Purchase Orders

• The Purchase Orders module allows items to be purchased from vendors.
• To create a new purchase order, click the New button. Each existing purchase order is displayed in the search area on the left.
• After all items have been added to the order, click the ISSUE button in the action bar at the top of the order.
• Click the AUTO ORDER button to automatically create purchase orders based on reorder points.
  

• To import orders from a spreadsheet or CSV file, click the More button at the top of the item list and choose Import Orders.
• To create a template file with the correct column headers, click Export Orders.
• For a step-by-step tutorial on working with CSV files, check out the CSV video here.

Purchase Orders details

When you first visit the Purchase Orders module, it will be blank. But as you add purchase orders, you will see them appear in the main section under the following headers:

• No. - The order number, which distinguishes each purchase order from every other purchase order in the system. This number can only be changed when an order's status is Bid Request.
• Status - The current condition of the purchase order. There are 10 statuses a purchase order can have:
  • BID REQUEST - The purchase order has been created, but it isn't currently issued.
  • ISSUED - The purchase order has been issued but not fulfilled.
  • PARTIALLY RECEIVED - At least one item in the purchase order has been received, but not all of them.
  • RECEIVED - Every item in the purchase order has been received.
  • PARTIALLY FULFILLED - At least one item in the purchase order has been fulfilled, but not all of them.
  • FULFILLED - Every item in the purchase order has been fulfilled.
  • PARTIALLY RECONCILED - At least one item in the purchase order was reconciled in the Receiving module.
  • RECONCILED - All items in the purchase order were reconciled in the Receiving module.
  • CLOSED SHORT - The purchase order was closed with at least one short quantity.
  • CANCELLED - The purchase order was voided after being issued.
• Vendor - The name of the company responsible for fulfilling items in the purchase order. You can select a vendor name from the list you created in the Vendors module. You can only change the vendor when the purchase order is a Bid Request.
• Buyer - The Fishbowl Drive user responsible for creating the purchase order. You can change the buyer at any point until the purchase order is fulfilled.
• Date Created - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) the purchase order was created. Note that this is different than the Scheduled date.
• Date Last Modified - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) the purchase order was most recently saved.
• Date Issued - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) the purchase order's status was changed from Bid Request to Issued.
• Date Scheduled - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) the purchase order is scheduled to be fulfilled by.
• Date Fulfilled - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) every item in the purchase order was completely fulfilled.
• Order Type - The deal(s) being transacted by the purchase order. This simply reflects the types of transactions occurring in the purchase order and isn't something a user can select. There are three order types a purchase order can fall under:
  • Purchase - A regular transaction in which you pay money to a vendor in exchange for an item or service.
  • Credit Return - A transaction in which a vendor returns money to you for a defective or unused item/service.
  • Mixed - A combination of the two order types above in a single purchase order. For example, you may have a credit return for one item and a purchase of a replacement item on the same purchase order. Thus, it wouldn't be purely a purchase or credit return but a mixed transaction.
• Total - The sum of all of the charges in the purchase order. If an order contains a credit return, the total may be negative. But most purchase orders will have a positive total amount owed to vendors.

In addition, there is a More button to the right of each purchase order. This button contains two options:

• Duplicate Order - This creates an exact copy of the purchase order with a different identifying number.
• Delete Order - This deletes the purchase order, but it only works if the purchase order has a Bid Request status.

In the action bar at the top of the Purchase Orders module you will find the following buttons:

• ISSUE - When you click the checkbox next to a Bid Request purchase order, you will have the option to issue it. This changes its status to Issued, and it allows you to begin the receiving or picking process.
• UNISSUE - When you click the checkbox next to an Issued purchase order, you will have the option to issue it. However, you can't unissue a purchase order if any of the items in it have been received, fulfilled, or anything other than entered.
• DELETE - When you click the checkbox next to a Bid Request purchase order, you will have the option to delete it. You can't delete purchase orders with any other status.
• AUTO ORDER - As noted above, this button allows you to automatically generate purchase orders for all items that have fallen below their reorder points. The purchase orders will all have the status of Bid Request, and they will use the default vendor in the Items module.
• More - This allows you to generate a Purchase Order Summary report, import/export purchase orders, create/edit custom fields, and change dates. We'll go in depth on each of those functions later on in this article.
• ADD NEW - Clicking this creates a new purchase order.

How to create a purchase order

To create a purchase order, click the ADD NEW button. It will shrink the list of purchase orders to a small window on the left, and the larger section on the right is where you can add information to the new purchase order. This information is separated into three tabs:

• General
• Details
• Documents

General tab

The following fields can be filled in the General tab when creating a new purchase order. Required fields are marked by an asterisk:

