You don't have to spend hours going through a printed Buyer's Stock Status report anymore. Now you have an interactive customizable reporting tool in the new entrée V4 SQL Vendor Order Guide feature.

 

You also can choose to use Quantity Ordered to calculate your ordering instead of the Quantity Shipped which is your only option with the paper report.

 

It will help you save time and get your purchasing done quicker and more efficiently with information already in the entrée system!

 

The new Order Guide Tab is part of the redesign of the entrée Purchasing system. The features of the Order Guides Tab will reduce your reliance on the Buyer's Stock Status Report to do your purchasing.

 

New Features in version 4.1

•Cubes: The Cubes field has been added to the screen and represents the total cubes for the item. When you edit the Order Quantity the Cubes value will be recalculated for the item.

 

 

•Unit Cost: The Unit Cost is now editable. When building a Purchase Order the costs entered will be passed to Create PO for the items.

 

 

•Unit Price: Updated the Customer Sales Details sub-grid, accessed when expanding the item information in the grid using the plus sign, to contain the Unit Price to the customer.

 

 

•Allocations and True On Hand: These columns can optionally be displayed for the item using the * grid configuration tool.

•Warehouse Location: This filter is only available if entrée.MW Mod #737 is installed.

When Mod #737 entrée.MW is installed a new drop down menu filter is activated to list each of the warehouses by warehouse name. When an individual warehouse is selected, Sales transactions will be filtered by sales originating from the selected warehouse. If the warehouse does not contain the items the values will be zeros.

It is as easy as  1 - 2 - 3!

The Order Guide Tab has 4 main areas, the Filter Options Area, Item Grid Area, Item Information Area and the Estimated Totals Area. The features in these areas will be discussed in this chapter.

 

1. Find the desired Vendor and click the Order Guide Tab.

2. Select your Filter Options and click the Calculate button. The Item Grid will be populated with the items you purchase from that Vendor. Items with the Order Quantity in green text need to be ordered.

3. You can select an Item in the Item Grid to see the Item Detail Information Area on the right including the item image, On Hand Quantity, Order Point, On Order Quantity, Reorder Quantity and all the other information you need about the status of the item can be found in the Item Grid and Item Detail Information Area.

4. Make any changes to your filtering and you must click the Calculate button again.

 

5. entrée will generate the cases, pallets, weight and cost in the Estimated Totals area for the selected item in the grid.

 

If the Vendor’s minimum order parameters have been defined in the PO Options tab on the Vendor Tab that field value will be displayed with GREEN text when the requirements have been met as seen here. If the minimum order requirements have not been met, and in red if it falls short.

 

Inactive Items

The “Display Inactive Items” option has been added above the item grid. To see the inactive status for each item you must add the “Inactive” column to the grid configuration. This feature allows users to identify inactive items for a vendor quickly before ordering.

Filter Options Overview

Only Display Required Items

Check this option above the Item Grid on the right side if you would like the entrée system to evaluate the vendor's items and only display what needs to be ordered.

 

Show / Hide Filter Options Button

Use this button (outlined in red below) to hide the control panel filters area and expand the item grid area to view more columns on the screen.

 

 

Filter Options

•The filtering options will change depending on what is selected in the Calculate Using drop down menu.

•The filter options shown here are the defaults for the feature.

•Update the filter options as required to reflect how your business runs and generate estimated order quantities.

 

Run for Primary items only

Only run for the items that have the current vendor assigned as the primary vendor in the Inventory File Vendor Tab.

 

Combine Case and PC. items

Checked by default. If this option is checked only the case items will be listed in the grid and the case and piece items will be combined.

 

In the Item Grid below the Combine Case and PC. items option was not checked so the PC. items are listed in the grid individually.

 

 

 

Evaluation Weeks

The default is twelve weeks. Use the Up / Down arrows to set the number of weeks you want evaluated to determine the estimated totals. There will always be at least 12 weeks worth of sales data in the system.

 

Ending Date

The default is the current date. Use the drop down arrow to open the calendar feature and set your ending date for the evaluation period.

 

 

 

Full Pallet - This method looks at the Pallet Quantity for the item which is defined using the Pallet Info dialog in the Vendor Tab  of the Inventory File or the Items tab of the Vendor File. If Full Pallet is defined in the Inventory File it is for all vendors selling that item.

 

In the Vendor File the Override Ordering option, discussed in the Past Sales topic, will allow for a per vendor override to be defined for that specific vendor.

 

▪If the Pallet Quantity is ZERO no rounding will be performed and the system will return whatever value was calculated.

▪If the Pallet Quantity is greater than Zero we use a 0.25 threshold for rounding. If it is less than a quarter pallet we round down and greater than a quarter pallet we round up. If the required quantity for the item is less than a quarter pallet, a single pallet will be ordered, even though it is less than quarter pallet threshold.

▪The suggested order quantity will be the pallet quantity * the number of pallets the system calculated to be ordered. 

 

Pallet Layer - This method look at the Pallet Layer quantity for the item which is defined using the Pallet Info dialog in the Vendor Tab  of the Inventory File or the Items tab of the Vendor File. If Pallet Layer is defined in the Inventory File it is for all vendors selling that item.

 

In the Vendor File the Override Ordering option, discussed in the Past Sales topic, will allow for a per vendor override to be defined for that specific vendor.

 

▪If the Pallet Layer Quantity is ZERO no rounding will be performed and the system will return whatever value was calculated.

▪If the Pallet Layer Quantity is greater than zero, the required quantity for the item is divided into the pallet layer quantity to determine the number of layers to order. If there is any remainder the number of layers to be ordered will be rounded up.

