Inventory Purchasing Page

The Inventory Purchasing Page is a powerful tool that is useful in purchasing inventory, creating purchase orders, and managing inventory stock levels. The Inventory Purchasing feature can also be used to list a number of inventory items, making the task of changing inventory information a bit easier. The Purchasing Page is very useful when inventory counts are being tracked and purchase orders are used in purchasing.

The purchasing window consists of 2 tabs:

To open the Inventory Purchasing Page, go to Inventory > Inventory Purchasing and click on the Purchasing tab as shown below:

Unlike many other lists within EBMS, the Find (F5) button must be clicked to show items on the purchasing list.

Query by Vendor

The user has the option of displaying All the inventory items or only the items purchased from a specific Vendor.

Enable the Search for primary vendor option to increase the list load speed for the specified vendor if items are purchased only from a single vendor. This switch will not query items that are not listed as the primary vendor within the item's Purchasing tab. Click on the Find (F5) button.

Query including Category

If the list of inventory items is too lengthy to properly evaluate, then query the list using the options of the upper right side of the purchasing window. The available options are:

PERFORMANCE NOTE:  Disable the Refresh list manually option if the reloading of the list is slow when exiting the View Item dialog.  

Show useful Column Data

The inventory-purchasing window allows a number of optional columns to be displayed or hidden. Right-click on any column label to display all the available columns. To hide the columns, click on the heading label to remove the check mark or show columns by clicking on the column to switch the check mark ON. All information displayed can be viewed within the Inventory > Product Catalog window. Each available column is listed below with a brief description:

A number of the following count columns that are located within the Count tab of the Product Catalog screen can also be displayed.

Enter the number of months that are totaled together and displayed in the sales History column. Example: Enter the number 3 to show the total sales for 3 consecutive months.

Enter the ending month number. It is recommended that this setting have a value. For example, if you enter the number 1, the system will calculate the specified number of months up to and including last month. It is not wise to include the current month since it is not completed.

Example:  The user wishes to show the total sales for the past year with a current date of 09-10-2002. Enter 12 in the first Inventory Purchasing month field and the number 1 for the second month. The Sales History within the purchasing window will show the total sales between September 2001 and August 2002.

Color Code Product

The Calculate stock levels option at the bottom of the dialog should be enabled only if colorization is being used.   Review Color Coded by Stock Level for details on coloring product based on stock levels.

List Product by Vendor

The Inventory Purchasing page can list only the items listed for a specific Vendor.  Enable the Vendor option if you are preparing to create an order for a specific vendor and then enter the vendor's ID as shown below:

An inventory item will be listed under multiple vendors if the same item has been purchased from multiple vendors. All items associated with the selected vendor listed within the Product Catalog > Purchasing tab will be listed. Highlight the desired inventory item, click on the View Item button, and click on the Purchasing tab to view the Primary Vendor setting Item window:

In the example above, the inventory item DIRSHO will be listed when any of the three vendors are selected (IDEBUI, JOHDEE,or QUABOB). Delete the record within the tab to remove a specific item from a vendor's purchasing list. A new vendor record will automatically be inserted into the inventory item's vendor list when the inventory item is initially purchased from a vendor. Manually add a new vendor by adding the vendor's ID into the vendor list. The new vendor's quoted price may also be entered in the Cost column. Review Purchasing Tab for more details on the vendor product list within the Purchasing tab.  

Print Stock Levels

An inventory order sheet can also be printed if you wish to have a hard copy of all the items purchased from a specific vendor. Go to File > Reports > Inventory > Counts and select the Inventory Order Sheet (Vendor) report.

Restocking Inventory Processes

Use the purchasing page to restock inventory by purchasing or manufacturing product.  Review the following for steps to order or manufacture product to increase stock levels:

  1. Purchase inventory for stock: Review Using the Purchasing Page to Create Purchase Orders for steps to create PO(s) from the purchasing page.

  2. Manufacture inventory for stock:  Review Manufacturing > Creating a Batch > Creating a Batch from the Purchasing Page for steps to create a manufacturing batch from the purchasing page.    

  3. Purchase special orders for stock:  Review Special Orders and Drop Shipped Items > Purchasing Special Orders for steps to purchase special order or drop ship product.