Finding Related POs

[Briana312]

We use track inventory for almost all of our products to take advantage of the automated ordering function and for inventory control. I love how BizWizard builds POs for the items that are needed. Sometimes though it is necessary to go back and find the PO and follow up, maybe the supplier email didn't go through or the shipment doesn't show up when expected. In those situations, it would be great if the PO number was listed on the order line item itself. I know it's possible to view the POs from the Supplier view and click through to the order that caused the PO. But when we order lots of the same thing on a regular basis, all the POs look the same and it takes forever to figure out what PO goes with the order.

Another thing along the same lines that would be helpful for us would be if the POs would list the order number related to each line item or have some flexibility to write in the client name for each line. It gets hard to read, we have to squish it all in special instructions. We need this for receiving so we know who the goods are for. Maybe there is a better way to handle receiving, I don't know. It would also help AP, at this point we print out hard copies and hand write each client name/order number for each line item for payables purposes.

[M. David Matney]

We use track inventory for almost all of our products to take advantage of the automated ordering function and for inventory control. I love how BizWizard builds POs for the items that are needed. Sometimes though it is necessary to go back and find the PO and follow up, maybe the supplier email didn't go through or the shipment doesn't show up when expected. In those situations, it would be great if the PO number was listed on the order line item itself. I know it's possible to view the POs from the Supplier view and click through to the order that caused the PO. But when we order lots of the same thing on a regular basis, all the POs look the same and it takes forever to figure out what PO goes with the order.


I would request your suppliers to give you an order acknowledgment. the purpose of an order acknowledgment is to do a couple of things:



Acknowledge that they have received the PO
Confirms to you that they have the correct items on their order acknowledgment
Facilitates communications

If you do not receive an order acknowledgement from your suppliers in the time-frame you expect it in, then you know to followup with the supplier maybe with a phone call to ensure they received the PO


Another thing along the same lines that would be helpful for us would be if the POs would list the order number related to each line item or have some flexibility to write in the client name for each line. It gets hard to read, we have to squish it all in special instructions. We need this for receiving so we know who the goods are for. Maybe there is a better way to handle receiving, I don't know. It would also help AP, at this point we print out hard copies and hand write each client name/order number for each line item for payables purposes.


Order Specific PO's are attached to the order and indicate the order number. you can even double click the yellow background text to go directly to the order. In the case of Auto-Ordering which is what your doing, when you receive the items into inventory they should simply be put on the shelf where you normally stock those items. When you get ready to produce the product you pull them off the shelf.

Keep in mind auto-ordering is to fulfill SHELF location inventory, not orders. Orders trigger the need to auto-order, but since the inventory and shelf locations are managed, the process is as simple as



Open the box of products you received
Using the Packing Slip provided, pull up the PO in Bizwizard
Identify in BizWizard how much you received based upon what you ordered
Shelf the products in their normal stock locations

Its important to be careful that you don't over think and create too much work for yourself. BizWizard is very good at handling the details and is designed to keep your life simple so long as you don't over think it and overwork it.

Remember, Auto-Order (or inventory tracked) DOES NOT RELATE to an order. It relates to products that sits on shelves. Orders then use the products that sits on the shelves. Your Tracking Inventory, not tracking orders.

[Briana312]

I see what you're saying. My issue is we run a very low level of inventory, and we offer tens of thousands of different products. We don't have a spot on the shelf for most items. We use a Job Shelf to hold product we order for specific jobs. A simple note field for each line item would be helpful, an order number that triggered the ordering would be even better.

[M. David Matney]

There is a note field to identify where you have placed inventory items on your job shelf. The incoming bins is where you would identify the location of the inventory you have set aside for an order. So when you set aside that inventory, simply identify on the Incoming Bins field the bin number of those products (number the Bins, A1, A2, A3, etc etc)

When the PO comes in, you can also double click the line item on the PO to see which order and how many the products go with. This is only applicable for non-stock items. If its stock inventory, the BizWizard will automatically assign the products to the order.

[Briana312]

In "Receive Purchase Orders" you cannot click back to the inventory records and find the related order. And there is no easy way of identifying which job the goods are for. If you don't know which order the goods are for, how can you go into the order and identify the bin? Perhpas other people have a better work around than filling in client and order # info in the special instructions box?

[M. David Matney]

In the Case of auto-ordering (which is what occurs when inventory tracking is turned on), when you receive a purchase order into inventory, it automatically updates the order line items to reflect that the backorder condition has now been met and thus nothing is on backorder. The process should be as simple as:

1) Receive items into inventory
2) Shelf Items to shelf location they belong

Then when you go to work on an order, simply print a pick ticket and it will tell you how many and what items and where on your shelves to pick up those items to produce the order

It sounds as though you dont have shelf locations for any of the items or for a good majority of those items. Am I correct?

[Briana312]

Yes, that is correct. We don't have a shelf location for many of our items because we try to keep our inventory low and only order what we need. We also don't have a lot of shelf space compared to the number of products we offer. So we use our Incoming Bins and track that on the work order when the goods are received. Since there is no way from the Receive POs screen to figure out what order the goods are for, I manually make notations in the comments box on the bottom of each PO, detailing each part number, client name and job number. That works well enough but is time consuming.

[M. David Matney]

Unfortunately, the problem is that Auto-Ordering is for "Stock" Inventory, to be more specific, items you stock or keep on hand and is why only non-stock links to an order. There is no direct link from an order to a purchase order in the case of stock inventory because the ordering is actually triggered by the product data, not the order data.

From the Purchase Order you can get to the Product Screen, and from the product screen you can double click to find out which orders are in need of that product. Not sure if this helps or not.

[Briana312]

Yes, that makes sense. I guess the reason I like using track inventory for things is because then I can take advantage of the stored pricing, item # and description information that is entered into the product records. Looking up prices all the time and item numbers is necessary when using the Order Inventory button. Perhaps it would be nice if that field was somehow tied to the product record database, I could search for an item by description, copy and paste the item number into the box and have the price and description auto-populate.

We do close out of Receive POs and open up the Maintain POs screen to click back through to the order sometimes.

Thanks!