Purchasing answers two questions for every item you keep in stock: what to order, and by when. It reads the same stock figures as every other screen (see What the stock numbers mean), then lays out every order, transfer, production run and purchase order that moves an item, on its day, to find the first day it runs short. Everything here is in Inventory, Purchasing, Purchase orders, with each item's own Forecast and Use tabs on its page.
The worksheet
Worksheet has one row for each item you stock and own (an item you keep for a fulfillment client is never on it). It opens on To Do: the items that are short, under their reorder point or running short in their forecast, and the orders already placed to expedite, the most urgent first. The other buttons show each Level on its own, or All.
- Level says where an item stands in words: Short (it runs short even with every order already placed come by the day it is needed), Expedite (it runs short before an order already placed comes, and not if that order comes sooner), Below its reorder point, Covered by an order (what is available is low, and an issued order brings it back), Only held stock (what is on hand is on hold or past its date), or Fine.
- Qty Available is on hand less what is not available, allocated and committed. Below zero, the cell is red with a warning mark: more is promised than is here. Open it to see where.
- Units to Order brings the item up to its Order Up to Level from where its forecast stands, never less than what is still short with the orders already placed come sooner, less what is on a draft already. Cases to Order rounds that up to whole cases, and Qty to Order is those cases, at least the vendor's minimum.
- Qty on PO counts issued orders only. A draft is not counted until it is issued; Qty on Drafts shows what drafts hold.
- Order By is the last day to order and still have it in time. An item that only needs an order already placed to come sooner has none.
Search by part number, name, the vendor's part number or the vendor, or narrow it by vendor and type. With advanced inventory, choose a location to read it there with that location's own reorder points. Horizon counts only what is dated within so many days.
Columns chooses what shows: tick a column to show it and drag it into the order you like. Your choice is kept for you, and Put the usual columns back returns to the purchasing table's own.
Expedite before ordering more
When an item runs short before an order you already placed comes, ordering more is not the answer: the order is coming, it just comes too late. Its row says Expedite, with the order and the day it is needed by ("Expedite #31 to come by 10/14/2026: it is expected 10/20/2026"), and Open opens the order. Ask the vendor for it sooner; when they give you a new day, record it with Mark it confirmed and the day they say it comes, and the forecast moves with it. An order that has already shipped says so: ask whoever is bringing it in.
Expediting is worked out before anything is ordered. Every order already placed that is counted after the first day the item runs short is asked to come by that day, the soonest first, until it no longer runs short. Only what is still short then, or what the item's stock levels call for, is ordered.
Add to an order already placed
When an item needs more than everything already on order, the worksheet looks for an order of it that has not shipped and of which nothing has come in, since the vendor may not have made it yet. It suggests adding to that order instead of starting a new one: Add 6 cases (288 ea) to #31 in place of a new order, if Brightwave has not made it yet. Check with the vendor first: BookNovi cannot know whether they have made it.
- What is added is whole cases, and the vendor's minimum does not apply, since the order has already met it.
- It is suggested only when it fits on what is coming: on the order's own pallets, by how many cases go on one of the vendor's pallets (set on the item's Vendors tab, under A pallet), or in the containers of the shipment the order is planned on, by the cartons the shipment's packing list gives. When neither is known, it is suggested and says to check. When it does not fit, the row says why and puts it on a new order instead.
- Add to #31 adds it to the order's line. A shipment the order is planned on, and has not left on, grows with it. The vendor is not told: email them the order again with Email it again, or tell them.
Put it on an order
Type a quantity on a row and choose Add, or choose Add all beside a vendor to put every one of its rows on an order at once. Each goes on that vendor's draft, delivered to the location you are looking at, and the drafts are listed under Ready to Place. Nothing is sent to a vendor from the worksheet. A row also opens the item's Why? (the documents behind each figure), its Forecast and its Price History.
