PO Generator

Owned by Stephen Juliano (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Feb 16, 2022 by Colleen Juliano
9 min read

Overview

The purpose of the purchase order generator is to analyze current inventory stock levels and compare to the minimum on hand quantities for each item and make a suggestion as to what is the necessary order quantity. When items fall below the established minimum inventory levels the generator will use either the order quantity or the (minimum qty – qty on hand) to determine how much of an item to purchase. Additionally, if the vendor record has a different unit of measure to purchase, the order quantity will be converted accordingly. 

Detail

There is a feature enhancement license to the PO generator that can be activated that will tie purchase order items back to the sales orders from which they came.

The PO Generator will open to an options screen it is here you tell the system what vendor and item/warehouse parameters you would like evaluated.

  • Consolidate into Warehouse – This option is for those users that have multiple warehouses and use one of them as a distribution warehouse. You should choose your distribution warehouse in this field.

If chosen all item information for the warehouses that you chose to evaluate will roll up into one line on the PO generator screen rather than having multiple line items per warehouse. The other advantage to this all items ordered will roll up to one on the purchase order and be delivered to one warehouse.

  • Starting and Ending (Buying Groups) Super category - This field says Buying group in the demo screen but that "Buying Group" is the demo company super category, if you do not have one set up (and most don't) this option will not be here. The single vendor requirement will over ride this so it is not advisable to set up a super category just for PO generator.

  • Starting and Ending Category – the PO generator can be limited to a category of items or a range of categories. So if you only wanted to put together a small wares order for a vendor you could.

  • Starting and Ending Class – Same as category allows you to limit your search even further

  • Starting and Ending Item – You can limit the PO generator to an item or a range of items.

  • Starting and Ending warehouse – You can search a single warehouse or a range of warehouses in both regular and consolidator mode. The warehouse also has a list function for hub and spoke distribution systems; you can build a list of warehouses that are not necessarily in order.

  • List – this will allow you to create a customized list of warehouses for stocking.

  • Do not include zero QTY – Checking this check box will limit the PO Generator to displaying only what you need to order and strip out any items that have a zero order amount.

  • Buyer – A buyer must be declared as it is required on each purchase order.

  • Vendor – The vendor that you are would like to place an order for. The Purchase Order Generator will only evaluate one vendor at a time.

  • Continue – Pressing this icon will start the PO generator to evaluating the criteria you entered. Depending on the size of your search set and historical data this may take some time.

PO Generator Screen

Once you have run the parameter selection screen, TRX will deliver its suggestions to you. These are just selections no Purchase Order has been cut and you can edit any of this information that resides in a white box.

  • Vendor – The vendor and vendor description are fields that default in you cannot change the vendor until you re-run the PO generator.

  • Sort – When running the Purchase order generator for multiple warehouses without the consolidator function you can choose to have your items display by warehouse or by item order. Item is chosen in the example above and you can see that the info from both items is next to each other for evaluation.

  • Item – The inventory item that is being evaluated for ordering, note the highlighted item is shown as raised to help you keep track of what you are evaluating. Each item has 5 tabs of information for you to review. Also if you right click on a highlighted item you will get an inventory breakdown of all warehouses, this is the basic form of information that you get from the quantities tab, but if you are using the consolidated function you will need this as the items will be rolled up.

  • Warehouse – The warehouse that the item resides in

  • Prefer check box – When this check box is checked the vendor that is being evaluated is the preferred vendor for this item. An item can have multiple vendors.

  • Minimum Order – This is vendor specific information that is defined in the AP Vendor setup screen, the lowest dollar amount that you can order.

  • PPD Freight $ - The dollar amount needed on a PO to capture free freight from a vendor, this is also setup in vendor setup

  • PPD Freight Qty – minimum quantity needed to reach a free freight level with the vendor, set up in vendor setup.

  • Total PO $ - the total the PP will be if you create it at this point.

  • Total PO QTY – the total of the items that would be on the PO if you created it now

Ordering Tab

The order tab will show the suggestions that TRX has made based on your inventory levels and allocated back orders. These are just suggestions that you can edit at this point no purchase order has been created yet.

  • Item Description – the description that defaults in with the item number cannot be edited here but can be if you create a Purchase order.

  • Unit – Unit of measure for purchasing, this will default in from the vendor tab of the item, you can use F9 to change it.

  • Quantity to order – This is the TRX suggestion of what to order, the number itself will be based on the amount to order amount setup for that item on the warehouse tab and the purchase unit of measure.