• Vendor* - A dropdown menu of all of your vendors. You can narrow down the vendors by typing all or part of an existing vendor into the textbox. In addition, you can create a new vendor by typing their name into the textbox and then hitting Enter or clicking the option below the textbox. The New Vendor wizard will appear with the name you just added. You can then set the vendor's Payment Terms and click SAVE. You can only change the vendor when the purchase order's status is Bid Request.
• Order No.* - A textbox containing the identifying number for the purchase order. It will be auto-populated with the next order number, according to what is designated in the Purchase Order section of the Settings module. You can only change the order number when the purchase order's status is Bid Request.
• Location* - A dropdown menu of all of your top-level parent locations. You can narrow down the locations by typing all or part of an existing location into the textbox. In addition, you can create a new location by typing its name into the textbox and then hitting Enter or clicking the option below the textbox. The New Location wizard will appear with the name you just added. You can then set its Type, Location Path, and address and click SAVE. You can only change the location when the purchase order's status is Bid Request.
• Customer SO - A textbox for you to type the reference number provided by your customer, most likely in a B2B transaction. Typically, it is the sales order number generated from the customer's inventory management system. You can only change the customer SO when the purchase order's status is Bid Request.
• Vendor SO - A textbox for you to type the reference number provided by your vendor. Typically, it is the sales order number generated from the vendor's inventory management system. You can only change the vendor SO when the purchase order's status is Bid Request.
• Buyer* - A dropdown menu of all of your users. You can narrow down the users by typing all or part of an existing buyer into the textbox. In addition, you can create a new user by typing his or her name into the textbox and then hitting Enter or clicking the option below the textbox. The New User wizard will appear with the name you just added. You simply have to enter the user's last name, email, time zone, and default location, and then click SAVE. You can only create a new user if you have more users in your subscription you haven't yet created. And you can change the buyer at any point until the purchase order is fulfilled.
• Scheduled - A textbox containing the month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) the purchase order is scheduled to be fulfilled by. It will be auto-populated with the current date, but you can change it to any other date you like by clicking the textbox or the calendar icon. You can only change the scheduled date when the purchase order's status is Bid Request.
• Carrier - A dropdown menu of all of your carriers. You can narrow down the carriers by typing all or part of an existing carrier into the textbox. Unlike the Sales Orders module, you can't create a new carrier from here. You can only do that in the Carriers module. However, you can change the carrier at any point until the purchase order is fulfilled.
• Service - A dropdown menu of all of the delivery services or methods provided by the Carrier you selected. You can narrow down the services by typing all or part of an existing service name into the textbox. You can't create a new service from here. You can only add services to a carrier in the Carriers module. However, you can change the service at any point until the purchase order is fulfilled.
• Bill To - A dropdown menu for selecting a physical address to send the bill to for the purchase order. Click the arrow on the right side of the textbox to select one of the options. If you want to update the vendor's address, click Edit and make changes to the Edit Address wizard that pops up. Clicking the Residential checkbox at the bottom of that wizard will identify this as a noncommercial address. Click Clear to remove the address from this field without deleting the address outright in the Vendors module. You can change this address at any point until the purchase order is fulfilled.
• Ship To - A dropdown menu for selecting a physical address to have the items in the purchase order sent to. Click the arrow on the right side of the textbox to select one of the options. If this address is the same as the Bill To address, you can select Same As Billing. If it's different, and there are no addresses listed, you can click Custom and fill in the Custom Address wizard that pops up. Clicking the Add to Vendor checkbox at the bottom of that wizard will add the information to the vendor in the Vendors module under the Addresses tab. If you already added one or more addresses in that module, you will see them in the dropdown menu options. To verify the address, click the VERIFY ADDRESS button to the right of the dropdown menu. Click Clear to remove the address from this field without deleting it outright in the system. You can change this address at any point until the purchase order is fulfilled.
• Custom Fields - If you have any custom fields, you will see them below the main group of textboxes at the top of the purchase order. Up to three custom fields will appear automatically. If you have more than that, you can click the SHOW MORE button to display all of them. The order they appear in will depend on what you set in the Custom Fields wizard of the Purchase Orders module. To hide the extra custom fields, click HIDE FIELDS, and then only the first three will be visible again. You can change the information in these custom fields at any point until the purchase order is fulfilled.
• Class - A dropdown menu containing means of categorizing transactions. You can select a class to categorize the purchase order by its location, size, use, or a variety of other criteria. You can create a new class by typing its name into the textbox and then hitting Enter or clicking the + Create New option above the textbox. The New Class wizard will appear with the name you just added. Click SAVE to create it. You can change the class at any point until the purchase order is fulfilled.
• Tax - A dropdown menu that enables you to select a tax that applies to the purchase order. There are many taxes you can choose from, such as Sales Tax or Service Tax. You can find an existing tax by typing all or part of its name into the textbox. In addition, you can create a new tax by typing its name into the textbox and then hitting Enter or clicking the + Create New option above the textbox. A New Tax wizard will appear with the name you just added. You can then set its Code, Vendor, and Amount and click SAVE. You can only change the tax when the purchase order's status is Bid Request. If you try to update an issued purchase order's tax, you will receive an error message when you click the SAVE button.
• Currency - If the vendor uses a different currency than your home currency in their profile, your home currency will appear here in the form of a single dollar, peso, yuan, etc. This cannot be changed from here, and it serves as the basis point for conversions.
• Rate - If the vendor uses a different currency than your home currency in their profile, this will show the exchange rate of a single unit of the vendor’s currency into your home currency.
• Total - The total amount of money due to the vendor for all of the items on the purchase order.
  • PLEASE NOTE - If the vendor on the purchase order uses a different currency than your home currency in their profile, another section will appear showing what the total will be in their currency.

Adding items to a purchase order

While a purchase order's status is Bid Request or Issued, you can add/update items and their quantities in it. If the purchase order is Partially Reconciled, you will only be able to add items that are marked as Shipping or Service type in the Items module. For every other order status, you won't be able to change the items.

To begin adding items to a purchase order, first click in the Items textbox to see a dropdown menu of all of your items. Enter all or part of an item's name, description, or SKU to search for it. Click the item you want to add to the purchase order. You will then be asked to enter the Quantity.

Once you're ready to add the item, you can either click the ADD ITEM button to add it as a purchase, or you can click the arrow on the right of that button and choose one of these two options:

• Purchase - This is a regular item or service you're buying from a vendor.
• Credit Return - This is an item you are returning for a refund.

