The To Be Ordered program allows you to call up any items that are scheduled to be ordered, adjust the amount to be ordered, if desired, and then cut purchase orders.
To access the To Be Ordered (TBO) program...
- From the iMerchant Main Menu
- Select Modules > Purchasing > To Be Ordered.
This screen is a gateway where you can view or change any and all items that are scheduled to be ordered within iMerchant.
To locate items that are scheduled to be ordered using a basic search:
- In the Find Product By field, select a search criterion (for example, Description)
- Define the search in the field directly underneath.
- Click on the Find button, a list of matches will appear in the grid at the bottom of the screen.
- From this list, you can highlight an item and double-click on it
- This takes you to the Product Properties screen, where you can change the TBO information, if necessary, and if you have security access to do so.
- The TBO information on the Product Properties screen has four columns:
- Quantity: quantity to be ordered.
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Type: the TBO type for this particular order.
- Click on the binoculars icon to the right of the field under Type
- Select a TBO type for the order
- for example, you may have an order type of P for Publisher, V for Vendor, and so on
- Select the one that makes the most sense.
- You can also create a new Type or change the parameters for an existing one from this screen
- Vendor: select which vendor you want to order this item from--for this particular orde
- Comments (optional): allows you to key in any necessary note regarding the order of this item.
- If you want to create a new row for this item while still on the Product Properties screen
- Click on the Add button in the TBO box.
- A new, blank row appears.
- Add as many rows (additional orders) for the item as you need.
- You might want to create a different row (an additional order) if you wanted to order a certain quantity of the item from one vendor and a certain quantity from another vendor.
- If you need to delete a row
- Click on the arrow directly to the left of it.
- The row will be highlighted in yellow.
- With the cursor still positioned over the arrow, right-click.
- A menu appears, with Delete Row being the only option.
- Select this option and confirm you wish to delete the row at the system prompt.
- The row will be deleted.
- Once you have looked at, changed, added to an order for an item
- Click on the Close toolbar button on the Product Properties screen.
- You will be prompted to save your changes.
- Save them if desired, then you will be returned to the TBO screen.
- Repeat this procedure for the items on your list, or create new search criteria and proceed.
The New toolbar button on the TBO screen allows you to view any product within your system
Whether it has an existing TBO quantity or not.
- Click on the New toolbar button, and the Find Product screen appears.
- Define your product search on the Find Product screen
- Select the item of items on the resulting list you want
- Create orders for these items on the Product Properties screen, as described above.
- These items will now appear in searches for products that have an existing to-be-ordered amount.
The Grouping toolbar icon at the top of the screen allows you to use Grouping
The New Item toolbar icon allows you to create a new Item for a selected product
The Remove toolbar icon allows you to remove selected items from the list by highlighting the items you want removed and clicking on Remove.
The Buying toolbar icon opens the Buying Manager for selected items for highlighted items.
- When accessing the Buying Manager from the TBO page, there is a selection in the Buying Manager that determines which view of the Buying Manager opens
- the general screen, with the list of selected items, or the detailed screen, showing the details for the first item selected.
- To choose which view you want to see first when you access the Buying Manager from the TBO screen
- Click on the View menu selection once in Buying Manager.
- Select From TBO Start on
- A submenu will display with yout two options List of Items and Edit Item Detail.
- Check the one you want as the default. This can be changed at any time.
Creating PO's from the TBO
You can create Purchase Orders directly from the To Be Ordered screen.
Find the items you want to put on your PO.
Once you have a list of items in the grid at the bottom of the TBO screen
You can either create a PO for every item on the list
- that is, put every item on the same PO
or you can select specific items from the list and just put the selected items on the PO.
To select specific items:
- Press the Control key on your keyboard and click on each of the items you want to place on the PO.
- Click on the Cut Po toolbar icon on the TBO screen.
- The PO Process box appears.
- Several fields need to be filled in here for the PO to be cut.
