This blog provides a step-by-step guide on how to generate a Purchase Order (PO) or a range of POs, based on the Bill-of-Materials (BoM) needs/demand and current in-stock levels. Use this functionality, if you’re planning on making/manufacturing something to a particular quantity and want to know if you’ve enough stock-in-hand to support the build process (demand). Supplement this demand requirement by letting EdgeSTOCK tell you where you’re short of certain stock items and, at a click of a button, generate PO(s) to order those short stock item(s).

1. Login to EdgeSuite and make sure the home dashboard is visible
2. From the menu, select: Stock > Products & Inventory
   
3. From the Product & Inventory dashboard, search for the product you wish/plan to make (it must be an Assembly product type with a completed BoM) and select View from the Actions
   
4. From the Product’s screen, choose Make > Demand tabs; type in the Quantity to Make and click [Show Shorts] to view the components you are short of to make the required quantity (ignoring the already assembled available quantities in stock)
   
5. To generate Purchase Order(s) for the component(s) listed in the Short List, click the [Raise PO’s] button and choose either:
   1. By Supplier – which will generate separate POs per supplier, grouping product(s) to by lead supplier
   2. All in One – which puts all the components onto one PO, and you can choose the relevant supplier
      
6. In either case, the POs are created and saved on the Financial Documents dashboard. From the main menu, choose Docs-n-Certs > Financial Documents to show the dashboard, where the Purchase Order(s) are saved as draft
   
7. Choose the Edit Action (pencil icon) to open the draft Purchase Order you want to process
8. Fill in the mandatory (red asterisk marked) fields as a minimum. Please note that in many cases the Units in Pack are required for each product/component listed. When you’re completed with filling-in the PO, then click [Save & Authorise]; and any comments and click [Save]
9. The PO reappears with a status of “Authorised”. You can now process the PO as usual using the action buttons on its header bar. The usual next step is [Send] the PO to the Supplier
   
10. Here is a summary of the PO processing actions you can perform:
    1. [+Create New Bill] – use this if you want to create a “purchase invoice (bill)” related to this PO. Please note you will need permission from the Supplier to ‘self-invoice’ like this
    2. [Copy to Acc. Package] – use this to copy this PO to your connected accounting package, which saves you rekeying
    3. [Set to On-Order] – use this if the PO has been sent/communicated to the Supplier and the goods are on their way to you
    4. [Email PDF] – provides various PO layout format choices to email as a PDF to whoever needs the PO
    5. [Send] – use to initially send the PO to the Supplier stated on the PO
    6. [Reject] – use only if you want to reject the authorised PO because you’ve spotted an issue with the PO and wish to correct it before sending
    7. [Cancel] – use only if you wish to cancel the PO
    8. [Generate PDF] provides various PO layout format choices to download as a PDF to your local device (i.e. for printing onto paper copy)