Purchasing and managing inventory is an important element in managing a business. EBMS includes an Inventory Purchasing window to assist in this task. This feature window is useful in purchasing inventory, creating purchase orders, and managing stock. 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 window is most useful when inventory counts are being tracked and purchase orders are used in purchasing.
To open the Inventory Purchasing window, go to Inventory > Inventory Purchasing and the following window will open:
Unlike many other lists within EBMS, the Find (F5) button must be clicked to show items on the purchasing list.
The user has the option of displaying All the inventory items or only the items purchased from a specific Vendor. An inventory item can be listed under multiple vendors if the same inventory item has been purchased previously from multiple vendors. Choose the Vendor option if you are preparing to create an order for a specific vendor and then enter the vendor's ID.
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. Open the Purchasing Tab within any inventory item to set the primary vendor. Click on the Find (F5) button.
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:
Turn on the Show items with order quantities if you wish to list only the items that you have selected to purchase. The first column of the inventory list is labeled Order Quantity. This quantity can be edited to determine the amount of each item that you wish to purchase. If you check the Show items switch, only the items with an Order Quantity that is not zero will be displayed.
Check the Show only this folder switch to limit the list to a specific inventory folder. Select the desired folder by clicking on the down arrow to the right of the folder field. The folder field cannot be set unless the Show only... switch is turned ON. To include all inventory items within the subfolders as well, click the Include Subfolders switch ON.
The Query option can be used in conjunction with the options listed above. The Query window functions the same as the query options found within search lists and reports.
For example, if the user wished to list only the inventory items that are located within warehouse 2, isle 3 (Location field contains - WH2I3) a query could be generated that would contain the following settings:
Only the inventory items with the value WH2I3 in the Location field within Inventory Item > General tab would be listed. Review the Features > Advanced Query Options section for more details and instructions on using queries.
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 > Inventory Item window. Each available column is listed below with a brief description:
The Order Quantity will appear blank until the user enters the desired order amount. This information is saved even when the item is not displayed on the window.
The Inventory ID identifies the inventory item and Description 1, Description 2, and Description 3 describe the inventory item as entered within the General tab.
The Type field can be very useful when querying information in user defined groups. For example, if the user prefers a user defined list of items that are used on a regular basis to manufacture some common products, the user can insert a code such as MFG within the Type field. The new code can be separated from other existing codes within the type field by a comma or space (LARGE, MFG). To list all the items that contain the MFG code within the Type field, click on the Query button on the upper part of the purchasing window and enter the following information. Database = "TYPE", Operator = "Contains", Value = "MFG". For more instructions on the query function, review the Features > Advanced Query Options section of this manual.
The last Cost value reflects the most recent purchase cost of the item and is stored within the Pricing tab.
The Weight column is an optional field used to record the weight of an item for shipping purposes. The item's weight is stored within the Gross Weight field within the General tab.
The remainder of the columns display a variety of count values that are located within the Count tab of the Inventory Item screen.
The Count amount is the total processed inventory on hand. The Count amount is incremented when a purchase order is processed into an invoice. As long as an item is not processed (Purchase Order), the Count is not affected. The Count amount is decreased when a sales order is processed into a sales invoice.
The Purchase Orders and Purchase Orders Received fields reflect the amount that is currently on purchase orders. When an expense invoice is processed, the Purchase Order amounts are decreased and the Count total is increased.
The Sales Orders Ordered and Sales Orders Shipped fields record the total amount that are currently on sales orders. If an invoice is saved but not processed (Sales Order), the Sales Orders amount is increased. The Sales Orders Shipped amount reflects the total amount recorded in the Shipped column of the sales order or invoice. When the sales invoice is processed, the Purchase Orders and Purchase Orders Shipped amounts are decreased and the Count total is increased.
The On Hand column displays the total amount of inventories that are in stock. On Hand = Count + Purchase Orders Received Sales Orders Shipped. This column differs from the Count column since it reflects invoices that have not been processed.
The Net Ordered column displays the inventory count considering all purchase and sales orders. Net Ordered = Count + Purchase Orders Sales Orders. This column differs from the On Hand column since it reflects all order amounts rather than only the counts listed within the Shipped that are in the invoices that have not been processed.
The Ordering fields are used to automatically order when the On Hand is less than the Minimum amount. The recommended order is in increments of the Order Amount until it reaches the Maximum inventory. See the section below that describes the Default Orders button for more details on how these fields can be used.
The Sales History column can be valuable to display the sales count history. The length of time used to calculate this history is set within Inventory > Options > General tab as shown below:
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.
Return to the purchasing window to continue with this section.
All inventory items with the selected vendor listed in the Inventory Items > Purchasing tab will be listed when the specified vendor is selected within the Inventory Purchasing Screen. Highlight the desired inventory item and click on the View Item button to open the Inventory Item window:
In the example above, the inventory item DIRSHO will be listed when any of the three vendors are selected (JOHLAW, BOBDOO, or ACE). To remove a specific item from a vendor's list, right-click on the vendor line and select Delete Row from the context menu. A vendor will automatically be inserted into the inventory item's vendor list when the inventory item is purchased from a new vendor. To manually enter a new vendor, insert the vendor's ID into the vendor list. The new vendor's quoted price may also be entered in the Cost column. Click on the OK button to save the changes.
Click on the Refresh button if the Inventory Purchasing window was already opened and you wish to update the list to reflect the changes made in the Inventory Items window.
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. This report may also be listed and launched from the Print button on the Purchasing window.