If you want all of the items in the list to be on the PO:
- Don't highlight anything
- Click on the Cut Po toolbar icon on the TBO screen.
- The PO Process box appears.
- Several fields need to be filled in here for the PO to be cut.
The top portion of the PO Process box offers two choices:
Select all items in the list: If you want all of the items listed back at the TBO screen to be included in the PO
Select only highlighted items: If you only want the items you selected to be included
The PO Prefix and Suffix (optional): Key in either a prefix or a suffix or both
- such as MSF or 109 or whatever makes sense to you to help identify the PO
- or leave the fields blank
Vendor Selection: allows you to choose a different vendor from the one listed for the item(s) back on the list at the bottom of the TBO screen.
- If you want to keep the vendor(s) the same
- Click on the circle to the left of Schedule
- If it is already filled in, simply leave it
- You can leave the Vendor field blank.
-
iMerchant Tip: If you choose Schedule and you are creating a PO with multiple items on it and some of the items have different vendors listed on the To Be Ordered screen, you will be creating multiple POs.
- For example, the items you selected to put on POs have three different vendors among them (on the To Be Ordered screen), and you select Scheduled under Vendor Selection, you will be creating three different POs, one for each of the vendors.
- Click on Specific: If you want to select a different vendor, or simply cut the PO just to one vendor
- Then either key in the short name (code) of the vendor you want in the Vendor field or click on the binoculars icon to the right of the field, and then find the desired vendor via the Find Vendor program.
- By ordering all items from just this one vendor, you will be creating just one PO.
Scheduled discount override (optional): You can override the TBO discount percentage already set up in iMerchant for the applicable vendors (from the Vendor Discount Schedule in Vendor Properties)
- or you can leave this alone and use the discount percentage established in the Vendor Discount Schedule.
- If you want to override an existing discount
- Click on the circle to the left of Override Scheduled Discount Percent
- Key in the discount percentage you will be using for this PO in the field directly beneath it.
There are two fields for the PO's Header information. These are optional.
-
Buyer: allows you to place the individual buyer on the header of the PO.
- For example, if a certain employee is cutting this PO, his or her name can be put in the header.
-
Ship Method: if you want, select the shipping method that will appear in the header of the PO you are creating.
- If you don't care whether or not the shipping method appears in the header, just leave it blank.
Cancel Backorder: is a checkbox.
- Checked = items the vendor does not have on hand will be canceled from the PO
- Unchecked = these items will be placed on backorder
Cancel Order Date: select a date that is the cut-off point for the order.
- After this cut-off date, if the PO has not been fulfilled, it will be canceled.
- Either key in a date or click on the arrow to the right of the field for a mini-calendar
-
Request Ship Date: select the date that you would like the items on the PO to be shipped.
- This defaults to the current date. Either key in the date or click on the arrow to the right of the field for a mini-calendar
Once you have set up the PO Process box the way you want you have two options (we suggest option 1):
- Click on the Use Purchasing Agent button at the bottom of the screen.
- This will take you to the Purchasing Agent program
- If you would rather not use the Purchasing Agent (if you have a specified discount and are buying from just one vendor).
- Click on Begin creating POs now to bypass the Purchasing Agent and create the POs.
- If you selected Scheduled under Vendor Selection, and some of the items from the To Be Ordered screen did not have a vendor assigned to them.
- A message box may appear telling you that blank vendors will not be processed.
- If you selected Scheduled under Vendor Selection, and some of the items from the To Be Ordered screen did not have a vendor assigned to them.
- Click on OK.
- The Purchase Order is processed.
- You are automatically taken to the Find Purchase Order screen
- Here the POs you just created are listed at the bottom of the screen.
- To view one of these POs, double-click on it
- You will be brought to the Purchase Order Properties screen.
- You can add to the PO here, or simply review the information on it.
- Close out of the PO Properties screen when you're finished reviewing the information
- or Click on Cancel creating POs to abort the PO process altogether.
- Click on Begin creating POs now to bypass the Purchasing Agent and create the POs.