If you leave the Items dropdown menu blank and click the arrow next to ADD ITEM, you will find that it has three additional options:

• Miscellaneous Purchase - If you don't want to add a particular item to the purchase order, but you still want to send payment for something, you can use this option. You can add a Name, Quantity, Cost, Description (up to 4,000 characters), and Notes (no character limit) to the miscellaneous purchase.
• Miscellaneous Credit Return - This is basically the opposite of a Miscellaneous Purchase. You can enter all of the same information in this one, but it will be used to receive a refund from a vendor for a miscellaneous item. When you enter a number in the Cost textbox, it will automatically be changed to a negative number, reflecting the fact that it is a refund. The same character limits apply as noted for a Miscellaneous Purchase.
• Note - This enables you to add a note (up to 255 characters) to the purchase order as a line item.

Once you add an item, you will find it as a line item in the purchase order with the following column headers:

• Item - The item name, description, and an image, if available.
• Cost - The amount of money you are paying (or being refunded) for the item, as set in the General tab of the Items module. You can manually change the unit price from here, and it won't affect the cost in other purchase orders.
  • PLEASE NOTE - If the vendor on the purchase order uses a different currency than your home currency in their profile, another column header will appear showing what the cost will be in their currency.
• Quantity - The number of units attached to the purchase order. You can set the quantity to any number above zero.
• Tax - The rate the unit(s) will be taxed at. This can be None, Not Taxable, or any rate above 0% that you have created in the Tax Rates module.
• Status - The condition of an item as Entered, Received, Reconciled, or Fulfilled.
• Subtotal - The sum of this equation: Cost x Quantity. This is the amount of money you expect to pay or receive for the unit(s) in a particular line item. There is also a number below the main one that shows how much tax needs to be collected, based on the tax rate.
  • PLEASE NOTE - If the vendor on the purchase order uses a different currency than your home currency in their profile, another column header will appear showing what the subtotal will be in their currency.

At the bottom of this section, you will see a Vendor Min, which tells you the lowest amount of money a vendor allows in a transaction. There is also the Total, which adds up all of the subtotals.

When you click on an item in the purchase order, the Edit Purchase Order Item wizard will pop up. Most of the information is the same as what's found above with two notable additions:

• SKU - The stock-keeping unit for the item. It can't be changed from here, only from the Items module.
• Notes - A place to add information or instructions about an item on the purchase order. The character limit is 255. Technically, you can save the purchase order, even if the character count is greater than 255, but you will get an error message when you click the ISSUE button telling you to reduce the number of characters in the Notes.

When you click the More button next to an item, you will see the following options:

• Move Up - If you have multiple line items, you can reorganize one higher on the list with this button.
• Move Down - If you have multiple line items, you can reorganize one lower on the list with this button.
• Fulfill - If the purchase order is issued, you can click this button to fulfill a line item in it.
• Duplicate - This button adds an exact copy of a line item to the bottom of the purchase order.
• Duplicate To Credit Return - This button adds a copy of a line item to the bottom of the purchase order, but it will be a refund for that item.
• Remove - This deletes a line item from the purchase order.

Credit return

Follow the steps below to create a credit return:

1. To add a credit return item to a purchase order, type or select the item name in the Items field. Then click the arrow on the ADD ITEM button and select Credit Return.
2. Click the ISSUE button, and then click To Picking in the Flow bar at the top of the order.
3. Click the START and COMMIT buttons in the Picking module, and then click the FINISH button to pick the credit return item(s) from inventory. Click To Shipping in the Flow bar at the top.
4. Click the PACK and SHIP buttons in the Shipping module. Then the purchase order's status will change to Fulfilled.

Details tab

The Details tab is just to the right of the General tab in a purchase order. Click it to find the following textboxes, dropdown menus, and other information. For all of the dropdown menus, you can type text into them to search for values to select. All of these can be modified until the purchase order is marked as Fulfilled:

• Phone - The vendor's phone number. If you set it up previously in the Vendors module, it will automatically appear here. There is a helpful flag icon to indicate which country the phone number is for.
• Email - The vendor's email address. Like their phone number, if you previously set up the email address in the Vendors module, it will automatically appear here.
• Created - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) the purchase order was first saved. This date won't appear until you click the SAVE or SAVE AND CLOSE button for the first time on the purchase order.
• Issued - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) the purchase order's status was changed from Bid Request to Issued.
• Completed - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) the purchase order's status was changed to Fulfilled.
• Payment Term - The timeframe in which you will pay (or have paid) a vendor for the purchase order. This dropdown menu includes all payment terms you previously created in the Payment Terms module.
• Shipping Term - The payment method to the carrier for their shipping services. There are three shipping terms you can use: Prepaid & Billed, Prepaid, or Freight Collect. You can set the default shipping term in the Company section of the Settings module.
• FOB - Free On Board, a shipping term referring to the point at which international shipping costs are charged. There are three options: Destination, Origin, or Port of Entry. Origin is the default.
• Notes - A place to add information or instructions about the purchase order. There is no character limit.

Documents tab

To add files to a purchase order, click the Documents tab, and then click the UPLOAD button on the top-right. The Upload Documents wizard will appear. You can either drag and drop files into the window, or you can click the BROWSE button on the bottom-left to select files to add and then click the ADD button. You can add virtually any file type in here, not just documents. In addition to DOC and DOCX files, you'll find that JPG, GIF, PDF, XLSX, PPTX, and many other file types are permissible. Once you add a file, you won't be able to edit it. All you can do is download a copy of it. If you want to edit a file, you'll need to download it, edit it, and upload the revised version.

To delete a file, click the trashcan icon with an X in it to the right of the file, and then click DELETE in the popup window.

Once you make a change, whether adding or deleting a file, be sure to click SAVE or SAVE AND CLOSE to preserve your work.

