The Purchasing Agent is a very powerful and efficient tool.
It automatically applies vendor discounts, based on the Vendor Discount Schedule in Vendor Properties
It also differentiates between POs that have met the suggested vendor minimums for quantity and dollar amount and POs that have failed to meet those minimums.
The Purchasing Agent will not process any POs.
You still are in control of which POs get processed and which do not.
It will make your decisions easier, it will allow you to see all applicable information for the planned POs created after running the Cut PO process.
You access the Purchasing Agent directly via the Cut PO process.
- Once the Purchasing Agent option is selected, you will be taken to the Purchasing Agent screen.
- The top left of the Purchasing Agent screen is where you actually process the POs.
- This section is labeled Create POs for.
- The top middle of the screen is called Summary of Planned Purchases.
- This provides you with a summary of basic PO information for the following:
- POs meeting minimums (the minimums are established in Vendor Properties)
- POs not meeting minimums
- All planned POs: the sum of PO's Meeting Minimums + PO's not Meeting Minimums
- Discount override (if it exists)
- This data gives you an overview of all of the planned POs currently displayed on the Purchasing Agent screen.
- This provides you with a summary of basic PO information for the following:
- The top right corner of the screen is the Discount Schedule box.
- This is informational, and displays the Vendor Discount Schedule for the vendor selected in the Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned section.
- The Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned portion of the screen is also an informational display.
- Each vendor for the various PO's included on the screen is shown in this table, along with pertinent information that summarizes the totals from the POs as well as the vendor minimum amounts.
- The last column is a Yes/No column, letting you know if the POs have met the vendor minimums.
- If a PO has not met the minimums, simply compare the values between the Min. Order Qty and Min Order Amt columns and the Order Qty and Total Order Amt columns.
- Those that are highlighted in green, and are displayed at the top of the list of vendors in this box.
- Any POs that have not met vendor minimums can still be processed, if you so choose.
- Click on a vendor in the Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned box
- You will have that vendor's information display in the Discount Schedule box as well as the Items to order from Vendor box.
- The tier of discount that will be used for the planned PO for the selected vendor will be highlighted in green.
- Please note, if you selected a discount override during the Cut PO process for a selected PO
- the Vendor Discount Schedule will not apply to that PO
- the discount will be what you manually determined it should be via the override.
- This is informational, and displays the Vendor Discount Schedule for the vendor selected in the Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned section.
- The bottom portion of the screen contains the Items to order from Vendor box.
- This is another informational display, showing all of the items on the planned POs for the vendor you have selected in the Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned box.
- Pertinent information on each item included in the PO is shown here.
- Take note of the PO Order Discount column.
- This will reflect either the applicable tiered discount from the Vendor Discount Schedule
- or it will reflect the manual discount override percentage you keyed in during the Cut PO process
Create PO's for...
Now that you are familiar with the informational displays on the Purchasing Agent screen, let's take a look at how you actually create POs. This is accomplished via the Create POs for portion of the screen
In the upper left corner. You have four choices
-
Vendors Meeting Minimums: will create POs only for the planned orders that have met vendor minimums
- those shaded green in the Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned box
- Click on the Vendors meeting minimums button.
- A Confirmation dialogue box will appear, asking if you want to proceed.
- This dialogue box will also give you a summary, detailing the quantity of items that will be ordered, the cost, and the number of different vendors involved.
- Click on Yes if you want to proceed
- The orders are created, and you are taken to the Find Purchase Order screen
- Here the POs you just created are listed in the grid 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 hereor simply review the information on it.
- Close out of the PO Properties screen when you're finished reviewing the information.
- Click on No if you want to back out and return to the Purchasing Agent screen with nothing having been processed.
- Selected Vendors Only: If you want to create POs only for vendors that you have manually selected from the Purchasing Agent screen
- In the Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned box
- Using standard Windows techniques, select all of the different vendors for whom you want to create POs.
- Once you've selected the desired vendors
- Click on the Selected Vendors Only button.
- The Confirmation Dialogue box appears.
- Click on Yes to proceed
- You will be taken immediately to the Find PO screen
- The POs you just created will be listed in the grid at the bottom of the screen.
- Or Click No to back out.
-
All Vendors: If you want to create POs for all of the vendors listed in the Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned box
- Click on the All Vendors button.
- The Confirmation Dialogue box appears.
- Click on Yes to proceed
- You will be taken immediately to the Find PO screen
- The POs you just created will be listed in the grid at the bottom of the screen.
- or click No to back out.
-
Cancel - No Vendors: If you do not want to create any POs at the moment, click on the Cancel - No Vendors button.
- A dialogue box appears, asking you to confirm the Cancel.
- If you click on No you will be taken back to the Purchasing Agent screen.
- If you click Yes you will be taken to the To Be Ordered screen
- The items you had used to begin the Cut PO process will still be listed in the grid at the bottom of the screen.
- From here, you can restart the Cut PO process or simply back out of the TBO screen altogether.