changed to match the information coming back from your supplier.  Sending the purchase order via email will automatically update the status to ‘Sent To Supplier’, you will need to update it again once the confirmation from the supplier (if any)is received.  This helps you keep track of purchase orders and reduces problems of suppliers saying they haven’t received your order.

What do the different purchase order statuses mean? 

Status	Explanation
Draft Purchase Order	An editable purchase order that has not yet been confirmed with or issued to a supplier.  Details on this purchase order including suppliers, quantity etc can still be changed.
Confirmed Purchase Order	Once a draft purchase order has been split and confirmed it status is changed to this.  Once confirmed product quantities cannot be altered but selected fields including pricing and expected delivery dates can be changed.
Sent to supplier	As above but confirmed with  / sent to supplier.  This status can be used to track the progress of a purchase order.
Confirmed by supplier	This is the status allocated to a purchase order once its receipt is confirmed by a supplier.
Part Received	The order is updated to ‘part received’ when some (but not all) of the stock on the original purchase order have been confirmed as received.
Fully Recieved	All items on the purchase order have been received.