Main header options

Once you have added all of the information you need to a purchase order, you're ready to save and issue it. You can do those things (and more) with these buttons at the top in the action bar within the purchase order:

• ISSUE/UNISSUE - Issuing a purchase order creates a Receipt for purchase items and a Pick for credit return items. You can unissue the purchase order if none of the items in it have been received, fulfilled, or reconciled.
• SAVE - This saves the purchase order in the system and lets you continue working on it.
• SAVE AND CLOSE - This saves the purchase order in the system and returns you to the main section of the Purchase Orders module where you can see all of your purchase orders.
• More - This allows you to select one of the following options:
  • Show Report
  • Send Email
  • Duplicate Order
  • Duplicate Order As Credit Return
  • Delete Order

More button in a purchase order

As you can see from the previous section, there are a lot of options in the More button in the action bar of a purchase order. We will thoroughly explore each of those options below:

• Show Report
• Send Email
• Duplicate Order
• Duplicate Order As Credit Return
• Delete Order

Show Report (Purchase Order report)

To view the Purchase Order report, click the More button and select Show Report. This report can also be emailed by clicking Send Email from the same menu. This report initially has all of the columns selected, but if you were to unselect the columns, the report would have the following sections/columns by default:

• Order # - The order number, which distinguishes each purchase order from every other purchase order in the system.
• Date - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) the purchase order was created.
• Vendor - The physical address of the vendor that is shipping items out.
• Ship to - The physical address the item(s) in the purchase order are shipped to.
• UOM - The unit of measure attached to the item(s) in the purchase order.

The default title for the report is Purchase Order, but this can also be changed. The seller's logo and main contact phone number (both found in the Company section of the Settings module) are on the top-left of the report.

If you've set a footer in the same section as the logo and main contact phone, it will appear on the bottom-left of the report above the date and time the report was generated. The page number appears on the bottom-right.

To the right of the report, you will find a number of options to customize the information contained in the report.

Required and optional

The Required section has a single dropdown menu: Purchase Order Number. This allows you to generate a Purchase Order report for any purchase order you have created, even if it's different than the one you're currently looking at in the Purchase Orders module.

The Optional section is below the Required section. It includes the following options to modify the report:

• Report Title - A textbox for entering the title of the report. You can change the title on the top-right of the report to anything you like by entering it here.
• Show Barcode - A checkbox that places a barcode at the top of the purchase order, which can be scanned to pull the purchase order up on a mobile device.
• Show Company Address - A checkbox that places your company's address above the phone number on the top-left of the report.
• Show Company Name - A checkbox that places your company's name (as found in the Company section of the Settings module) above the address on the top-left of the report.
• Show Line Item - A checkbox that places any notes you added in the Edit Purchase Order Item wizard under the description of the item(s) in the report.
• Show Notes - A checkbox that places any notes you added in the Details tab of the purchase order under the Vendor box in the report.
• Show Vendor Item Name - A checkbox that replaces the names of all items in the purchase order with those found in the Vendor Items tab of the Items module.
• Show Status - A checkbox that places the purchase order's current status under the Report Title on the top-right of the report.
• Show Tax - A checkbox that adds Subtotal and Tax figures above the Total amount of money due on the bottom-right of the report.
• Show Home Currency - A checkbox that is permanently marked, so you can't unclick it. This ensures that all monetary amounts are in the Default home currency you selected in the Settings module.

You can click the Select All Optional checkbox to check all of the checkboxes in the Optional section. That will do everything listed above in the Optional section except for changing the Report Title. That can only be done manually.

Columns

The Columns section enables you to add the following parts to the report:

• Show Cost - A checkbox that adds a Unit Cost column to the left of UOM and a Total Cost column to the right, as well as the Total underneath on the right.
• Item SKU - A checkbox that adds a column to left of Unit Cost showing the stock-keeping unit of the item(s) in the purchase order.
• Item Description - A checkbox that adds a column in between SKU and Unit Cost showing the description of the item found in the Edit Purchase Order Item wizard.
• Show Row Number - A checkbox that adds a number to the left of each item contained in the purchase order, indicating its relative position and the total number of items in the purchase order.
• Item Name - A checkbox that adds an Item column in between the Row Number and SKU showing each item's name. It will either show the name in your system or the vendor's, based on whether or not you clicked the Show Vendor Item Name checkbox in the Optional section.
• Item Quantity Ordered - A checkbox that adds a column in between the Unit Cost and UOM, showing how many units of an item are on the purchase order.
• Item Type - A checkbox that adds a column in between the row number and Item Name, showing which transaction type each item falls under.
• Order Buyer - A checkbox that adds a Buyer box under the Vendor and Ship to boxes showing the User responsible for creating the purchase order.
• Order Date Scheduled - A checkbox that adds a Date Scheduled box to the right of the Buyer box, showing when the purchase order is scheduled to be fulfilled by.
• Order FOB Point - A checkbox that adds a box in between the Buyer and Date Scheduled boxes, showing the Free On Board Point that was selected for the purchase order.
• Order Payment Terms - A checkbox that adds a box in between the Buyer and FOB Point boxes, showing the payment terms associated with the purchase order.
• Order Carrier - A checkbox that adds a Ship Via box in between the FOB Point and Date Scheduled boxes, showing which carrier is attached to the purchase order.
• Order Ship Service - A checkbox that adds a box in between the Ship Via and Date Scheduled boxes, showing the shipping service provided by the carrier selected for the purchase order.
• Order Shipping Terms - A checkbox that adds a Shipping Terms box in between the FOB Point and Ship Via boxes, showing the shipping terms for the purchase order.

Unlike the Sales Order report, the Purchase Order report doesn't have the option to add custom fields. Nor does it have the ability to create different themes and layouts. However, you can create a new preset by clicking the CREATE NEW PRESET button when you have selected all of the information you want the report to include.

Send Email

While viewing an order, click the More button and select Send Email to compose an email. The To email auto-populates with the email address you added in the Details tab of the order. In addition, you can click the checkbox next to Send report to attach a PDF of the default report you've created in the Show Report section above.