Example: If an item has four in inventory, no allocations and it has minimum quantity of eight, TRX would tell you to order four more. However if that item also had an Order Quantity of six on the warehouse tab then TRX would tell you to order 6 and raise the inventory to ten items. TRX would then look at the Vendor tab and if it noticed that the vendor purchase unit was a dozen it would suggest that you order one dozen.

  • Stocking quantity – The minimum quantity to stock for this item, this is set up on the warehouse tab of the item. TRX can calculate and update this number based on your historical usage in the usage tab of the PO Generator and the Purchase Assistant screen.

  • Order check box – If this box is checked when you process this screen to create a Purchase order this item will be included, Check to create PO.

  • Unit Price – The unit price of the item based on the most current price data.

  • EXT Cost – The extended cost which is the unit price times the quantity to order.

Quantities

This tab will show the quantity breakdown per item for a specific warehouse. This wills also shows you the Stock orders and allocations vs. the total orders and allocations. This is an important distinction as you want to order for inventory based on the stock quantities. (Total ordered/allocated – what was ordered/allocated for direct ship items – drop ship items will not affect stocking levels)

  • Quantity on Hand – Amount of items currently in your inventory

  • Quantity on Order – the total amount of items on purchase orders already

  • Stock Quantity on order – the amount on order that will actually affect the inventory levels (drop ship orders removed)

  • Quantity Allocated – The amount of items that are currently allocated to orders or projects

  • Stock Quantity allocated – total allocation that will affect the inventory levels (Drop ship Orders Removed)

  • Minimum Stock Quantity – the set minimum quantity for this item from the warehouse tab

  • Quantity to Order – the suggested order amount from the ordering tab

Example of stock quantity on order vs. all quantities on order
If you were just to look at the quantity on order and you have an item with a minimum inventory amount of 20 and there are currently 16 in inventory and ten on purchase orders. Standard convention says you are okay, however what you did not see is that nine of those items on purchase order are direct ships to client sites and will not affect your inventory so you are actually low on stock amount as only one item is ordered to replenish your Inventory stock. If you had evaluated your Stock Quantity on order you would have seen you only had 1 item ordered to boost inventory and would have placed an order for more. TRX will do this automatically but you should have the data in front of you when verifying TRX's suggestion.

Usage History

The usage history tab will give you an at a glance view of the amount of the item that has moved in and out of your inventory over a set period of time. This screen will also calculate a new minimum average usage for you and allow you to adjust to account for monthly standard deviations. Pressing the update icon will update the minimum quantity that is on the warehouse tab for this item.

The usage history will be for the item with the raised view. You can choose the amount of months that you would like to see the history for by changing the last months query box.

  • Items – The item that has the raised view will be the item that you are evaluating in the Usage History tab.

  • Show Last – How many months of history that you will want to evaluate.

  • New Minimum Quantity – You will be able to set the minimum quantity on the warehouse tab for this item by:

    1. Recalculating and accepting the new amount by pressing the Update min icon.

    2. Adjusting the amount manually and pressing the update min icon

  • Calc min – Will re-evaluate the minimum quantity to hold in this warehouse based off the usage history.

  • Update Min – this icon will update the minimum amount of inventory to carry that is stored in the inventory change, warehouse tab.

Note: when checking usage if you have chosen the "consolidate" into warehouse feature you will have the option of seeing the usage for each warehouse.

Sales Orders

The sales order tab will show you all orders that this item is currently on and let you drill down to see the specific orders. This will tell you what is scheduled to leave your inventory for this warehouse.

  • Item – the raised item is the item that we will be evaluating the sales orders for.

  • Allocation date – the date that the allocation was made against your inventory

  • Quantity – The amount that was ordered/allocated

  • Customer – the customer on record for this order

  • Order number- the order number that the item is on, you can drill down into this order by double clicking on it.

  • Date expected – date that the order is expected to be delivered

  • Date Promised – the date from the order that was promised for delivery, this is an optional field.

  • Pending – will be checked if this is a quoted item and not an actual order

Purchase Orders

The purchase Tab will show you all the Purchase orders that have been written for this item and are scheduled to enter into this warehouse.

  • Item – the raised item is the item that we will be evaluating the purchase orders for.

  • Order date – Date the purchase order was cut

  • PO# - the number of the purchase order that this item is on, you can drill down into this field to see the actual purchase order.

  • Vendor – that this item is ordered from per purchase order

  • Quantity – the amount that is on order

Note: The order and purchase order tab will show both drop ship and inventory orders 

Creating the Purchase Orders

After completing the PO generator and finalizing what you would like to order you can press the lightning bolt icon to create your purchase orders directly from this screen. After creating the purchase order TRX will give you the purchase order and give you the option of going to create purchase order screen to review and process it. From here you press the lightning bolt Icon again to create the new purchase order.

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