Purchasing Overview

This screen provides information about the purchases that you have made.

The top half of the screen (known as the form), shows the details for the purchase order that is selected in the table that is in the bottom half of the screen. In the middle of the screen is a filter. By right-clicking in the table, you open a context menu where you can do things with your purchases. You can activate the purchasing screen using CTRL+SHIFT+5.

The Form

Special things to note about the top half of the page:

The top right contains a table that shows a list of the items contained in the selected purchase order. These items are known as purchase order items. This table has its own context menu which you can open by right clicking on the table.

This table has the following columns:
- ID - The unique identifier for the purchase order item
- Product - The product ID (followed by the supplier name in brackets) which the purchase order item refers to
- Title - The product title
- For SO - If this has been reserved for a specific sales order, then the sales order ID is in this column.
- Customer - The name of the customer for which this item has been ordered, or empty if it has not been specifically ordered for a customer
- Delivered - A checkbox to indicate whether or not the item has been delivered to you from the supplier. Once you tick the box, it cannot be unticked.
On the left of the form there is a link to the supplier for which this purchase order is relevant. Each purchase order can be for just one supplier. If you have several suppliers, you will have at least one active purchase order per supplier (active means it has the "temporary" state - see below).
The date ordered can be manually adjusted if required, and is the date when you sent the order (by fax, post, email, internet or whatever), to the supplier.
The date unpacked is the date on which you finally completed unpacking all the items in this purchase order, once they were delivered by the supplier. Suppliers sometimes part deliver orders - but this date refers to the date when all items were received by you. It is set by marking all items as delivered, or manually by you if you change it in the form.
The state is one of:
1. Temporary - meaning you have not placed this order yet and it is free to have more items added to it
2. Ordered - meaning you have placed this order with your supplier and are awaiting its delivery
3. Part Delivered - meaning you have received some of the order but not all of it
4. Delivered - meaning that the order has been completely received by you.
Sales Volume, Delivery Charge, Commission, Sales Value and Total Charged are values which your supplier may provide you with. They are however not relevant to BookStore. Instead, BookStore is only interested in the Total Paid value, which is the value that appears on say your credit card or bank statement. Only the Total Paid can be updated after the order is marked as ordered.
Tag is an arbitrary name that you can give to a purchase order, to help make it easier to find. When using the Sales Wizard you have the choice of setting which purchase order to add items to if they need to be ordered. In the sales wizard, there is a dialog that makes use of this tag, so it is easier to decide which purchase order to add items to.

The Form Context Menu

Right clicking on the table at the upper right of the screen gives you a menu for performing actions on purchase order items:

Show Product - Activates the products screen and selects the product that relates to this purchase order item.
Show Sales Order - Activates the sales screen and selects the sales order that relates to this purchase order item. This menu point is only active if the purchase order item is linked to a sales order, meaning that it was ordered in especially for the sales order.
Take delivery today - Marks the item as delivered, setting the delivery date for this item as now. This is the same as clicking on the checkbox in the table.
Take delivery on a different date... - Opens a dialog where you can choose a date when this item was delivered. Once you click on OK in the dialog, the item is marked as delivered with the date chosen in the dialog.
Take delivery of all today - Marks all undelivered items as delivered, setting the delivery date for those items as now.
Take delivery of all on a different date... - Opens a dialog where you can choose a date when all currently undelivered items were delivered. Once you click on OK in the dialog, the items are marked as delivered with the date chosen in the dialog.
Add another item to this order - If the order is still in the "temporary" state, meaning it has not been placed with the supplier at this time, then you can add items to the order, which are not part of sales orders. Typically you would do this if you wanted to increase your stock level. Choosing this menu option opens the Add item to PO Dialog, where you can choose a product to add, and optionally provide a comment about why you are adding the item.
Remove item from this order - If an item is not related to a sales order, and the purchase order is still in the "temporary" state, then you can remove the item from the purchase order by clicking on this menu option. The menu option is only active if the above criteria are met.

The Filter

In the middle of the screen is a filter. You can type search text there and it will limit what is shown in the table below. Click on the

icon for more information. The number in brackets, in the header cell of the ID column of the table indicates how many rows match the given filter. If the filter is empty, then this number is the total number of purchase orders that you have. If the cursor is in the filter, you can use the down arrow to move focus into the table.

The Table

The table in the bottom half of the screen has the following columns:

ID - The Purchase Order ID, as generated by BookStore
Warning - If the purchase order requires attention, then a warning icon is shown here
Supplier - The supplier to which this PO is relevant
Supplier Reference - The reference which the supplier uses for this purchase order. It is typically given to you when you place the order.
Ordered - The date when this order was placed.
State - One of:
1. Temporary - meaning you have not placed this order yet and it is free to have more items added to it
2. Ordered - meaning you have placed this order with your supplier and are awaiting its delivery
3. Part Delivered - meaning you have received some of the order but not all of it
4. Delivered - meaning that the order has been completely received by you.
Value - The amount that you paid for this order, including all delivery charges, bank charges, etc. This value is the same as the "Total Paid" field on the form.
Tag - A tag is an arbitrary name that you can give to a purchase order, to help make it easier to find. When using the Sales Wizard you have the choice of setting which purchase order to add items to if they need to be ordered. In the sales wizard, there is a dialog that makes use of this tag, so it is easier to decide which purchase order to add items to.

You can sort rows in the table by clicking on the header cell of the column you wish to sort by, for example to sort by "Value", click on the column header in the table. To reverse sort, click the header again.

Selecting a purchase order in the table shows you its details in the form.

The Context Menu

Right clicking on the table in the lower half of the screen gives you a menu:

Create New... - Opens the Create New Purchase Order Dialog allowing you to create a new purcahse order for any supplier. The dialog lets you choose a supplier and enter an optional tag (see above to find out what a tag is). The newly created purchase order will have the "temporary" state.
Mark as Ordered - Opens the Mark PO as Ordered Dialog allowing you to enter details about the purchase order, for example how much it cost you to buy and the suppliers reference number.
Take Delivery - Opens a dialog where you can choose a product that has been delivered. It marks that item as being delivered, giving it a delivery date of now. This is the same as ticking the items checkbox in the table in the upper right of the screen.
Add Item to Order - Opens the Add item to PO Dialog allowing you to choose a product to add to this order, together with an optional comment.
Manipulate - Opens the Manipulate PO Wizard allowing you to swap items from one purchase order to another, so long as they are both for the same supplier and both in the "temporary" state.