Currently, if you hit Enter on your keyboard (as long as the required fields are filled in), the email will be sent. So we recommend keeping the message simple and to one paragraph. Don't hit Enter or click the SEND button until you're ready to send it. This issue will be resolved soon.

After you click SEND you will get a confirmation that the email has been sent. If the recipient doesn't receive the email, they will need to check their junk folder and add fishbowl@fishbowlonline.com to their address book so that future emails aren't marked as spam.

Duplicate Order

As soon as you click Duplicate Order, a new purchase order will be created with the exact specifications of the one you were just on. The only difference is that it will have a new identifying number. All you have to do is save it, and it will appear among your list of purchase orders.

Duplicate Order As Credit Return

As soon as you click Duplicate Order As Credit Return, a new purchase order will be created with almost exactly the same specifications as the one you were just on. It will even have the same identifying number, but it will be marked with the word Return next to its number. The big difference is that this new purchase order will have a negative total amount of money due because every item will be a return instead of a purchase.

Delete Order

Clicking Delete Order brings up a message asking if you really want to delete the purchase order. If you click the red DELETE button, the purchase order will be deleted. However, this only works if the purchase order's status is Bid Request. If you try to delete a purchase order with any other status, you will receive an error message.

How to quickly go to the Receiving module

After you click the ISSUE button in a purchase order, you will notice that the Receiving part of the Flow bar tool on the top-left of the window lights up. Clicking it will take you directly to that purchase order in the Receiving module. If you have any unsaved changes, you will receive a prompt asking if you want to save before leaving.

This is a smooth way to move through the receiving process. Once a purchase order is ready for receiving, you can click that button to go right there and then go on to shipping. You can return to the purchase order in the Purchase Orders module by clicking Purchase Order in the Flow bar.

If the purchase order is for a Credit Return, the Receiving part of the Flow bar won't light up when you issue it. Instead, To Picking will appear to the right of the Flow bar. Click that to go to the Picking module. Start, commit, and finish picking units for the purchase order, and then To Shipping will appear next to the Flow bar. Click it to go to the Shipping module where you can pack and ship units to return to the vendor.

One thing to keep in mind is that when you return to the Purchase Orders module via the Flow bar, you will technically be in a search. So if you close the purchase order, you will only see that one listed on the main Purchase Orders module page. To get out of the search and list all of your purchase orders, click the Show All Orders button on the top-left under the search bar.

Auto Order button

When you click the AUTO ORDER button in the main section of the Purchase Orders module, the Auto Purchase Order wizard will appear on your screen. It will be entirely blank at first. The first thing you need to do is click the Reorder Location textbox or the arrow on the side of it to pull up a list of all of your top-level parent locations found in the Locations module. Select one of them, or select Company Wide.

Selecting a location will bring up all of its items that are below their reorder point, as set up in the Reorder Points tab of the Items module. Note that selecting Company Wide won't bring up all items in your company, but only the items you've set up as having that Parent Location in the Items module.

Under Reorder Location, you will find the item(s) at the location under the following headers:

• Checkbox - The top checkbox lets you select all items on the list, while the checkbox next to each item selects it to reorder. Once you have clicked the checkbox next to at least one item, you will be able to click the NEXT button on the bottom-right of the wizard. But first, you will need to fill out the To Order and Vendor On Order boxes.
• Item - The name, description, and image (if available) of the item being reordered.
• On Hand - The number of units currently in stock at the selected location.
• Allocated - The number of units that are on issued orders from the selected location.
• Available - The number of units currently in stock and available for sale or use.
• Incoming - The number of units in transit from the vendor below to the selected location, based on issued purchase orders. This used to be called On PO.
• Min - The minimum quantity to have on hand, as set up in the Items module.
• Max - The maximum quantity to have on hand, as set up in the Items module.
• UOM - The unit of measure associated with the item and all of its units.
• To Order - The number of units to be added to a purchase order. If there are no items On PO, this number will automatically be filled in with the difference between the Available and Max quantities. If there are units on existing purchase orders, the To Order number may be reduced or even 0.
• Vendor On Order - The default vendor for an item, as set up in the Vendor Items tab of the Items module. If you haven't set a default vendor for an item, this box will be blank, and you'll need to select a vendor from the dropdown menu.

Once you have selected one or more items and added a quantity to order and a vendor, click the NEXT button. This will take you to a screen that shows you a preview of the purchase order number(s) and their contents. If you're ordering multiple items from the same vendor, they will be under one purchase order number. If you're ordering items from two or more vendors, they will have different purchase order numbers.

Each purchase order from this wizard will be created with a Bid Request status. A lot of information will be blank in the new purchase order(s), such as the Bill To and Ship To addresses, as well as the Buyer. But you can easily fill those in and then issue the purchase order(s).

More button in the main section

On the top-right of the main section of the Purchase Orders module, in between the AUTO ORDER and ADD NEW buttons on the action bar, you will see a More button. Click it to open a dropdown menu containing the following options:

• Show Report
• Import Orders
• Export Orders
• Custom Fields
• Change Dates

You will find explanations of everything contained in these options below.

Purchase Order Summary report

Clicking Show Report in the main section of the Purchase Orders module will bring up the Purchase Order Summary report. This report will soon undergo a major redesign to make sure all of its features work as well as the Sales Order Summary report. The Purchase Order Summary report initially has the following columns:

• Item - The name of each item at a particular location in the purchase order.
• Description - The description of the item.
• Ordered - The number of units ordered or returned, and their unit of measure.
• Cost - The cost of each unit.
• Order Status - The current condition of a purchase order, e.g., Bid Request, Received, Picked, Fulfilled, Reconciled, etc. If you select Item in the Group By option, this will show the current condition of an item in a purchase order, e.g., Entered, Received, Picked, Fulfilled, Reconciled, etc.
• Due - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) an item is scheduled to be fulfilled by.
• Qty - The number of units received, remaining, or the total ordered/returned, depending on the Optional criterion you choose.
• Total Cost - The cost of all units of an item, as well as the total for each purchase order, and the total for all purchase orders in the report.