Each item's forecast
Open an item and choose Forecast. The tiles say what can be used now (Usable on Hand: on hand less not available), its Lead Time and where that came from, its First Short Day, the day to Order By, and its Order-By Alert. Below them, the running total is drawn, then every document that moves the item, on its day, with the running total after each:
- purchase orders on the day they are expected; a draft is listed and not counted until it is issued;
- store, wholesale, marketplace and client orders on the day the fulfillment plan promised them, else their own day;
- transfers on the day they are needed;
- a production run's materials on its start, and what it makes on its end.
A document whose day has gone by, or that has none, sits on today and says so. A transfer between two of your own places moves nothing for the business as a whole. With advanced inventory, choose a location to see its own forecast.
An item is short on the first day its total goes under zero, or under its safety stock when your settings say so. Its order-by day is that day less its lead time and your days to order early. When that day has gone by, it says to order today.
Set an item's Safety stock on its Stock tab, beside Reorder at and Order up to. With advanced inventory, each location has its own under Stock at that location.
Lead times
A lead time is measured from your own orders: the day each order was issued to the day its first delivery of the item came in, on your calendar. The item's lead time with a vendor is the middle of its last five such orders, and says how many it is from. A receipt with no order is left out.
- On an item's Vendors tab, each vendor shows its lead time. Set by hand keeps the one you type until you Clear it, and the measured one stays beside it.
- A vendor's page has a Lead Times card: what they say, what their orders took, and each item's.
- With nothing set or measured for the item and vendor, the vendor's own is used (typed, then measured over everything bought from them), then your Usual lead time in Purchasing Settings, 14 days to start.
A lead time in parts
A lead time can also be three parts: Making it (or sourcing it), Getting it ready to ship, and In transit. Use it for an item whose parts you know better than the whole, such as one made to order overseas.
- Set in parts on the item's Vendors tab or the vendor's Lead Times card. Fill in the parts you know. A part left empty counts what was measured for it, and transit with nothing measured counts the estimate below. The parts added up are the lead time, in place of one number set by hand; setting one number takes the place of the parts.
- Each part is measured from the item's orders that came on an inbound shipment: from the day the order was issued to the day its goods were ready, then to the day they left, then to the day they came in. The middle of the last five is used, as for the whole.
- Clear the parts goes back to the measured lead time, or what comes after it.
A rough transit time
Where an item's transit is neither set nor measured, it is estimated from where the vendor ships from to where its goods come, and always said as an estimate ("about 36 days by sea from Ningbo").
- The vendor ships from its Ships from place when you give one on its page (a port, an airport or a city: Ningbo, CNNGB, Monterrey), else from the place its address names.
- Within a country, or between two countries on one continent, it goes by road: a day for each 700 km of road and a day more. Between continents, or to and from an island, it goes by sea: to the nearest ports, two days at the one it is loaded at, the usual sea lane at a ship's pace, and three days at the one it comes in at.
- Comes by on the vendor says road, sea or air when it is not what the distance says. By air, it is a day's flying for each 8,000 km and three days at the airports.
The manufacturing plan's purchases read the same lead times. See Manufacturing: the schedule, materials and purchasing.
Purchasing Settings
Purchasing Settings, on the worksheet, holds the choices that are yours: the Usual lead time, the Days to order early (taken off every order-by day), Skip weekends, what Short means (Under zero or Under the safety stock), the Order-by alerts and how many Days ahead an alert comes. An owner, or someone with the settings switch, changes them.
Skip weekends starts off, and every day counts. On, lead times (measured and set by hand) and the days to order early count working days, Monday to Friday: an order-by day that falls on a weekend is the Friday before, a purchase order that comes on a weekend is counted the Monday after, and an order issued with no expected day is expected its lead time later in working days. A rough transit time is said in working days too, five for every seven of the calendar. The production plan's own moves start runs on weekdays only.
Order-by alerts
The alerts start off. Switch them on for the business in Purchasing Settings, or for one item on its Forecast tab under Order-By Alert (Follow the business, On or Off), for the business or for one location.
Once a day, each watched item is checked against its forecast. An item that runs short is told once, so many days before its order-by day (a week to start): a to-do for each person with the Purchasing switch, and one email a day listing every item told that day. When an order already placed would keep it in stock if it came sooner, the alert says to expedite that order, by the day it is needed; otherwise it says to order. It is told again only when its order-by day moves earlier, or when it now has to be ordered after being told to expedite (or the other way). It stays quiet while something else coming, such as a production run, brings it back. Check the alerts now checks at once. A demo business never sends the email.
