Purchase Planning

1Overview #

Licence. Purchase Order Automation is a feature of Order Management, bought on its own. Without it this page, Generated Purchase Orders and the Generate PO button on purchase orders are not offered.

2Step by step #

1. Check the Scope in the header. It is the reporting option you chose when you opened the company: one branch, a group company, or all branches. To plan for another scope, change it at company selection.
2. Press Run (F3) . The list shows the items to order, the most urgent first — the fewest days of stock left.
3. Read Why on anything unexpected, and click a figure in On order , Sales orders , Being produced , Production need or Usage / day to see the vouchers behind it.
4. Narrow the list with Search , Item group or Supplier and press Apply filters ; Clear empties them. Group by Supplier (drag the column heading to the bar above the list) to see one supplier's order together.
5. The foot of the list gives the average of each quantity column over the lines listed (and per group when the list is grouped), and the total of Value . Quantities are averaged, not added, because the lines are different items in different units.
6. Tick the items you want in the Order column (or Tick all listed ). Change Order qty where you want a different quantity, and click the Supplier to compare prices or change it.
7. Press Generate PO (F5) , pick the voucher type and confirm. One order is raised for each supplier, and the result lists them. Generated orders opens the page where they are approved, printed and sent.
8. Export or Print the list when you want it on paper.

3Comparing prices and choosing the supplier #

• Click a line's Supplier to see every supplier the item was bought from, each with its last price and date, the item's preferred supplier and its lead time. Lowest and Latest mark the cheapest and the most recent.
• Press Use beside a supplier to put it on the line. The rate becomes that supplier's last price.
• To order from somebody the item was never bought from, pick them under Another supplier and press Use this supplier . The rate stays as it was, because there is no price from them yet.
• Price comparison on the toolbar lays every item on the list against every supplier: items down the side, suppliers across the top. Each cell is that supplier's last price for the item, with its lead time in days.
• The lowest price of an item is in a green pill and the highest in a red one. An item bought from one supplier only has a lowest and no highest.
• Click a price to select that supplier for the item. Select under a supplier's name takes that supplier for every item it has a price for. Select the lowest for every item does what it says. The selected cell is outlined.
• The selected supplier and its price go on the line , and the value of the line follows.
• Prices are per base unit. They come from purchase vouchers — every voucher type under Purchase — in the scope of the plan; a cancelled purchase is left out.

4Generating the orders #

• One order per supplier : the ticked lines are grouped by their supplier, each group becomes one voucher.
• Voucher type : a Purchase Order type, or a Material Request type where you raise a request first. Your last choice is remembered on this device.
• The orders are ordinary vouchers , saved the way the voucher screen saves them: the type's numbering, tax, rules and any workflow attached to it apply, and they can be opened and changed on the voucher screen and on the desktop.
• They are raised on the branch you are signed into , dated today, with the quantity in the base unit at the rate shown.
• You need the right to create the voucher type.
• A line that was ordered is unticked afterwards. Press Run (F3) : what was ordered now shows under On order, so the item is no longer proposed.
• If one supplier's order cannot be saved, the others are still raised; the result says which and why.

5How the quantity is worked out #

• Available — stock less blocked stock. Hover over it for stock, reserved and blocked. Reserved stock is not taken off: it is held for the pending sales orders, and those are counted in full in the next column.
• On order — purchase orders not yet received.
• Sales orders — what customers have ordered and has not been delivered. Every pending order counts, whatever its status.
• Being produced — the finished goods still to be made on production orders that are not yet settled. Stock on its way in, counted like On order.
• Production need — the raw material those production orders still have to use. A requirement, counted like the sales orders.
• Projected = Available + On order + Being produced − Sales orders − Production need.
• Usage / day — sales, material issue and raw material used in production over the look-back days, divided by those days. For one branch, stock transferred out is usage too.
• Days left = Available ÷ Usage / day.
• Reorder level — the branch's own where it keeps one, else the item's. Where the item has none, one is suggested (marked *): usage per day × supplier lead time + safety stock.
• Target — the item's maximum stock; where it has none, cover days of usage; never less than the reorder level.
• To order = Sales orders + Production need + Target − Available − On order − Being produced, for an item whose Projected is under its Reorder level, raised to the next whole unit.
• An item you make yourself is listed when it runs short even after what is being produced, with no supplier: enter a production order for it, and Run again.

An example. An item uses 4 a day. Lead time is 7 days and safety stock 12, so the reorder level is 40. Maximum stock is 120. Available is 30, on order 20, sales orders 25. Projected is 30 + 20 − 25 = 25, under 40, so it is listed. To order = 25 + 120 − 30 − 20 = 95.

6Branch, group or all #

• One branch — that branch's stock, orders and usage, and its own reorder level, minimum and maximum where it keeps them. Transfers out count as usage.
• A group company or all branches — everything in the scope added together. Where branches keep their own levels, those are added up; otherwise the item's single set is used. Transfers between branches are left out, because inside the scope they cancel.
• A voucher saved without a branch is counted in every scope.

7Supplier and rate #

• The supplier is chosen by the setting Purchase planning: supplier proposed : the item's preferred supplier and then the supplier of its last purchase; the preferred supplier only; or the supplier with the lowest last price. Hover over the name to see which, and the lead time.
• The preferred supplier and its lead time are kept on the item master.
• The rate is that supplier's last price for the item; else the item's last purchase price; else its standard purchase price. Hover over it to see which. It is per base unit.
• Value = To order × Rate. It is an estimate for the buyer, not a price agreed with the supplier.

8Settings #

On Order Management → Order Settings , under the three Purchase planning headings:

• Count the reorder level , count pending sales orders , count production orders , count past usage — each source on or off.
• Look-back days (delivered 90) — the period usage is averaged over.
• Cover days (30) — the target for an item with no maximum stock.
• Safety stock days (3) — extra held against a late delivery.
• Supplier lead time days (7) — used where the preferred supplier carries none.
• Supplier proposed — preferred then last, preferred only, or lowest last price.

9Shortcut keys #

• F3 Run the plan.
• F5 Generate PO for the ticked items; in the confirmation, F5 raises the orders.
• Esc closes the window that is open; with none open, it closes the page.

10If something does not work #