Smart Inventory Management: Managing Purchase Orders (Web)

Purchase management refers to the planning, execution, and monitoring activities that businesses undertake when purchasing goods from suppliers. These activities include confirming purchase needs, selecting suitable suppliers, formulating purchase contracts, monitoring supplier performance, and addressing purchase-related issues and risks. The goal is to ensure that the quality, price, and delivery time of purchased goods and services meet business requirements while minimizing purchase costs and risks.

The Smart Inventory Management App for SHOPLINE POS is equipped with a Purchase management module, which incorporates various purchase-related features, such as creating purchase orders, sending purchase orders via emails, generating inbound orders, and providing recommended purchase suggestions. 

Please first go to the SHOPLINE App Store to find and install the Smart Inventory Management App. The operations mentioned in this article are done in the App, not in POS.

Creating Purchase Orders

You can create purchase orders by using the following two methods.

Directly Creating Purchase Orders

1. From your SHOPLINE admin panel, go to Apps and find Smart Inventory Management.
2. In the Purchase section, go to the Purchase management module, then click Create a purchase order.
   
3. Fill in the details for the purchase order. Supplier, In-stock location, Purchase order No., and Delivery date are required information.
   

4. Select and add products to the purchase order in any of the following three ways:

• Click the Bulk import button to download the provided import template. Fill in SKU, product name, purchase quantity, and purchase unit prices following the template instructions and upload it to the system, Click Confirm.
  
• Click Select products to search for products by product name, product SKU, or product brand, or filter products by category, tag, or supplier. After selecting the products, click Select. The system displays the current inventory quantity for each product at the pre-filled location.
  
• Click Add products from recommendation and you will see the restocking recommendations that the system predicts and provides. Refer to the next section for details.
  

5. Fill in purchase information such as quantity and unit price, then click Save and submit to complete the creation.
   
6. You can find it in the To be stocked tab. If your purchase order needs further confirmation, click Save, and the purchase order is in the Not submitted status.
   

Quickly Creating A Purchase Order for Products Requiring Replenishment

1. Click Purchase list in Smart Inventory Management.
   
2. Click Generate purchase order, select the products to be added to the purchase order, and specify the quantities. Once finished, click Confirm to Generate purchase order. The selected products and quantities will be auto-filled in the generated purchase order.
   
   

3. After the purchase order is generated, you should fill in the detailed information. Supplier, In-stock location, Purchase order No., and Delivery date are required information. Then click Save or Save and Submit. Fill in the detailed information for the purchase order. Supplier, In-stock location, Purchase order No., and Delivery date are required information.

Smart Reordering Recommendations

To help you maintain optimal stock levels and reduce waste, you can add recommended products based on predefined conditions. This smart reordering strategy uses the following three options:

• Negative inventory replenishment: Automatically recommends products with negative inventory.
• Minimum inventory: Recommends products whose current stock falls below the Minimum inventory level set in Inventory alert. For instructions on setting up minimum inventory for your products, see "Set Product Inventory Alerts."  

• Average daily sales: Recommends products with inventory levels below their average daily sales. To ensure accurate recommendations, you need to set the Available sales days for the calculation formula: (Average daily sales volume of last 15 days × available sales days) + minimum inventory quantity – available sales inventory. Follow these steps:

  1. In your Smart Inventory Management app, go to Settings.
  
   

  2. In the Set Purchase Suggestions section, click Settings.
  

  3. In the Restock based on average daily sales volume section, enter the desired Available sales days and click Update.
  

By selecting the conditions that fit your needs, the corresponding products will be recommended. Additionally, the system will automatically suggest the optimal purchase quantity based on the selected restocking rule.

Sending Purchase Orders via Emails

Automatic Sending

Once you create and submit a purchase order, the system automatically sends an email to the supplier's designated email address. If no email address is provided, no email is sent.

Manual Sending

When a purchase order you created enters the statuses of To be stocked, Partial incoming, Completed, or Voided, you can manually send an email to the supplier. By default, the recipient's email address is auto-filled with the email of the selected supplier in the purchase order. You can modify or add recipient email addresses and themes as needed.

To send purchase order emails:

1. Go to Smart Inventory Management > Purchase management.

2. Find and click the purchase order that you want to send an email for, then click Send email in the upper right corner.

3. Edit the email recipient, if needed, and theme, then click Confirm to send the email.

Purchase Inbound

When the purchased goods arrive, you need to add them to your warehouse and increase the SKU inventory based on the received quantity.

1. Go to Smart Inventory Management > Purchase management.
2. Find and click the purchase order for which you need to perform inbound operations, then click Inbound on the right side.
   
3. Fill in the actual received quantities in the Inbound quantity field, and click Confirm inbound. The corresponding SKU inventory is increased by the inbound quantity.
   

• If the inbound quantity for any SKU is less than the purchased quantity, the purchase order enters the Partial inbound status. When the remaining products arrive, repeat steps 2 and 3, fill in the remaining inbound quantity, and perform inbound operations.
• When the inbound quantity equals the purchased quantity, the purchase order enters the Completed status, indicating that the inbound process for the purchase order is complete.

Purchase Returns

After receiving purchased products, you may find surplus or defective products that need to be returned to the supplier. In such cases, you can create a purchase return order online. When the return order is confirmed for outbound return, the inventory quantity of the corresponding SKUs is deducted accordingly.

1. Go to Smart Inventory Management > Purchase returns, then click Create a purchase return in the upper right corner.
   
2. Fill in the details of the purchase return and select the products for return. Supplier, Outbound location, and Returned order No. are required information.
   
3. Specify the return quantity and click Confirm return outbound. When the Confirm purchase return pop-up window appears, click OK to confirm the return order.