Module: Suggesting orders to suppliers¶

Executive summary¶

The present module is an add-on module to the module Suggestion of orders. It takes care of a proper display of the orders and it further works with the suggested orders.

There are two ways to work with the suggested orders to suppliers:

The first way: to work with them directly in the GUI of STOCK on the screen Orders. First, in the tree menu, you select the required level for which the orders should be displayed, then you select a supplier and let the suggested orders to be displayed. The displayed suggested orders then can be put into the basket – and the basket is then exported into the primary ERP system as a final order.
All of the orders can be exported (at once) as a part of the regular nightly recomputation into the primary system. You can then work with them in the primary system and to STOCK, only those orders that should be ordered get imported as a part of the nightly recomputation. This method is neither a standard nor an automated one; the export of all the orders is an extension of the module.

Functional description¶

In the functional description, we primarily focus on the option (1): work with the suggested orders in the GUI.

Displaying suggested orders¶

The screen with suggested orders displays a list of all suggested orders to suppliers, from the current date in the future, as a table. The displayed orders are always related only to items from the selected path in the module Tree.

Basic filtering of orders¶

On the screen Orders, the following tasks can be executed:

filtered by a selected supplier or groups of suppliers,
filtered by order dates or delivery dates.

Additional features of filters¶

Make full use of containers¶

Within the suggested orders, based on a particular setting in administration, we can select a unit volume – and only suggested orders that fit the given volume unit get filtered out.

Volume units can be set up in Settings -> Settings of containers.

List of suggested orders¶

In the list of the suggested orders, the following columns are important:

N – an item marked as a New item (novelty).
R – the item might be supplied from another warehouse (just if the module: Distribution among warehouses is enabled).
Delay – the duration of a stockout prior to the delivery; in days.
Quantity – quantity STOCK suggests to order within the order.
Quantity without respecting the minimum quantity (that is actually to be ordered, i.e., without rounding to packaging and without minimum order quantity).
Basket – when selected, the order is inserted into an active basket.
Purchase value – the total price of the goods in a given row of a given supplier.
Supplier – the name of the supplier from whom the row is ordered.
Order date – the date when (according to STOCK) the suggested order must be sent to the supplier.
ETA – the date when the STOCK system expects that the ordered goods becomes a part of stock on hand. It takes into account the supplier’s lead time.
Promotions – the suggested order covers a promotion.

Orders color-coding¶

In the listing of suggested orders, the following color-coding applies (D – the current date in the system):

rows
1. pink – suggested orders with the order date in the range from D to D+7
2. yellow – suggested orders with the order date in the range from D+7 to D+14
cells
1. blue – the minimum order quantity is higher than what needs to be ordered
2. blue with red crosses – the minimum order quantity is three-times higher than what should be ordered

Suggested orders with the quantity 0¶

These are suggested orders that require manual ordering, e.g. new items.

Tab New products¶

In the tab New products, we see the same listing of suggested orders, but we see only those items marked as novelty.

Basket¶

Basket is a tool that lets the user to mark the suggested orders for export. It works within the tab Orders and the tab Basket.

Basket in the section Orders¶

The basket is located in a separate tab. In this section, the basket can be used as follows:

create a basket – this basket is then accessible to other users (public) and/or available to edit,
delete a basket,
empty a basket,
switch between baskets.

Operations for a selected basket¶

In the section dealing with suggested orders, individual rows from the listing of suggested orders can be placed in the basket.

Furthermore, bulk filtered or unfiltered rows by the ABC category, or rows filtered based on HTML tables can be placed into the basket.

The A, B, C, D buttons determine which of the suggested orders are placed in the basket when clicking on the basket icon.

Gray basket: all suggested orders that comply with the ABC filter are inserted.

Red basket: all suggested orders that comply with the ABC filter and are scheduled for next week, are inserted.

Yellow basket: all suggested orders that comply with the ABC filter and are scheduled for the next two weeks, are inserted.

Light blue basket: all suggested orders that comply with the ABC filter and the HTML filter from the listing of orders, are inserted. Read more about the filtering in the module HTML Table.

Basket in the section Basket¶

You can further work with the suggested orders (now in the basket) in the section Orders in a separate section Basket. Compared to the Basket in the section Orders, the Basket here can manage the following additional tasks:

edit quantity in the orders in the basket
export the content of the basket as a downloadable file
remove an order from the basket

Automated export using Data warehouse¶

As part of the standard functionality of this module, you can see the data warehouse with suggested orders. It is into the data warehouse where (after every night recomputation) the suggested orders get exported. More information can be found in the module: Data warehouse.

With this export, you can work with the suggested orders as you want, in particular, you do not need access to the STOCK’s GUI to read and work with the suggested orders.

Report Acceptance of the STOCK suggestions¶

The report Acceptance is here for the user to check the percentage of the suggested orders has been accepted by a purchasing manager.

As a result, we see aligned suggestion of the system, suggested orders sent from the ERP system and the actual receipts. The report is able to pair 100% of the results only if all the suggested orders from the ERP system and the receipts have our unique (STOCK-generated) ID. If they do not, we can pair the suggested orders based on the product, supplier and approximate dates the order and the receipt were created.

Filter to display the comparison:

Having it filtered out, the system presents the basic statistics and settings for pairing of the orders:

The table identifies the ordered product, the supplier and other basic information. To each suggested order, the following information is added:

Rather important is the indicator “TYPE”: it identifies whether we deal with a receipt (so that no suggested order from STOCK has been found), STOCK suggested order (so that a receipt to the suggestion has not been found) or OK (so this is a paired order and receipt). When the pairing is right, the ordered quantity can be right – or a user has changed the quantity, and this is indicated by the red-highlighted box in the screenshot.

After clicking the magnifying glass, you see a detailed view of transactions in the vicinity of the paired (or unpaired) transaction and orders suggested by STOCK in the vicinity of the date the product was ordered.

Displaying details¶

For a product and a warehouse, suggested orders can be displayed in the module Detail.

Extensions¶

Export of suggested orders to the primary ERP from the basket¶

You can automatically export orders from the basket to the primary ERP system. Format, technical design and workflow of the export is always negotiated during the implementation.

In practice, a new button will be added to the basket tab – and it makes the export happen.

Changing a supplier in Basket¶

The change allows you to – before you export the basket to the ERP – change a supplier from whom to order. This change makes sense when the STOCK’s GUI is the primary work environment for the purchase manager. Thanks to the change here, there is no need to change the suppliers in the primary ERP system after the orders have been exported to the ERP from STOCK.

However, you can only choose those suppliers that are marked as alternative suppliers to the given product.

Export of suggested orders to the primary ERP¶

If the automated export using data warehouse is not good enough for you, a special, tailor-made export to your system can be made, so that the suggested orders can be loaded into your system.