Where a purchase order stands
The Orders list shows two statuses for each order, worked out from what has happened to it:
- Goods: Draft, Issued, Confirmed, Partly received, Late (its expected day has gone by), Received, Closed short or Canceled.
- Money, read from its bill: Not billed, Pay before it ships (on prepaid terms), Billed, Due (within the week), Past due or Paid.
The list also shows its Stage, the day it was Confirmed, and its Days Out.
- Mark as issued once the order is placed. The day it was issued can be a day gone by; with no expected day, it is expected the longest lead time of its lines after it.
- Mark it confirmed when the vendor confirms: their order number and the day they say it comes, which becomes the day it is expected. A vendor can confirm it themselves at their portal link.
- Receive it under Receive. An order partly in stays open for the rest.
- When the rest is never coming, Close the order, Close it as it stands, and say why. It reads Closed short, and what has not come is no longer on order.
Order Stages holds your own stages inside the four states an order can be in: a draft, issued, received or canceled. A stage can move on its own when something happens (emailed to the vendor, confirmed, shipped on an inbound shipment, received, billed or paid), and an order never moves back. You can move an order to a later stage of its state by hand, with what is happening.
Use by period
An item's Use tab shows the last twelve months, or 26 weeks, of what came in against what left: sold, shipped on orders, used on services, used in production and written off, against what was bought, made and found in counts. What came in rises above the line and what left falls below it. Its Use Is says whether the item is sold or used: open its type and choose What leaves it, or let it be worked out from what leaves.
Reports has Use by period and Bought against used, each month for every item, the Reorder list, which says what the worksheet says, and, with manufacturing, Purchases to place by week: every draft and every purchase still to buy for the production plan, each item in the week of its order-by day and by vendor, with its lead time and where it came from, the day it would come and the work orders it holds up. Those whose order-by day has gone by come first, as Late.
Vendors
Vendors has Find a vendor: type part of a name, the person you deal with, an email, a phone number however it is written, an account number, a city, or one of their own part numbers (the row says which item matched). Filter by vendors in use and by standing orders, and sort by any heading. A vendor's page has its Logins panel, where its portal's password is kept in 1Password (see Passwords and 1Password).
The assistant and the API
Ask the assistant "when does the gift box run short?" and it reads the item's forecast: what can be used now, the day it runs short and by how much, the order already placed to expedite when that keeps it in stock, and the day to order by. "What do I need to order?" reads the worksheet, each item with what to do first: an order to expedite, more to add to an order already placed, or the day to order by.
Through the API, GET /purchasing/worksheet, GET /inventory/items/{id}/forecast and GET /inventory/items/{id}/use read the same figures, and /purchase-orders drafts, issues, confirms, adds to, receives, closes and cancels orders. Each worksheet row carries expedite (the orders to ask for sooner) and addTo (an order already placed to add to, with whether it fits). POST /purchasing/lead-times sets an item's lead time as one number or in parts, and PATCH /vendors/{id}/shipping where a vendor ships from and how. An AI may draft orders and read freely; issuing, confirming, adding to an issued order, receiving, closing, canceling, moving a stage, setting a lead time by hand and setting where a vendor ships from wait for a person to approve, and deleting a draft is never an AI's.
Best practices
- Put every item's usual vendor and case pack on it. The worksheet orders by the case only when it knows the case.
- Issue orders on the day you place them, and receive them the day they come. The lead times are measured from those two days.
- Set a lead time by hand only when a vendor tells you something has changed, and clear it once their orders show it.
- Give each vendor that ships from far away its Ships from place, so its items' transit is estimated until their orders measure it.
- Switch the alerts on once your reorder points and lead times are in. An alert is only as early as the lead time it is given.
- Look at the worksheet's To Do each morning: expedite what it says to first, then put whole vendors on an order with Add all.
- Put how many cases go on each vendor's pallet on the item's Vendors tab, so the worksheet knows when more fits on an order already coming.