By default, you will be able to see all purchase orders (in a specified date range) that fall under all statuses. To narrow down which one(s) you want to include in this report, look at the settings on the right of the report and go to the bottom of the Optional section. You will find checkboxes for the following statuses:

• Bid Request
• Fulfilled
• Issued
• Partial
• Voided
• Show Cost

If you only check the box next to Bid Request, for example, you will only see purchase orders that have that status. You won't see any fulfilled, issued, or any other status of purchase order. Be sure to click the blue GENERATE REPORT button at the bottom to make the report reflect your changes.

To select all of the status fields at once, click the Select All Optional checkbox. However, if you leave that unchecked, the report will still display all of them. The Select All Optional checkbox won't affect any of the dropdown menus you see under the Optional header. Those will have to be updated manually. These are the dropdown menus that you can use to modify the report:

• Date Range Option - By default, the date range will include purchase orders based on the date they were created. But you can specify which purchase orders you want to include by selecting one of the options below:
  • Date Created - When a purchase order was first saved, even if it wasn't issued on that date.
  • Date Issued - When a purchase order's status was changed from Bid Request to Issued.
  • Date Last Modified - The most recent time a purchase order was changed and saved by a user.
  • Date Scheduled - When a purchase order is estimated to be fulfilled by.
  • Date Completed - When a purchase order was fulfilled.
  • Item Date Scheduled - This doesn't apply to the entire purchase order, but to the item(s) contained within it.
• Group By - This enables you to reorder the purchase orders in this report by one of two criteria:
  • Purchase Order - See all items contained in a purchase order.
  • Item - See all purchase orders that contain a particular item.
• Show Qty - This modifies the Qty column of the report to show one of these three numbers:
  • Received - The quantity that has been received from a vendor.
  • Remaining - The quantity that has not yet been received.
  • Total - The total quantity ordered or refunded on a purchase order.
• Location - This shows a list of all of the locations you have created in the Locations module under the Setup module group. You can select one to see all purchase orders intended for that location. You can't create a new location from here, nor can you select more than one.
• Vendor - The vendor responsible for fulfilling the items on one or more purchase orders. You can select a vendor from the list you created in the Vendors module under the Purchasing module group. You can't create a new vendor from here, nor can you select more than one.
• Item - The item in a purchase order. There can be other items in a purchase order, but if you select this, only purchase orders containing this item will be listed. You can select an item from the list of ones you created in the Items module under the Materials module group. You can't create a new item from here, nor can you select more than one.
• Date Range - Clicking this textbox brings up a calendar to select a start and end date for the report. In addition, you can select one of these options on the right:
  • Today
  • Yesterday
  • This Week
  • Last Week
  • Last 7 Days
  • This Month
  • Last Month

Create a new preset

To apply your changes and see what they will look like in the report, click the GENERATE REPORT button on the bottom-right.

To save a revised report's settings for easy access in the future, click the CREATE NEW PRESET button on the top-right of the wizard. A popup will appear asking for just one thing: Preset Name. Add any name you like. For example, it can be the name of the vendor and/or date range the report includes. Then click the SAVE button. You can either do this before you begin making changes to the report, or you can do it at the end. If you want to make additional changes to the report, click the UPDATE button. The CREATE NEW PRESET button changes to UPDATE when you're in a report preset.

Additional presets

To create another report preset, first click the X to the right of the dropdown menu containing the name of the current preset. Then you can go through the same steps above to create a new preset.

The first report preset you create will automatically be the default. Once it's saved, there will be a Default checkbox option above the UPDATE button.

If this isn't the first time you've opened this wizard, and you previously created at least one preset, you will see the default report preset first thing. And you will be able to see all of the report presets you have saved listed in the dropdown menu on the top-right.

To set a new default report preset, click the Default checkbox in it and click the UPDATE button. If you uncheck the Default checkbox on the default report preset and click the UPDATE button, you'll receive an error message. That's because there usually has to be a default. However, if you delete the default report preset, there won't be a default report, and it will show all items and locations when you click the REPORT button. That is, until you pick a report preset as the default or create a new one.

To delete a report preset, first click the trashcan icon next to the UPDATE button. Then click the red DELETE button in the message that pops up.

Purchase Order Summary report options

The following buttons are at the top of the Purchase Order Summary report to allow you to make adjustments and send the report to other people. Tooltips appear when you mouse over these buttons for a couple seconds. They succinctly explain what each one does.

• Zoom Out - This makes the text in the report appear smaller.
• Reset - This restores the report to its original size.
• Zoom In - This makes the text in the report appear larger.
• Next Page - If a report has multiple pages, this button enables you to move to the next page.
• Previous Page - If a report has multiple pages, this button enables you to move to the previous page.
• Download XLSX File - This enables you to download the report into an XLSX file, which you can open in Excel.
• Download PDF - This enables you to download a report into a PDF, which you can open with Adobe Acrobat.
• Print Report - This enables you to print a hard copy of a report.
• E-mail Report - This enables you to email a report to as many recipients as you like. It opens a popup where you can add email addresses in the To, Cc, and Bcc textboxes. Then you can add a subject and message. Click the SEND button to send the email with the report as a PDF attachment. If the recipient doesn't receive the email, they will need to check their junk folder and add fishbowl@fishbowlonline.com to their address book so that future emails aren't marked as spam.
• Expand - This expands the report to the full size of your browser window. When you click this button, it changes to a Contract button, which you can click to return the report to its previous smaller size.

