POS Technical Documents
Purchasing and receiving inventory
Useful terminology
| • | bin location – The location in your store of a particular item. Bin locations can be shelves, displays, baskets, rooms, or areas in the store, as you choose. |
| • | category – A group of inventory within a department in your store database. The category can represent a location in your store, or it can be a conceptual grouping, such as “Football Gear” or “Merlots.” |
| • | department – A group of inventory in your store database. The department can represent a location in your store, or it can be a conceptual grouping, such as “Sporting Goods” or “Red Wines.” |
| • | master pack quantity – The multiples by which an item must be ordered. For example, a supplier might offer an item in packs of six. When the item is added to an automatically generated purchase order, Store Operations will set the quantity ordered to the lowest multiple of six that is required to reach (or exceed) the restock level for the item. |
| • | minimum order quantity – The minimum quantity of an item that must be ordered from a particular supplier. When the item is added to an automatically generated purchase order, Store Operations will increase the quantity ordered to the minimum order quantity, even if a lesser quantity is needed to reach the item’s restock level. |
| • | purchase order – In Microsoft Dynamics RMS, a form used for both ordering and receiving goods from suppliers. |
| • | reorder point – The inventory level at which an item should be reordered. |
| • | restock level – The desired inventory level an item should reach when it is ordered. |
| • | stylesheet – A file, based on the EXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), that provides formatting and styles for purchase orders exported from Store Operations. |
| • | supplier – A company or vendor that sells goods to retailers. |
Tips for setting up your items
With Microsoft Dynamics RMS, you can save time by generating batches of purchase orders all at once, using a variety of criteria. To take full advantage of this powerful functionality, you will need to add some information to your items. In this section, we provide instructions that will help you to:
| • | Order by supplier and have supplier information prefilled into each purchase order. You will need to create a database record for each of your suppliers, and then add one or more suppliers to each of your items. Be sure to enter the cost (supplier price) and, if appropriate, the minimum order and master pack quantities for each supplier. If an item has more than one supplier, set the primary supplier for the item. You can then choose to order by primary supplier, by supplier with the lowest cost, or from a specific supplier. |
| • | Generate purchase orders based on stock levels. You will need to set the reorder point and restock level for each item. |
| • | Generate purchase orders by department or category. You will need to assign each item to a department and category. |
| • | Generate purchase orders for items in a certain location in the store. You will need to set the bin location for each item. |
| • | Generate purchase orders for only those items that are offered online. You will need to set the option that indicates that the item is available on the Web site. |
By using combinations of settings, you can generate purchase orders for very specific groups of items, such as ordering from their primary suppliers those items in a specific category that have reached their reorder points.
To create a supplier record
1. | On the Database menu in Store Operations Manager, click Suppliers, and then click New. |
2. | Enter information about the supplier, and then click OK. |
To change supplier, department/category, bin location, and reorder settings for a specific item
1. | On the Database menu, click Items. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2. | Select the item that you want to modify, and then click Properties. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
3. | Enter one or more of the following settings:
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4. | Click OK to save the item. |
To change reorder settings for a group of items
1. | On the Wizards menu, click Inventory Wizard. | ||||||
2. | On the Welcome page of the wizard, click Next. | ||||||
3. | On the Select Inventory Task page:
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4. | On the next wizard page, take one of these actions:
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5. | Click Finish to view the Inventory Wizard Workpad. | ||||||
6. | Add, delete, or import rows as needed, and then indicate any desired changes in the white-shaded columns. | ||||||
7. | When you are done entering changes, click Commit to update the database based on the change list. |
Notes
| • | If you are changing item ordering information, only items that have suppliers assigned will appear in, or can be added to, the workpad. |
| • | If you click Cancel in the Inventory Wizard Workpad, the database will not be modified. |
Creating purchase orders
Microsoft Dynamics RMS provides a variety of options for creating purchase orders. You can create a purchase order manually for only those items that you select, or you can create purchase orders automatically for:
| • | All items in your store |
| • | Items that have reached their reorder points |
| • | Items that were sold in a specific time period |
| • | Items from specific suppliers |
| • | Items in specific departments or categories |
| • | Items in specific bin locations |
| • | Items that meet specific filter criteria |
Store Operations will generate as many purchase orders as are needed to order all of the items that meet your criteria.
To create a purchase order or batch of purchase orders
1. | On the Inventory menu in Store Operations Manager, click Purchase Orders, and then click New. The Create New Purchase Orders dialog box appears. |
2. | Make selections about the purchase orders that you want to create.
