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Procurement in connection with a Sales Order

In Business Central, there are several ways to create Purchase Orders for retail items. The most common are the Requisition Worksheets (from the manufacturing module) and the functionality to create Purchase Order from a Sales Order. However, if retail items are needed explicitly for a specific Sales Order, these two options fall short.
In both cases, the goods are not ordered on an order-by-order basis. Thus, the reservation of the required quantity in the Sales Order line must be done manually. Especially in the second case, both the order (here: Sales Order line) lacks the link to the Purchase Order (here: Purchase Order line) expected by the user and vice versa.

Create Purchase Order​

The functionality to create a Purchase Order (Create Purchase Orders in action group Actions / Functions / Create Purchase Document / Create Purchase Orders) from a Sales Order has been enhanced with DYCE IT-Business Toolkit. The additional action Create Connected Purchase Orders can be found directly in the Home menu. Calling it up opens the Create and connect Purchase Orders page. The page shows the document lines (items) that can be ordered for the current job. It contains the standard fields such as the No. of the item, the Description and the Vendor from which the item should be ordered (for more details regarding the suggested vendor see below in the section Favorite Vendor). In addition, the following fields are included:

  • The Purchasing Code indicates whether a special procurement method (e.g., Drop Shipment) is intended for the order line.
  • The Demand Quantity contains the customer demand quantity from the order line.
  • The Direct Unit Cost field contains the purchase price from the order line. This can be changed unless it is part of a special agreement (Special Bid).
  • In the Quantity to Purchase field, the actual quantity to be ordered is proposed. The system considers both the Demand Quantity and the current available stock (depending on the location from the Sales Order line) in the proposal. The available stock (depending on the location from the Sales Order line) is displayed in the Demand Qty. Available field.
  • A special agreement (e.g. for project-specific purchase prices) is displayed in the Special Bid field (see Direct Unit Cost).
  • The lines to be processed (for which a Purchase Order is to be created) are specified via the Process field.
    With OK the processing is triggered, the order is created and opened.
Prerequisites for purchasing items

In order for an item to be purchased, the following requirements must be met in the Item card:

  • Type = Inventory or Non-Inventory (fast tab Item).
  • Replenishment System = Purchase (fast tab Replenishment)

In the Purchase Order and in the Sales Order, the related other document can be opened. In the Purchase Order, the call Reserved Sales Orders (in the line menu under Purchase Order) is available for this. In the Sales Order, the function is called Reserved Purchase Orders and is also located in the line menu (under Order).

Reservations​

For inventory items (Type=Inventory), the expected goods are automatically reserved for the Sales Order line when the Purchase Order is created. This is visible in the Reserved Quantity field in both the Sales Order line and the Purchase Order line. Clicking on the field will open the Reservation Entries.
Reservations cannot be created for non-inventory items (Type=Non-Inventory). In this case, the standard functionality of Business Central is triggered and used to create Purchase Orders.

Favorite Vendor​

Items can be purchased from different vendors. The respective purchase prices are stored in the (Purchase Prices). With DYCE IT-Business Toolkit there is the possibility to mark one of the vendors as the Favorite. This is done by calling the Set Vendor as Favorite action in the Purchase Prices page. This is useful for the vendor that is normally used to purchase this item from. Only one vendor can be set as the favorite. Performing the action will change the Vendor No. field in the Item Card if the favorite is different from the vendor selected in the Vendor No. field. This favorized vendor will be copied to the Sales document line when it is used in a Sales Line, but it can also be changed there.

Process​

  1. Define favorite vendor
    In the master data of the item, a preferred vendor or supplier is stored in the purchase prices. Vendor agreements can, however, be made with all vendors in principle.
  2. Creation of the order
    The preferred supplier for the item is automatically entered in the Sales Order line and the related Unit Cost is used. The Unit Costs are maintained in principle by the purchaser and are normally not changed in the Sales Order line.
  3. Negotiation of a special purchase price with a supplier
    The negotiated purchase terms apply exclusively to this one Sales Order. The reference number (Special Bid) will be placed on the Sales Order line. The Unit Cost will be adjusted depending on the agreement.
  4. Creation of the Purchase Order
    The Purchase Order is created directly from the Sales Order. A separate Purchase Order is created for each Special Bid. The reference number will be included in the Purchase Order. When printing or sending (by mail), the reference number is printed on the Purchase Order. Different Sales Order lines with the same supplier and the same reference number can be combined into one Purchase Order.
Drop Shipment
  1. Changes of the Unit Cost in the Purchase line will be transferred to the Sales line, if Drop Shipment is set.
  2. In case of Drop Shipment the Purchase Invoice cannot be posted before the Sales Invoices has been posted. This behavior is analogous to the Business Central Standard.