Creating purchase orders (POs) in Recurrency is designed to streamline your workflow, enabling you to work efficiently with multiple suppliers and locations. You can start generating POs in Recurrency in three ways:
Creating a PO from scratch
Using Purchase Targets or Review Cycle, leveraging Recurrency’s smart recommendations
Using Purchase Groups, leveraging Recurrency’s smart recommendations
💡 For a blank slate to create a PO, start a PO from scratch via the "New PO" button. To benefit from Recurrency's target tracking capabilities, use the Purchase Targets or Purchase Groups tabs.
Creating POs from Scratch
Navigate to Purchase Order Creation:
In the Purchasing module, navigate to the Purchase Orders tab
Click "New PO" to start creating a new purchase order.
Review Purchase Order Header:
Fill in the necessary details such as Vendor and Supplier, Due Date, Location, and Buyer.
Decide if the PO should be sent to your ERP as approved or unapproved. You can update this by checking or unchecking the “Approved” box, even if your organization has a default setting.
Once you have completed this section, click on “Next” to move forward.
Add and Review Line Items
On the Line Items page, search for items from the selected supplier and specify the quantity and unit of measure (UOM). Note that if you have a price per UOM for this item, it should auto-populate.
Use the Actions dropdown on the right-hand side of each item for various options:
Usage History: View item usage, sales history, order lines, PO lines, availability, and cost directly from the PO workflow.
Duplicate: Copy any line item, including item ID, quantity, UOM, and price per UOM.
Delete: Remove any unnecessary line items.
Move Down/Move Up: Adjust the order of line items within the PO
Send to your ERP
Once the PO is complete, click the “Send to ERP” icon at the bottom of your screen to send the information back to your ERP.
💡 Note: POs created in Recurrency are not automatically emailed to the vendor. You need to complete this process in your ERP.
Creating POs from Purchase Targets or Review Cycle
The Purchase targets capability is integral to the Purchasing Module, which encompasses additional functionalities such as the Item Optimization View, workflow enhancements like Autocomplete POs and Transfer Backorders creation, along with the seamless creation and integration of purchase orders with the ERP system.
To leverage this feature:
Access the Purchase Targets Tab
Navigate to the Purchase Targets tab in the Purchasing module.
In this tab, Recurrency tracks all your items and notifies you when items ready-to-purchase surpass a supplier purchase target or a review cycle.
Select your Preferred View
Next, you’ll want to determine whether to look at supplier-location pairs from the Purchase Targets or the Review Cycles view.
A purchase target is a predefined goal or set of criteria a business aims to achieve when placing orders with suppliers. This can include specific quantities, dollar amounts, or weights to secure special pricing, free freight, or other benefits. Tracking purchase targets ensures timely replenishment, optimal inventory levels, and cost efficiency.
A review cycle is a regular period for assessing inventory levels, usage, and purchasing needs for all locations within a supplier. Use review cycles to ensure timely replenishment, maintain optimal stock levels, and make informed purchasing decisions
Under Purchase Targets and Review Cycle, you can view all supplier-location pairs, check when you last ordered for each pair, and easily see the PO Cost and the number of lines.
If you’re reviewing items from the purchase targets view, you will also see your target, and track progress toward that target.
If you’re reviewing items from the review cycles view, you see when a supplier-location pair was last reviewed, and what your current review cycle is in days.
Applying Filters: You can use filters allow you to narrow down by specific suppliers, locations, buyers, or target types.
Status Indicators: Recurrency assigns status to supplier-location pairs to help prioritize:
All: All pairs, without filters.
Not Ready: Pairs where current levels are lower than the target.
Ready: Pairs where current levels meet or exceed the target, and a PO is ready to be placed.
Initiate One or Multiple Purchase Targets
To start the purchase order process, select one or multiple supplier-location pairs and click on “PO Builder”.
Creating POs from Purchase Groups
Purchase Groups allow you to quickly prioritize and execute on POs for suppliers set up using a hub and spoke model. To leverage this feature, you’ll first want to create your Purchase Groups to access them seamlessly and avoid duplicating work. Once your Purchase Groups are created:
💡 Learn more about the differences between Purchase Groups and Group Buys here.
Navigate to the Purchase Groups tab in the Purchasing module.
In this tab, you will see all the groups you have created, and be able to add, edit, or delete them as needed.
Recurrency will also display your saved data, and the progress to date by displaying relevant information.
Group Name
The number of locations in that group. Note that you can hover over the number to easily see what locations are included in the group.
The Supplier and Purchase Location
The Target, target type, and percentage to target
The status towards target, combining requirements for all locations within that supplier PO
The last ordered date, PO cost, and lines
Initiate One or Multiple Purchase Targets
To start the purchase order process, select one or multiple supplier-location pairs and click on “PO Builder”.
Completing the PO Flow
1. Viewing Item-Location Pairs
On the “All Lines” page, you'll see all item-location pairs within the selected supplier-locations. Some of the information you can review includes:
ABC Class, Net Stock, and Quantity Available: View item details and stock levels.
Stockable Status: Indicates whether the item is stockable or not.
Status:
Backordered: Items with associated backorders.
Understock: Items where net stock is below the minimum.
Overstock: Items where net stock exceeds the maximum.
Normal: Items within the expected stock range.
Nonstock: Items not recommended for purchase unless backordered (hidden by default).
Required: The quantity needed to meet demand and maintain inventory levels.
To Order: Editable quantity to order from the supplier.
To Transfer: Quantity of inventory to be transferred between locations.
Unit Cost and Extended Cost: Costs associated with the items.
2. Filtering Your View
Recurrency allows you to focus on the item-location pairs that matter most, by easily filtering for:
All: Displays all item-location pairs within the selected suppliers and locations.
Transferable: Shows items that can be transferred from other locations.
Purchasing: Highlights items selected for purchase. Adjusting the quantity to order will filter items in or out of this view.
3. Reviewing the Context Panel
The context panel in the Purchasing module is a dynamic tool that provides detailed information based on your current selection. It helps you make informed purchasing decisions by displaying relevant data. It allows you to view data in two different ways:
Overview: Shows a summary of purchase orders being created, and includes progress towards targets and total lines for each PO. The overview displays a graph of inventory status for the selected suppliers and locations.
The context panel defaults to the Overview when you first access the "All Lines" page or when you click on any empty space on the page.
Item Details: When selecting an item-location pair, the Context Panel shows detailed information about that specific pair, such as usage, min/max levels, stock by location, and sales history, enabling you to make smart purchasing decisions.
4. Reviewing Transfer and Purchase Orders
Click “Next” to access the Review screen, showing all POs to be created, including details like purchasing location, requirement location, target percentage, total lines, and cost.
Use “Previous” to return to the “All Lines” page or click “Lines” to review specific PO lines.
5. Leveraging Smart Features
When you generate your Purchase Order in Recurrency, you can leverage additional features to improve your workflow and save time:
Transfer Recommendations: When looking at All Lines, easily manage inventory transfers between locations directly from the PO flow.
Group Buys: Manage purchases for multiple locations in one go.
Purchasing Autocomplete: Optimize POs to meet supplier targets efficiently.
6. Finalizing Your Purchase Order
Click “Next” to finalize the PO, where you can associate it with a buyer, select a carrier, set a due date, and mark it as approved.
Click “Send to ERP” to transfer the PO details to your ERP system.
Remember, POs created in Recurrency need to be manually emailed to the vendor through your ERP system.