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Notes
| • | If you chose to create a blank purchase order, the purchase order form will open and you can begin entering information. For more information, see “Modifying existing purchase orders” later in this article. |
| • | If you chose to automatically generate purchase orders, Store Operations will determine the number of purchase orders that are required to satisfy the criteria you entered (usually one per supplier), and then it will create the orders. Unless you chose the Generate based on reorder information or Generate based on items sold option, you will need to modify each purchase order by typing in the quantities that you want to order. For more information, see “Modifying existing purchase orders” later in this article. |
| • | If a message appears that says no orders were created, it means that Store Operations did not find any items that met your ordering criteria. You can try again using different criteria, or you can manually create a purchase order for the items that you want to order. |
Modifying existing purchase orders
You can edit your open and partially received purchase orders in a number of ways. For example, you can add or remove ordered items, change ordered quantities, or change shipping information.
Tip
In general, you should not make changes to a purchase order that has been placed with the supplier, as this could cause discrepancies between store and supplier records.
To modify an existing purchase order
1. | If needed, open the purchase order form. On the Inventory menu in Store Operations Manager, click Purchase Orders, select the purchase order that you want to modify, and then click Edit. | ||||||||
2. | Make changes on the Header tab as desired. For information about the available settings, click Help. Note | ||||||||
3. | If desired, click the Contents tab and modify the item list in the purchase order in one of these ways:
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4. | When you are finished making changes to the purchase order, click OK. |
Placing and printing a purchase order
As a best practice, Microsoft recommends marking a purchase order as placed on the day you print or export it for transmission to the supplier. In this section, we describe how to place and print a purchase order. For information about exporting a purchase order, see the next section.
To place and print a purchase order
1. | On the Inventory menu in Store Operations Manager, click Purchase Orders. |
2. | Select the purchase order that you want to place and print, and then click Edit. |
3. | In the Placement status box, select Order has been placed. |
4. | If needed, change the date in the Date placed box. |
5. | Click Print, and then click Yes to save changes. |
6. | Review the order in the Print Preview window to make sure it will print properly. You can use the Change printer properties and Change page properties buttons on the toolbar to adjust the margins, orientation, and other print options. |
7. | Click the Print document button on the toolbar, specify the pages and number of copies to print, and then click OK. |
Exporting purchase orders and using stylesheets
Instead of printing a purchase order, you can export it to an e-mail message, a file, or another program. This enables you to transmit purchase orders to suppliers in the electronic format that you or they prefer. With the stylesheet feature, you can transmit the purchase order as a formatted Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, Microsoft Word document, or HTML Web page.
Note
For more information about stylesheets, see “Creating custom stylesheets” later in this article.
To export a purchase order
1. | On the Inventory menu in Store Operations Manager, click Purchase Orders. | ||||||||||||||||||
2. | Select the purchase order that you want to export, and then click Edit. | ||||||||||||||||||
3. | In the Placement status box, select Order has been placed, and then change the date in the Date placed box as needed. | ||||||||||||||||||
4. | Click Export Document, and then, if prompted, click Yes to save the purchase order. The Export dialog box opens.
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5. | Specify the settings for the export.
Note | ||||||||||||||||||
6. | If needed, take one of the following actions:
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Creating custom stylesheets
Store Operations comes with two built-in stylesheets, one for purchase orders and one for inventory transfers. If you have experience writing XSL files, you can use the default files as the basis of your own custom stylesheets.
Important
Do not modify the built-in stylesheets directly. Instead, make a copy of the built-in file that you want to use, and then make modifications to the copy. That way, you can always revert to the built-in stylesheet if you have problems.
Stylesheet location
To be available in Store Operations, your custom stylesheets must be located in the stylesheet folder. By default, this folder is the POFormats folder in the installation folder for Store Operations. A typical path to this folder is:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Retail Management System\Store Operations\POFormats
To make your custom stylesheets available in the Export dialog box, simply copy the .xsl files to this folder.
Note
If you want to keep your stylesheets in another folder, you can change the stylesheet location in Store Operations Administrator. On the File menu, click Configuration, click the Paths tab, and then click the magnifying glass next to the PO Stylesheet box.