▪The suggested order quantity will be the pallet layer quantity * the number of pallets layers the system calculated to be ordered.

 

Up to 5 - This method will take the calculated required for the item and round up to the next 5. No rounding is performed if the required quantity is already evenly divisible by 5.

 

Down to 5 - This method will take the calculated required for the item and round down to the next 5. No rounding is performed if the required quantity is already evenly divisible by 5.

 

Pallet Rounding Rule - If the amount to order is greater than* a quarter of a pallet, the pallet quantity will get increased by one (1).

 

Minimum Weeks

▪Formerly called APO Weeks, this field is used to determine if the item should be ordered when automatically generating purchase orders using the Auto PO feature.

▪Enter the number of weeks worth of product to keep on hand at all times in this field. The value for the number of weeks can be determined by dividing the number of days by 7.

▪The supply time or the amount of time that it takes to receive product after the order has been placed should also be factored in when entering the Minimum Weeks.

 

If a 10-day supply of product should be kept on hand at all times and it takes about 10 days for an order to reach the warehouse, the value entered in the Minimum Weeks field would be 2.86 using this formula: 20 days / 7 days in a week = 2.86.

 

Order Weeks

▪Formerly called Purchase Multiple, this field is used to determine how much product should be ordered when automatically generating purchase orders using the Auto PO feature.

▪If the item should never be ordered automatically, leave the value of the purchase multiple set to 0.

▪Enter the number of weeks worth of product that should be ordered in this field. The value for the number of weeks can be determined by dividing the number of days by 7.

 

To keep a two week supply of the item use this formula: 14 days / 7 days in a week = 2.0.

If your needs were instead for a ten day supply the formula: 10 days / 7 days in a week = 1.4.

 

Calculate Using

Your calculate using filtering options will change depending on the option selected from the drop down menu. There are three possible choices: Past Sales, Order Point or Selected Invoices. Descriptions of each calculate using option follows.

 

How Calculations Using Past Sales Works

1. All sales for the vendor's item are reviewed using the number of Evaluation Weeks value and Calculation

Qty choice either Quantity Shipped or Quantity Ordered.

2. Your choice for Weekly Usage, either Average Sales or Highest Sales (for a single week) determines what number is used to find your Derived Wkly Usage for the item.

3. Next the system uses this formula to find Total Available Inventory for the item:

On Hand Qty + On Order Qty = Total Available Inventory

4. Next the system will test to see if Total Available Inventory is less than Derived Wkly Usage *  Minimum Weeks.

5. If Total Available Inventory is less then another calculation is performed to find a value for suggested order quantity.

Order Weeks * Derived Wkly Usage = Suggested Order Qty

6. Your selection for Rounding will modify the final Estimated Totals values displayed.  

 

How to Modify Minimum Weeks & Order Weeks for Past Sales Calculations

 

1.For Past Sales filter options only there is a way you can modify the Minimum Weeks and Order Weeks values for an item selected in the grid.

2.Go to the Items tab  and in the item grid is a column labeled Override Ordering. When you check this option you can specify the Minimum Weeks and Order Weeks for the item Auto P.O. Parameters in the item detail panel of the Items tab.

3.Then perform your  calculation again on the Order Guide Tab to see the updated values for the item.

 

 

How to Override the Order Point Calculation

In the Inventory File Vendor Tab for the item you can create up to four Special Reorder Definitions for specific dates ranges.

In the calculation here the Ending Date is compared to settings in the item's Special Reorder Definitions and if it finds a match it will override the Order Guide Tab values. The system replaces the Order Point and Reorder Quantity values here with the values from the Inventory File Vendor tab.

There is more information about Special Reorder Definitions later in this chapter.

 

 

Item Grid Overview

 

Here the Combine Case and PC. items option was checked so no PC. items are seen.

 

Plus/Minus Buttons

Use these buttons to expand or collapse the Item in the grid to view Invoices associated with the item.

 

Minimum Order Displays

If the vendor minimum order parameters have been defined, the Order Quantity value will be displayed in GREEN  if the minimum has been met, otherwise the value will be displayed in  RED.

 

Item Detail Information Area Overview

Item Image - Displays an item image if one has been saved for the item in the Inventory File or else it is blank.

 

Item Details

•On Order Quantity - The total number of units that are already ordered from the supplier, but not yet received.

•Reorder Quantity - Quantity to order when On Hand Quantity + On Order < Order Point. Set on the Inventory File Inventory Tab.

•Order Point - Minimum stock level set on the Inventory File Vendor Tab.

•Last Cost - The last price paid for the item.

•Last Purchase - The date of the last purchase of the item from the vendor.

 

 

 

Special Reorder Definitions

You must check System Option # 115 to use the Special Reorder Definitions feature.

 

These options are set in the Inventory File Vendor Tab for the item. You can define up to 4 alternate order points and reorder quantities. The special reorder definitions can be useful for increasing or decreasing how often an item is purchased and the quantity to maintain on hand before the item is considered to be in a low inventory state.

 

Order Point - The order point represents the minimum stock level.

 

Reorder Quantity - The quantity to order for use in batch entry edit mode in create purchase orders.

 

Estimated Totals Area

 

If the vendor minimum order parameters have been defined in the PO Options area of the Vendor Tab for cases, pallets, weight or cost that field value will be displayed with a  GREEN  highlight if the minimum required has been met, otherwise the value will be displayed with  RED  highlights.

 

In this example the PO Options Minimum Order is set to 15 cases. So the number of cases required by the vendor has been met and the cases field is highlighted in green. Here we used the Only Display Required Items option to see just the items we needed to order.