Purchase orders are used to replenish stock in the shop (and/or warehouse) to prevent lost sales. Purchase orders can be created manually by selecting products, but they can also be created automatically by using min/max stock settings per product.
When a product is ordered, the system first checks who the preferred supplier is for that product. The preferred supplier is defined per product on the 'Purchasing tab.
Only suppliers for whom purchasing information is available on the Purchasing tab will be shown as possible suppliers in the selection list.
In a situation where a single company has multiple branches, it is also possible to select a different preferred supplier per branch. On the Availability tab a branch-specific preferred supplier can be selected. If nothing is entered here, the standard preferred supplier for the product will apply.
Once the supplier has been determined, the system searches for an existing purchase order for that supplier with the status New. If several purchase orders are found, the one with the oldest creation date and time is used. If no such purchase order exists, a new purchase order is created.
The product is then added as a line on the purchase order. Before this happens, the system checks whether the product is already present in the purchase order. If it is, the quantity in stock units (SKU) on the existing line is increased by the desired number of stock units. If the line does not yet exist, a new line is added to the purchase order with the required number of stock units. For new lines, the packaging that most closely matches the required number of stock units is selected. The packaging information is also copied from the product record to the purchase order line.
In both situations, the total number of stock units on the line is compared with the purchase packaging. If a product is, for example, supplied in packs of 10 units, then the required number of stock units is converted into packs of 10 and the nearest whole number of packs is ordered.
Via product maintenance
By selecting a product in product maintenance, the option 'Order Product' can be chosen from the taskbar on the left. In the order product screen the required number of stock units must be entered.
It is also possible to order products from RetailVista Mobile, the PDA solution provided by NedFox. The process works the same as in product maintenance.
Per department
It is possible to create purchase orders per department. In that case, the search for purchase orders for the selected supplier is extended to purchase orders for the department to which the product belongs. The department of a product is determined through the product category.
If no purchase order for that department is found, then a purchase order for that department is created.
Per purchase price group
It is possible to create purchase orders for specific purchase price groups, for example container purchasing. In product maintenance additional purchasing information can be recorded for a specific price group, for example Container Purchasing Prices 2026. When ordering products, selecting a purchase price group ensures that the system searches for purchase orders that belong to that price group. If none exist, a purchase order for that price group is created. From that point onwards the purchasing information belonging to that price group is used.
With high priority
By marking an order line as High Priority, the search for purchase orders for the supplier will also include high-priority purchase orders. If no such purchase order exists, a new high-priority purchase order is created.
Via min/max stock
Instead of ordering products one by one, it is also possible to generate purchase orders automatically. This requires the use of the optimal stock settings. RetailVista offers a stock automation tool that can calculate the optimal stock levels (min/max) automatically. In the example screen below, a minimum stock of 5 and a maximum stock of 8 has been calculated. More information about the stock automation tool can be found in the process documentation on Stock.
Ordering via the min/max stock generation can be done manually, but also automatically through a scheduled daily task.
Via sales orders
Sales orders record the purchasing needs of customers. When stock is insufficient, this customer demand can automatically be converted into purchase orders. Depending on the settings, these can be high-priority purchase orders, or the customer demand may be added to normal purchase orders. More information on sales orders is available in the process documentation Sales Orders.
Purchase order conditions
When a purchase order is created, various conditions are inherited from the supplier record, such as the free-delivery order value, discounts, small-order charges, etc.
On the Conditions tab in supplier maintenance, these conditions can be configured. Conditions always have a start date: the date from which the condition becomes valid. This makes it possible to change a condition’s value from a specific date onwards, for example a new free-delivery order value starting from 1 January next year. When conditions are retrieved, the conditions valid as of 'today' are used.
The conditions are copied to the purchase order. As a result, supplier conditions can be changed afterwards without affecting existing purchase orders. On the other hand, this also means that if a condition such as the free-delivery threshold was entered incorrectly, the correction may need to be made not only in the supplier record, but also in any open purchase orders.