Outline of the built-in purchase order stylesheet
In the built-in purchase order stylesheet, RMS Purchaseorder.xsl, you will see eight sections: the specification section, the header section, and six template sections.
| • | Specification section. This section contains format information for the stylesheet, currency and other numeric variable formats, and other variable definitions. |
| • | Header section. This section sets the title of the purchase order, specifies the template that makes up the body of the purchase order, and provides the CSS-like style definitions for the stylesheet. |
| • | Template sections. These sections provide the content and layout of the purchase order, using HTML table coding and references to the XML fields in the exported purchase order. |
Receiving inventory
Microsoft Dynamics RMS lets you receive inventory in a number of ways. You can receive inventory against an existing purchase order, receiving all or only a portion of the items on the order, or you can create a purchase order for the items in a received shipment. The second method is useful if you manage your purchasing over the Internet or by phone.
To receive inventory against an existing purchase order
1. | On the Inventory menu in Store Operations Manager, click Purchase Orders. | ||||||||
2. | To view purchase orders that have both Open and Partial status, select Show All in the Filter box. | ||||||||
3. | Select the purchase order that you want to receive, and then click Receive. | ||||||||
4. | Take one of the following actions:
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Notes
| • | If any item in the received order is a serialized item, you will need to enter the serial numbers for the received units. You can do this right in the purchase order. In the row for the serialized item, click in the Qty Rcv column, and then click the small button that appears there. In the Serialized Item Detail dialog box, click Add to specify the serial number or numbers for each unit. You have the option of generating serial numbers automatically. |
| • | If the received quantity of a child item pushes its available quantity up over the number of child items included in the parent item, the available quantity of the parent item will be incremented. For example, if a parent item contains six child items and six child items are received, the available quantity of the parent item will increase by one, while the available quantity of the child item will remain the same. |
To receive a shipment that does not appear on a purchase order
1. | On the Inventory menu, click Purchase Orders. |
2. | Click New, select Create a new blank purchase order for manual entry, and then click OK. |
3. | On the Header tab, enter basic information about the purchase order, as desired. If you leave the PO number box blank, Store Operations will create an order number for you. |
4. | Add the received items to the Contents tab, following the instructions in “Modifying existing purchase orders” earlier in this article. Be sure to set the ordered quantity for each item to the quantity received in the shipment |
5. | Click OK to save the purchase order. |
6. | In the Purchase Orders list, select the new purchase order, and then click Receive. |
7. | Click Receive All, and then click Commit. |
8. | If you are asked to confirm that the order should be received even though it has not been placed, click Yes, and then click Yes to confirm the changes to the database quantities. The inventory levels will be adjusted and the purchase order will be closed. |
Canceling purchase orders
To ensure that you can generate accurate automatic purchase orders, Microsoft does not recommend deleting Open or Partial purchase orders. Instead, you can cancel the purchase order in one of these ways:
| • | Select the purchase order in the Purchase Orders list, and then click Receive. Change the received quantities as needed (for a partially received order), or leave the received quantities at zero, click Commit, click Yes to confirm the changes to the database quantities, and then click Yes when you are asked if you want to close the purchase order. Note |
| • | Select the purchase order in the Purchase Orders list, and then click Edit. On the Contents tab, delete each of the ordered items, click OK, and then clicked Yes when you are asked if you want to close the purchase order. |
Closed purchase orders cannot be deleted or canceled.
Generating purchasing reports
Microsoft Dynamics RMS includes a built-in Purchase Order List report that will give you an overview of your purchasing and receiving activity for the time period that you specify. The basic form of the report provides a list of all Open and Partial purchase orders. You can modify the report to show Closed orders, too, and with some simple layout changes, you can see summary and totals information for each supplier or date range.
Another reporting option is the Item Movement History report. This report shows changes to inventory levels for any reason, including received shipments.
To generate a simple Purchase Order List
1. | On the Reports menu in Store Operations Manager, point to Quotes/Orders, and then click Purchase Orders. |
2. | If you want to include Closed purchase orders in the report, click Remove. |
3. | If you want to limit the information in the report, set filter criteria as desired, such as by specifying a date range or a certain supplier. For more information about filtering reports, see “Filtering report data” in Store Operations Online Help. |
4. | Click OK. |
To modify the Purchase Order List report
1. | In the report window, take one or more of the following actions:
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2. | If the modified report is one you will want to generate again, click the Memorize button on the toolbar, type a name for the report, and then click Memorize. Note |
To generate the Item Movement History report
1. | On the Reports menu, point to Items, and then click Item Movement History. |
2. | Set or change filter settings as desired, and then click OK. |
Notes
| • | Inventory changes from purchase orders have PO/Inventory Transfer in the Type column. |
| • | You can modify the Item Movement History report by using the methods described above for modifying the Purchase Order List report. |