5. Buying

The chain

A part is orderable when a supplier is mapped to it. The chain is: supplier → sourcing row (this supplier sells this part, under this number, at these terms) → purchase order → receipt into stock. Set up the first two once; the rest is the daily loop.

Suppliers

Add each from Suppliers: code, name, the currency they invoice in, a typical lead time. The currency matters: a new order to that supplier defaults to it.

Sourcing

On each bought part, open Sourcing and add the supplier with their part number — the thing that goes on the order and appears on the packing slip — plus price, minimum order and pack size. Pack size is the one people skip and then regret: a bolt sold in bags of 100 should say so, and suggested orders will then round up to whole bags. Mark one source preferred; that is what replenishment reaches for.

A part with no sourcing row never appears on replenishment and cannot go on an order. The part page says so.

Reorder points

Set minimum stock on every part you depend on (chapter 3). This is the trigger for everything below.

Replenishment

The replenishment page lists every part at or below its reorder point with what is already on order subtracted — so it does not nag about goods arriving on Tuesday. Each line suggests a quantity: the shortfall to the maximum (or the minimum), rounded up through the preferred source's minimum order and pack size. Tick what you want and Create draft orders: one draft per supplier.

The order

A purchase order is in the supplier's currency, with an exchange rate frozen onto it when raised — there is no rate table anywhere; the rate is a fact about that order, like the price. Add lines (price and their part number fill in from sourcing), type the VAT as one figure, set the expected date.

Then the gate: an admin approves. Committing money is a different decision from doing the paperwork, and the system keeps them apart. Once approved the lines are frozen — the supplier will hold a copy of what you sent, so no quiet edits — and Mark sent records that it went.

Receiving

When the box arrives, open the order and Receive goods: line, location, quantity. That writes the receipt into the ledger referencing the line, converts the line price through the frozen rate into a company-currency unit cost on that movement, and updates the order — partially received until every line is in, received when it is. Partial deliveries are the normal case. Receiving more than a line has outstanding is refused; if the supplier sent extra, that is a conversation, and then a plain receipt.

An order past its expected date with lines outstanding raises an overdue task naming the supplier.

From a supplier's website

If you order on a supplier's site and want the paperwork here without retyping, the API resolves their part numbers to yours and creates a draft from a list of lines — a script can turn a Digikey order export into an order in one call. A human still approves.

Next: engineering.