Before we dig into the process of creating a new purchase order, let's look at some of the fields you'll need to be aware of and how they're used.
Each PO you create in the app must be assigned to one of your vendors. You can choose from any active vendors in your Enhanced PO account. The vendor you choose will determine the default Send-by Method (determined by the send-by method you have set for the vendor). If you choose to send by email, the order will be sent to the assigned vendor's email address. If you choose to send by FTP, the assigned vendor's FTP connection details will be used to upload the order to.
In a future release, assigned vendor will filter which products are available to add to the order (the app will only show products you've assigned to the vendor)
It's required that a PO be assigned to a buyer, and by default the buyer is set to the user you're logged in as when you're creating the PO, but you can choose any other user in your account to be the order's buyer.
The send-by method you select, email or FTP, determines how the order should be sent to the vendor. This will default to the send-by method set for the assigned vendor. If you choose to send by email, ensure you've set an email address for the vendor, setup and tested your account's SMTP details; if you choose to send by FTP, ensure you've setup and tested your FTP connection with the vendor. For more information, see the send-by method instructions in the Settings>>Vendor chapter.
The ship-to location indicates where the vendor should send the order, so the shipping address of the shop you select will be the ship-to address on the order sent to your vendor. The shop you select here can be the same as or different from the shop(s) you're ordering products for.
If you've enabled your Enhanced PO account to sync orders to Retail, the ship-to shop is the location where the app will create the PO in your Retail account, as this is the location your vendor will ship the order to and where you'll receive the inventory.
Currently, the app's only supported distribution method requires shipping to a single location (but you can still purchase for multiple locations within a single order), so you can only select one ship-to location per order.
Though you can only ship to one location per order, you can assign one or more shop locations for which you want to order items for. The shop(s) you select can be the same or different from the ship-to shop. The purchase-for shops you assign to an order will be available to select from when adding items to the order (to indicate which shop(s) you want to order an item for). Each of these purchase-for locations is tracked in the app through the PO workflow so it knows which items and their quantities you ultimately want at each shop.
If you've enabled your Enhanced PO account to sync orders to Retail, each purchase-for location that you're ordering items for - that is NOT also the ship-to shop - will have an inventory transfer created for it so that once you've received all the items from the order at the ship-to location, those inventory transfers will be available to move inventory from the ship-to location to each of the purchase-for locations. If the order is to be received through the app, the app will also send those inventory transfers once the full order is marked as received (and checked-in within Retail).
In the order that is sent to the vendor, purchase-for locations will not be listed as the vendor doesn't ultimately need to know which individual locations you're ordering for; the vendor only needs to know the total ordering qty of each item and the ship-to location where they'll be shipping the order. This provides a cleaner listing of what is being ordered. So, if you're ordering the same item for different locations, the ordering quantity for each location will be combined into a single record. For example, if you're ordering:
- 10 of Item A for Shop 1
- 5 of Item A for Shop 2
These may show as 2 separate records in the app, but in the order that is sent to your vendor, these will be combined into a single record to show you want a total of 15 of Item A sent to the ship-to location.
The following required fields will be included in the order that is sent to your vendor.
Shipping Method
Select the shipping method you'd like the vendor to ship the order by.
Shipping Code
Assign shipping code that matches the shipping method you've chosen.
Payment Term
Indicate the terms of payment for this order, defaults to payment term assigned to vendor.
Date Ordered
Set the date ordered; defaults to current date.
Date Expected
Indicate when you expect to receive the shipment for this order; defaults to current date.
In a future release, a new vendor setting will provide the ability to set a default "Expected Interval" for each vendor to indicate the number of days from "Date Ordered" that you expect an order from the vendor, which will then determine the default "Date Expected" value. For example, you could enter 5 to indicate you expect orders from the vendor 5 days after the orders are placed, so "Date Expected" would default to 5 days from the current date.
Nickname for the Order
Enter a name to more easily identify what the order is for. This nickname will not be included in the order that is sent to your vendor.
Reference #
If you have a code or reference number for the order, you can enter it here. This will be listed in the order that is sent to your vendor.
Notes
If you need to provide any internal notes for the order, you can enter them here. These notes will not be included in the order that is sent to your vendor.
Shipping Instructions
If you need to provide any shipping instructions to the vendor, enter them here and they will be included in the order that is sent to your vendor.