Skip to main content

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 manufactoring module) and the functionality to create a 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 Subscription & Recurring Billing. 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. 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. It is defaulted with 0 for Service Commitment Items, but can be changed in principle.
  • 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 (irrelevant for Service Commitment Items, as they are not inventory managed). The available stock (depending on the location from the Sales Order line) is displayed in the Demand Qty. Available field.
  • 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 Purchase 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).

Unit costs for Service Commitment Items

Since Service Commitment Items are always considered as a service per period and therefore also the Purchase and Sales prices are related to it, Service Commitment Items are initially transferred to the Purchase Order without Unit Cost. The Unit Cost can be changed in the Create and connect Purchase Orders page as well as in the created Purchase Order line.

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.