The Purchasing Assistant

Accessible from the Inventory Management Grid, the Purchasing Assistant takes the parts that you want to order and presents you with a list of all known vendors who supply each part. You can then decide the vendor(s) from which you want to order the parts and automatically create any needed purchase orders.

To open the Purchasing Assistant:

Open the Inventory Management Grid.
Click the Order check box corresponding to the inventory items you want to buy.
Click Order from the toolbar. The Purchasing Assistant appears.

Every inventory item whose Order check box is selected in the Inventory Management Grid appears in the Purchasing Assistant. Located under the description of each part is a list of all of the vendors that supply that part.

The values in this dialog box are:

Description. The part's description, as displayed in the Master Product
Vendor. The vendor that supplies the part. Displayed in blue underneath the part description.
Click the vendor's name to display the Vendor Catalog Item dialog box for that part.

Note!

Note:
Your preferred vendor for the part appears first. By default, the Qty column for the preferred vendor will be populated with the full amount of the requested part.
The order of vendors is defined on the Vendor tab of the Master Product record. See Defining Preferred Vendors for specifics.

Lead Time. When the part could arrive at the stock location. Derived by taking the part's Lead Time (from the Properties tab of the Vendor Catalog Item) and record and added it to today's date.
Qty. On the part row, displays the amount needed. Displayed in blue.
On the vendor row, the amount of the part that will be ordered. Displayed in black.

Note!

Note:
This Qty value at the part level is also a hyperlink; click it to display the Requested Product Break-Down dialog box, displaying details about the job(s) for which the requested items are being ordered. This information can be used in conjunction with each vendor's lead time (Inventory) The time between when you order a part and the time when the part's vendor can deliver it to you. to determine which vendor you want to use to place the order.

Cost. Pulled from the Properties tab of the Vendor Catalog Item.
Total. The total cost of this line item. Derived by multiplying the Qty by the Cost.
PO#. If an unsent purchase order already exists for this vendor, it will display the number of the purchase order. This part will be included on that purchase order.
If <New> is displayed, a new purchase order will be created for this vendor.

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