Within OpenCRM you will find the Purchase Orders module. This is primarily used in one of two ways:

1. To order Products from a supplier to bring into your own stock

2. To order Products that are required to fulfill a Sales Order for a client

There are some options available for you to tweak the process somewhat, for example selecting which of the Products linked to a Sales Order that you want to order from your Supplier. This is useful when you have Sales Orders comprised of items that you source from different suppliers.

Ordering Products from a supplier to bring into your own stock

• Click on the Create icon on the sidebar.
• Select Purchase Orders.
• This takes you to a blank Purchase Orders screen.
• Choose the Supplier you wish to order Products from and give the PO a Subject.
• Select the Billing and Shipping addresses. These will default to your Company address, but you can overwrite these fields if required.
• Select the Products and Quantities required.
• Fill in any additional information required, and hit Save when you are done.

Once the Purchase Order has been saved, you have the option to print off a PDF version (Export to PDF) of the order, and also the option to email the PO directly to your Supplier (Email PDF). For this to work, make sure that you have an Email Address stored on the Supplier Company record:

For details on how to customise the PDFs generated, please see this FAQ.

You can then use the Status field on the Purchase Order to track progress of the goods

Ordering Products that are required to fulfill a Sales Order for a client

If you have raised a Sales Order for a client and need to order the goods, you can do this from the Sales Order screen, by clicking the Purchase Order button on the Invoice drop-down.

This will take you to a new Purchase Order, with key details from the Sales Order populated - Subject, Customer details and the Products required. 

There are a couple of details to taken into consideration:

• You need to select a Supplier.
• You should decide whether the Products should be shipped to you or directly to the customer (using the Ship Address fields)
  
• You need to make sure that you are ordering the correct Products

When you have Saved the Purchase Order, you can action it as per above (generating a PDF, or emailing the PDF to the Supplier to complete the request for items).

Making your life easier - selecting the relevant Supplier and Products when raising a Purchase Order from a Sales Order

There may be instances where you either:

a. Have Products from more than one Supplier listed on a Sales Order

b. Only want to order certain Products on a Sales Order from your Supplier

There are a couple of Additional Settings to enable that will help you here:

Under the Product Settings, enable the following:

This adds a Supplier column into the Product Grid on the Sales Order and gives you an easy way of identifying if you have Products from one or more Suppliers linked to your Sales Order. Additionally, if you have multiple Suppliers linked to Products, this offers you the ability to select which Supplier to use. For more details on this feature please see this FAQ.

Under the Purchase Order Settings, enable the following:

When this setting is switched on, you will see an interim screen when creating the Purchase Order from the Sales Order:

If you attempt to order Products from more than one Supplier, you will get a pop-up error message alerting you of this fact. Hitting Next will load the Purchase Order screen with details from the Sales Order pre-populated, and the Supplier name will also be inserted into the Purchase Order.

Once you have created your Purchase Order you can action it as per the options above (export to PDF/ email PDF).