Import purchase orders

Clicking the Import Orders option allows you to import purchase orders and their associated data into your Fishbowl Drive database. To get an import template, click Export Orders and download a CSV file. It will have all of the columns formatted correctly. You can just populate them with your own information.

If the import of at least one purchase order fails, you will receive an error message. Then you can go to the Downloads page and download a CSV file containing the item(s) that failed to be imported. In the first column of the spreadsheet, it will tell you where the error occurred. That way, you can fix it and try to import the revised file again.

All of your imported and exported files will be listed by date in the History column on the right side of the Downloads page. You can download your exported files from the column on the left marked Downloads. Imports that are successful will be marked as Completed in the History column, and they won't be able to be downloaded. But imports that fail (in full or in part) will be marked as Failed, and they can be downloaded.

There are currently 61 columns to fill out in the Purchase Order Import CSV file. Only 12 of them are required, as denoted by an asterisk. The columns are all listed below, along with an explanation of what they entail:

• PurchaseOrder-Number* - The identifying number of a purchase order. It must be different than all other PO numbers in the system.
• PurchaseOrder-VendorName* - The name of the vendor on a purchase order. It must be a vendor who is already in the Vendors module.
• PurchaseOrder-DateScheduled - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) a purchase order is scheduled to be fulfilled by. It can include the hour, minute, and second, too.
• PurchaseOrder-PurchaseOrderStatus - The status of each purchase order being added. New purchase orders get Bid Request by default, unless you change it to something else.
• PurchaseOrder-CustomerSONumber - The number of the sales order a customer generated when their purchase order was created.
• PurchaseOrder-VendorSONumber - The number of the sales order a vendor generated when their purchase order was created.
• PurchaseOrder-BuyerName* - The name of the user responsible for creating a purchase order. It must be one of the users found in the Users module.
• PurchaseOrder-CarrierName - The name of the carrier (e.g., UPS, USPS, or FedEx) assigned to a purchase order. It must be one found in the Carriers module.
• PurchaseOrder-CarrierServiceName - The service provided by a carrier to deliver the item(s) in a purchase order. It must be one of the services under a carrier in the Carriers module.
• PurchaseOrder-VendorAddressName - The nickname of the vendor's address found in the Vendors module.
• PurchaseOrder-VendorAddressStreet - The vendor's physical address where the items in a purchase order will be shipped from.
• PurchaseOrder-VendorAddressCity - The city the vendor is located in.
• PurchaseOrder-VendorAddressState - The state the vendor is located in.
• PurchaseOrder-VendorAddressCountry - The country the vendor is located in. For example, US or United States. Click here to see the list of supported countries and codes.
• PurchaseOrder-VendorAddressPostalCode - The ZIP code the vendor's street address is located in.
• PurchaseOrder-ShipToName - The name of the individual or organization the items in a purchase order were shipped to or will be shipped to.
• PurchaseOrder-ShipToStreet - The street address the items in a purchase order were shipped to or will be shipped to.
• PurchaseOrder-ShipToCity - The city the items in a purchase order were shipped to or will be shipped to.
• PurchaseOrder-ShipToState - The state in the U.S. that the items in a purchase order were shipped to or will be shipped to.
• PurchaseOrder-ShipToCountry - The country the items in a purchase order were shipped to or will be shipped to. Click here to see the list of supported countries and codes.
• PurchaseOrder-ShipToPostalCode - The postal code of the address the items in a purchase order were shipped to or will be shipped to.
• PurchaseOrder-LocationName* - The name of the location that items in a purchase order were shipped to or will be shipped to.
• PurchaseOrder-GrandTotal - The total amount of money to be paid or refunded for all items in a purchase order.
• PurchaseOrder-MultiCurrencyGrandTotal - The total amount of money to be paid or refunded for all items in a purchase order after multicurrency conversion are performed.
• PurchaseOrder-HomeCurrencyName* - The default home currency as set up in the Company section of the Settings module.
• PurchaseOrder-ExchangeCurrencyName - The name of the currency being converted into the home currency.
• PurchaseOrder-ExchangeRate - The exchange rate from the exchange currency into the home currency. If that currency is the same as the home currency, use 1 as the exchange rate.
• PurchaseOrder-FobPointName* - The Free On Board point, which is a shipping term, selected for a purchase order. There are three options: Destination, Origin, or Port of Entry.
• PurchaseOrder-PaymentTermName* - The payment term for a purchase order, selected from the options found in the Payment Terms module.
• PurchaseOrder-Contact - The name of the individual who serves as the contact for a purchase order.
• PurchaseOrder-Phone - The phone number of the contact in a purchase order.
• PurchaseOrder-Email - The email address of the contact in a purchase order.
• PurchaseOrder-ShippingTermName* - The payment method selected for the shipper, which can be one of these three options: Prepaid & Billed, Prepaid, or Freight Collect.
• PurchaseOrder-Url - A URL where a purchase order can be found.
• PurchaseOrder-DateIssued - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) that a purchase order was issued. It can include the hour, minute, and second, too.
• PurchaseOrder-DateFulfilled - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) that a purchase order was fulfilled. It can include the hour, minute, and second, too.
• PurchaseOrder-Notes - Written notes about a purchase order. There is no character limit.
• PurchaseOrder-VendorResidential - This is either True or False to indicate if the vendor's address is residential or commercial, respectively. It is False by default.
• PurchaseOrder-VendorAddressVerified - This is either True or False to indicate if the vendor's address has been verified as accurate or not. It is False by default.
• PurchaseOrder-ShipToResidential - This is either True or False to indicate if the Ship To address is residential or commercial, respectively. It is False by default.
• PurchaseOrder-ShipToVerified - This is either True or False to indicate if the Ship To address has been verified as accurate or not. It is False by default.
• PurchaseOrderItem-ItemName - The name of an item in a purchase order from your records in the Items module.
• PurchaseOrderItem-LineNumber* - The number of a line item in a purchase order to show what order it should be displayed in.
• PurchaseOrderItem-Name* - The name of an item in a purchase order. This will only differ from the PurchaseOrderItem-ItemName if it's a miscellaneous item that doesn't correspond with an item in the Items module.
• PurchaseOrderItem-Description - The description associated with an item in a purchase order.
• PurchaseOrderItem-PurchaseOrderItemType - The type of item in a purchase order, such as Purchase or Credit Return.
• PurchaseOrderItem-PurchaseOrderItemStatus - The status of an item in a purchase order, such as Entered, Received, Fulfilled, Picked, etc.
• PurchaseOrderItem-VendorItemName - The vendor's name for an item in a purchase order.
• PurchaseOrderItem-CustomerName - The name of the customer in a purchase order.
• PurchaseOrderItem-Quantity - The number of units of an item in a purchase order.
• PurchaseOrderItem-QuantityReceived - The number of units in a purchase order that have been received.
• PurchaseOrderItem-QuantityFulfilled - The number of units in a purchase order that have been fulfilled.
• PurchaseOrderItem-QuantityPicked - The number of units in a purchase order that have been picked.
• PurchaseOrderItem-Notes - Notes associated with an item in a purchase order. The character limit is 255.
• PurchaseOrderItem-UomName - The unit of measure associated with an item in a purchase order. It must be one of the options in the UOMs module.
• PurchaseOrderItem-UnitCost - The cost of each unit in a purchase order. This number will be negative for a Credit Return.
• PurchaseOrderItem-MultiCurrencyUnitCost - The cost of each unit in a purchase order with multicurrency conversions. This number will be negative for a Credit Return.
• PurchaseOrderItem-DateScheduled - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) an item in a purchase order is scheduled to be fulfilled by. It can include the hour, minute, and second, too.
• PurchaseOrderItem-DateFulfilled - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) an item in a purchase order was fulfilled. It can include the hour, minute, and second, too.
• PurchaseOrderItem-ExchangeCurrencyName* - The currency applied to an item in a purchase order that needs to be converted.
• PurchaseOrderItem-ExchangeRate* - The rate at which the exchange currency gets converted into the home currency for an item in a purchase order.

