Purchasing
The purchasing application area is devoted to the process of purchasing and receiving new inventory from vendors. This area currently offers the following activities: order entry, receipts,
Order Entry
This activity is used to create or modify a purchase order. Purchase orders are lists of items that your company would like to buy from a vendor. They are typically sent to the supplier by fax, email, or an EDI procedure. Purchase orders can be linked with customer order documents generated from the Point of Sale application. For stocked inventory, a "build" process may be used that determines quantities for ordering based on usage history as well as minimum and maximum quantities from the Item database.
Receipts
Receipts is where items are received into inventory. Receiving items increases the items' on-hand quantity and decreases any "on order" quantity when the receipt is linked with a purchase order. Costs are also updated during processing. Completed receipts are available for invoicing in the Accounts Payable application.
Vendor Quote
This activity is used to create a comparison between vendors by cost for a list of items. You can compare up to three vendors. Adjustments (such as freight, fuel charges, etc.) may also be included to get a clearer picture of the actual costs of an intended purchase.
Adjustments
Stock needs change over time. This activity performs Item database changes and comparison for multiple items at the same time for purchase related settings (minimum, maximum, lead time, etc.).
Vendor EDI
EDI stands for "Electronic Data Interchange" and refers to an exchange of data (information) using electronic means. Many companies offer electronic methods for ordering goods, retrieving information regarding shipments, price updates, and more. Some vendors use standard data exchange formats, others use their own proprietary formats instead. The software offers a wide range of EDI options and new options are added on a regular basis.
Consolidated
A purchase order can be created for multiple locations (branches). Vendors often price differently based on volume, so purchasing for multiple locations all at the same time can be a good idea for some companies. Use this area to manually create or automatically build a consolidated purchase order for a vendor. Users can choose to use a single Purchase Order with branch allocations or to instead create separate Purchase Orders for each location.
When a company has multiple locations, an item may be overstocked at one location and under stocked at another. To compensate for this, the consolidated activity allows for a comparison of stock status between branch locations. This allows a purchaser to decide whether or not items should be moved between branch locations to fill a need. In some cases, it may make sense to do this; however, in others, the costs of transporting the stock may outweigh the benefit.
Customs Manifest
Customs Manifest gives you a way to record and submit import customs information in situations where goods are being imported internationally. The Customs Manifest is linked to purchase orders (POs) and can be used to create an XML file that you can submit to some government Customs departments using the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA). This is a United Nations-based organization responsible for providing Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) services for international trade.
Special Topics
This section provides additional topics related to Purchasing that may be useful to you. These topics include:
Electronic Data Interface (EDI)
Purchase Order Builds