Guides

Purchasing

Purchasing covers everything from "what do we need to buy?" to "it's on the shelf". Use the Buy page to work out shortages and raise draft orders, take each purchase order (PO) through approval to the vendor, then receive what arrives into stock.

Working out what to buy

The Buy page (in the top menu) explodes an assembly into every component it needs, all the way down through its subassemblies. It totals each component across every place it's used, and shows what it will cost.

1. Pick the Assembly to build and enter the Number of units.
2. Leave Subtract on-hand stock (shortages only) ticked to see only what you're short of. Untick it to see the full requirement for a build from scratch.
3. Click Compute.

With stock subtracted, a subassembly you already have on the shelf reduces what you need to buy for its components. Stock is only counted once, even when several assemblies use the same part. The assembly you're building is never netted against its own stock. You asked for 50, so the page plans for 50.

Reading the table:

• To Buy (or Required when stock isn't subtracted) is in the part's own unit, such as each or metres.
• Order is what a purchase order will actually ask for, in the vendor's pack size. For example, a shortage of 54 standoffs sold in bags of 25 becomes 3 bags. That's why an order can be slightly more than the shortage.
• Vendor is the part's primary source. no source in red means nobody is set up to supply it. A warning above the table says so, and you need to add a source on the part page before you can order it.
• Unit Cost and Ext Cost are in your company's home currency (shown above the table). A vendor's own currency is converted using the current exchange rate. A — in Unit Cost means the part has no price, or its currency has no exchange rate yet. That row counts as zero in the totals, so treat the totals as incomplete.
• Cost to build … from scratch (gross) is the full material cost, ignoring stock. Net cost to buy shortages now is the cost of the rows you're short of. The purchase orders you generate can cost slightly more, because they order whole packs.

If a red banner says no exchange rate is available for your home currency, costs can't be converted and read as 0. Rates are refreshed automatically once a week; to cost in the meantime, a company administrator can switch the home currency in Company settings.

Generating purchase orders

When stock is subtracted and something can be bought, a Generate Purchase Orders button appears under the table. It creates one Draft purchase order per vendor, containing each short part from that vendor's source at its price-break price for the pack quantity. Parts with no source are skipped. You're taken to the purchase order list to review the new drafts.

Nothing is sent to anyone. Each draft still goes through approval as described below.

Creating a purchase order by hand

1. Go to Purchase Orders and click New.
2. The PO number is filled in with your company's next number. You can change it if you need to. The format is set by your admin in company settings.
3. Pick the Vendor. Currency fills in with that vendor's default currency. You can choose a different currency, and picking another vendor afterwards won't overwrite your choice. If you leave it blank, the vendor's default is used.
4. Click Save. The new order opens as a Draft.

The order's currency is fixed once it's created. Every price on it is in that currency.

When the order is created, it takes a copy of the vendor's name and address, your company's ship-to details and tax rate, and the commercial terms. Terms come from the vendor where the vendor has them, and from your company defaults otherwise. The Buyer is you. These are copies on purpose. An order is a contract, so if you change the vendor record or company settings later, orders you've already raised don't change.

Editing a draft purchase order

Draft is the only status where you can change an order's content. Open the order and click Edit. New orders open here automatically.

Adding and changing lines

• Add a line: use the picker in the empty row under the last line. Search by part number, description or vendor part number. Choosing a part adds it straight away, with a quantity of 1 at that source's price.
• A part this vendor doesn't supply yet: the picker still offers it. The line is added with a price of 0 and opens ready for editing, so you can enter the vendor's part number and a price. Saving it records a new vendor source for the part. If you cancel instead, the line is removed.
• Change a line: hover over the line and click its pencil. Vendor P/N, Description, Quantity and Unit Price unlock. Click the save icon to keep your changes, or the cancel icon to undo them.
• Remove a line: hover over it and click the bin icon.
• Reorder lines: drag a line up or down.

Quantity is a whole number of the vendor's packs. If a pack holds more than one unit, the line shows what it becomes, such as "reels × 5000 ea".

Price breaks are applied when a line is added, and again when you change its quantity: cross a tier and the Unit Price follows. A price you've typed in yourself (a negotiated price) is left alone, and so is any price you change in the same save as the quantity.

Vendor, Ship To and terms

The Vendor address box and each Ship To field (contact, company, address, phone) have their own pencil, which appears when you hover. Click it, edit, then save or cancel. Changing the vendor address here changes this order only. The vendor record and other orders are untouched.

The terms row (Buyer, Payment Terms, FOB, Ship Via, Freight Terms) unlocks as a whole with one pencil at the end of the row and saves with one click. Payment Terms, FOB, Ship Via and Freight Terms suggest your usual values as you type, and Ship Via lists your company's carrier accounts. You can still type anything that was actually agreed.

FOB says where ownership and risk pass to you, which decides who files a damage claim. Freight Terms says who pays the carrier. They're separate on purpose.

Purchase order statuses

The buttons at the top of the order change with its status.

Status is shown as a coloured label wherever it appears. The colour groups statuses so a list can be scanned at a glance; the label always names the exact status, so you never have to rely on the colour alone.

• Grey — not started.
• Amber — waiting on you. Someone needs to pick this up.
• Navy — under way, or out with the vendor.
• Green — done.
• Red — ended without completing.

Why can't you edit an issued order? Once the vendor has it, it's a contract. The PDF you download later must match what they were sent. To change an approved order before it goes out, use Reopen PO and then Reject PO to get it back to Draft.

Status buttons have no confirmation step, so click deliberately.

The Purchase Orders list shows every order and its status. You can search, filter and choose columns there (see Lists & search).

Receiving a shipment

Open an Issued or Partially Received order and click Receive. Each line that isn't finished has its own receiving row.

1. Receive starts at the quantity still outstanding. Change it to what actually arrived. It counts packs, and the note under it shows what goes into stock (for example, "× 100 ea into stock").
2. Pick the Location the goods are going to. This is required.
3. Check the Date. It starts at today; change it if you're entering a delivery that arrived earlier. It can't be in the future.
4. Hover over the line and click the navy receive icon just to the right of it.

The receipt appears under its line, and the stock is added at that location straight away. When a line has been received in full, it closes and its entry fields disappear. The order moves to Partially Received after the first receipt, and to Fulfilled once every line is fully received. You can't receive more than was ordered.

Rejecting goods

If goods arrive damaged or wrong, enter the quantity and click the red reject icon instead. The receipt is recorded as REJECTED. Nothing goes into stock, and the line stays open for the replacement.

Cancelling a receipt

To undo a receipt entered by mistake, hover over the receipt row and click its bin icon. The stock it added is removed, and the line reopens if it had closed. This only works while that stock is still where it was received, unchanged. If it has since been moved, counted, used or merged, you'll see an error and need to correct the inventory instead. Receipts can only be cancelled while the order is Issued or Partially Received.

Closing an order short

If the vendor won't ship the rest, click Close Short on the receiving page. This is offered once the order is Partially Received. The order becomes Closed Short and no more can be received against it. What you've already received stays in stock.

Printing a purchase order

Download PDF appears on the order's pages from Approved onwards (Approved, Issued, Partially Received, Fulfilled and Closed Short). It produces the document you send to the vendor: your letterhead, the vendor and ship-to blocks, terms, lines, tax and total. The file is named after the PO number, for example PO_00003.pdf.

The letterhead (your company name, logo and address) comes from your current company settings rather than the copy taken when the order was created. If you change those settings, reprinting an old order shows the new letterhead.