Stackably builds purchase orders (POs) for you from the products that need reordering. Once a product has a preferred vendor and a reorder point, you tick it on the Reorder tab, click Generate PO, and a PO for that vendor appears on the POs tab. When the goods arrive you receive the shipment against the PO and the on-hand count updates automatically. This article walks through that loop and the other tabs under Purchasing.
Before you start: the product needs inventory tracking turned on and a preferred vendor set in its Reorder Settings. The vendor must be a contact in Contacts › Vendors with the Vendor tag. See Low stock alerts and reorder points in Shop+.
Step 1: Generate a PO from the Reorder tab
Go to Shop+ › Products › Inventory, click Purchasing in the sidebar, then the Reorder tab.
Products that need ordering are grouped by their preferred vendor. Products without a preferred vendor sit in a No preferred vendor group and cannot be turned into a PO until one is set.
Check each product you want to order. The Suggested quantity is filled in for you (based on sales velocity, lead time, safety stock and units per case); change it if you want a different amount. The estimated cost uses the product's last cost per unit.
A bar appears showing how many items are selected across how many vendors. Click Generate PO. One PO is created per vendor.
Step 2: Find the PO on the POs tab
Click the POs tab. Every PO is listed with its order number, date, vendor, number of products, total, status and ship-to address. A new PO starts with the status Ordered.
Click the arrow at the start of a row to expand it and see the products on the PO.
The ⋮ menu at the end of the row holds the other actions for a PO:
Edit: opens the PO with its invoice number, supplier's invoice number, read-only line items (quantity, unit cost and line total), notes, shipping address and receive location.
Landed cost…: add freight or other costs to the PO so they are spread across the received units.
Convert to drop-ship…: mark the PO as shipping straight from the vendor to your customer; it then appears on the Drop-ship tab.
Download PDF: a copy to send to the vendor.
Delete: remove the PO.
Step 3: Receive the shipment
When the goods arrive, click Receive on the PO's row. The Receive Shipment dialog lists each product with the quantity ordered, received so far and remaining.
Enter the quantity you are receiving now for each line. Fill in remaining sets every line to what is still outstanding, Receive all receives everything in one click, and Scan lets you count items in with a barcode scanner.
Add an optional note about the shipment and click Confirm Receipt.
You can receive a PO in parts. After a partial receipt the PO status changes to Partial and the Receive button stays available; the dialog shows previous receipts with who received them and when. Once every unit is received the status changes to Received.
What happens to stock
Each receipt adds the received units to the product's on-hand count as a stock entry from that vendor, so the Stock tab shows the vendor in the Vendors column and the product's status returns to In Stock. Because the product is back above its reorder point, it drops off the Reorder tab. Received units carry the PO's unit cost into the product's cost layers and the Costing report.
The other Purchasing tabs
Forecast projects demand for each product over the next 7 to 90 days from its sales history, flags stockout risk, and shows days of cover and a suggested order.
Bills is where you record the invoice a vendor sends you. Stackably matches it against the PO and the receipt (a three-way match) and flags any discrepancy before you mark it paid.
Drop-ship tracks POs that the vendor ships directly to your customer: awaiting vendor, in transit and delivered.
Approvals lets a manager require sign-off. Set a dollar threshold above which POs go to Pending Approval instead of being sent, an auto-approve amount below which small POs and bills skip approval, and a separate threshold for bills before they can be marked paid.
Common questions
Why is Generate PO greyed out for a product? It has no preferred vendor. Open its Auto-reorder settings on the Stock tab and choose one.
Can one PO cover several products? Yes. Tick every product under the same vendor and one PO is generated for all of them; products under different vendors become separate POs.
Can I receive more or less than I ordered? You can receive less and come back later; the PO stays Partial until the remaining units arrive.
Does the vendor get the PO automatically? No. Use Download PDF from the row menu and send it to the vendor yourself.
Where does the unit cost on the PO come from? From the product's cost per unit on its most recent stock entry. You can see it on the PO's Edit screen.