If you have created custom fields in this module, they will appear to the right of the columns listed above in the CSV file.

Export purchase orders

Clicking the Export Orders option will generate a CSV file you can access from the Downloads section. To see your downloads, click your user profile icon on the top-right of the interface, and then click Downloads in the dropdown menu. The file name of each download will include the type of file it is and the date it was generated.

The Export file mirrors the Import one. Hence, you can download a CSV file by clicking this button, add your own information in it, and reuse it to import that information into your Fishbowl Drive database.

Custom fields

Clicking the Custom Fields option will bring up a wizard that allows you to add, edit, and delete custom fields on the General tab of a purchase order. The list will be blank at first, of course.

To add a new custom field, click ADD FIELD on the top-right. Then enter a name and type for it. Your type options are:

• Number - A textbox that only allows numeric characters to be typed into it.
• Text - A textbox that allows alphanumeric characters to be entered.
• Date - A field for adding dates in the following format: MM/DD/YYYY. A calendar option lets users select dates from a calendar if they prefer not to type them by hand.
• Checkbox - A small box that can be checked or unchecked to indicate yes or no, respectively.
• Single Choice - A dropdown menu of text options. If selected, this will ask you to enter at least one row to appear in the dropdown menu. Users can only select one of the options available.
• Multiple Choice - A dropdown menu of text options. If selected, this will ask you to enter at least one row to appear in the dropdown menu. Users can select one or more of the options available.
• URL - A textbox that lets you add a website address in relation to a purchase order or any of the items in it.

When creating or editing a custom field, click the Required checkbox to make it a required field. Otherwise, it will be optional. Then click ADD to save it, or click CANCEL or the X on the top-right to get rid of it. If you're editing an existing custom field, clicking CANCEL or the X won't delete it but will simply return it to its original state. You can also click the Required toggle switch next to a custom field in the main wizard to turn that function on or off.

To delete a custom field, click the More button to the right of it in the Custom Fields wizard. Then select Delete from the dropdown menu. You can also select Edit or Duplicate from that menu.

To change the order of custom fields, click ORDER FIELDS to the left of ADD FIELD. Then select one of the custom fields and click the up or down arrow on the right to move it. You can do this to each custom field until they're all in the order you want them to be in.

The first three custom fields will show up automatically in the General tab of a purchase order. Any others can be viewed after clicking the SHOW MORE button. Bear this in mind when creating and ordering them. Click the SAVE ORDER button to apply your changes to the wizard, and then click the SAVE button to apply those changes to the Purchase Orders module.

Change dates

At the top of the Purchase Orders module, you will see the following column headers:

• No.
• Status
• Vendor
• Buyer
• Date Created
• Order Type
• Total

You can click any of them, except Order Type, to reorganize the rows under them. However, they are not all set in stone. For example, if you click Change Dates under the More button, you will find you have five options for the Date column:

• Date Created - A permanent marker that denotes the month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) a purchase order was first saved.
• Date Last Modified - A changeable marker that denotes the most recent month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) a purchase order was updated and saved by a user.
• Date Issued - A permanent marker that denotes the month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) a purchase order's status was changed from Bid Request to Issued.
• Date Scheduled - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) a purchase order is scheduled to be fulfilled by.
• Date Fulfilled - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) a purchase order was completely fulfilled.

You can pick whichever one will best help you organize the orders in the Purchase Orders module.