Creating Purchase Orders

In MyTime, a purchase order (PO) is used to request and track the products you order from suppliers, while also keeping your inventory updated. It acts as both a request to the vendor and a way to manage stock levels within the system. 

Things to know:

• The ability to create purchase orders is governed by the "Manage Purchase Orders" access control setting.
• When the "Allow Updating Cost of PO After Submission" setting is enabled, you can edit the following columns:
  • In the "Ordered" status: cost and shipping fee
  • In the "Checked-In" status: cost-related columns (cost, vendor discount, net cost, price, % margin), as well as add to retail, add to back bar, damaged/defective, and notes.
  • In the "Completed" status, all cost-related columns (cost, vendor discount, net cost, price, % margin) will be visible but not editable.
• When the "Allow Updating Cost of PO After Submission" setting is disabled:
  • In the "Ordered" status, only the shipping fee column can be edited
  • In the "Checked-In" status, you can edit the Add to Retail, Add to Back Bar, Damaged/Defective, and Notes columns. The vendor discount, net cost, price, and % margin columns will not be displayed, and the cost column will be visible but not editable.
  • In the "Completed" status, cost-related columns (cost, vendor discount, net cost, price, % margin) will be visible but not editable.
    
• If access control to product quantity/price/cost is blocked, a '-' will be shown instead of the value.
• When creating a purchase order, each product displays an inventory forecast chart and a forecast icon.
  • Inventory Forecast Chart
  • The chart appears next to each product.
  • It will be inactive if the product has no forecast data or was not auto-generated by forecast.
  • Clicking the chart icon opens a modal showing the Forecast Data Chart, which includes:
  • Training Data (Blue): Historical usage data used to train the forecasting model.
  • Forecast Data (Orange): Predicted demand for the selected date range.
  • Forecast Icon
  • Clicking the icon opens a modal displaying the product’s historical consumption over the past 30, 60, and 90 days.
  • Data is displayed even if there was no consumption during those periods.
  • Staff can quickly review details such as timeframes, total consumption, and average weekly usage.
  • This provides valuable insights to support better inventory decisions.
• If you have more than 1,000 vendors, only the first 1,000 will appear in the vendor dropdown list when creating a purchase order.
• Once a purchase order is submitted, it can be exported as a CSV, printed, or emailed to the vendor.
• Fractional quantities can be added to purchase orders, allowing you to specify quantities using decimals instead of whole numbers. This feature is controlled by the "Enable Fractional Quantities" setting. When enabled, you can enter fractional quantities while the purchase order is in the draft or check-in status.

• Draft purchase orders will display the following information:

  • Quantity on Hand: Shows the current stock level in retail inventory

  • Max: Indicates the desired maximum stock level for optimal inventory management, used to calculate the reorder quantity.

• You can filter the Purchase Orders page by location, status, and vendor to help narrow down your view. Below is a breakdown of how each filter works:
  • Location Filter:
  • You can only filter by one location at a time. 
  • Use this to view purchase orders associated with a specific location.
  • Status Filter:
  • You can filter by a specific status or choose to view all statuses. The available options are:
  • All Statuses
  • Draft
  • Requested
  • Ordered
  • Checking In
  • Completed
  • Canceled
  • Vendor Filter: 
  • You can filter by a specific vendor, or choose to view purchase orders from all vendors. This helps quickly find orders associated with a particular supplier.

• For purchase orders in draft status, you can edit the min and max stock levels for a product, and the changes will be updated immediately on the inventory page.
  

Contents

• Creating Purchase Orders
• Creating New Products While Creating a Purchase Order

Creating Purchase Orders

To create a purchase order:

1. Navigate to POS > Inventory
2. Select Purchase Orders from the left panel 
3. Click the Create Purchase Order button in the upper right corner 
4. Choose a supplier from the Vendor list, then select Next
5. Add products to your purchase order 
   • Option 1: To add products, expand the product library at the bottom left of the page. Search for a product by using the product name, SKUs or barcode, then select the Product Name. (Important: If you choose Auto Generate PO after searching, it will override your search terms.)
   • Option 2: Auto-Generate Purchase Orders - Automatically create draft purchase orders using one of the following methods:
   • By Max Quantity: Compares the current stock levels to the maximum quantity set for each SKU at the selected location. A draft purchase order is generated to replenish stock up to the max quantity. Learn more here.
   • By Forecast: Uses predictive analytics based on seasonality, business trends, and SKU popularity to estimate demand and generate a draft purchase order accordingly. Learn more here.

      

6. Once the products are added, you can:
   • View vendor details, including the vendor name and account number.
   • Add a Purchase Order (PO) ID and Invoice ID.
   • Select the order date (by default, it’s set to the current date, but you can change it to a past or future date).
   • Choose the payment method if multiple options are configured.
   • Select the location where the products will be delivered.
   • Review all products in the purchase order, along with SKU numbers, vendor IDs, and current stock levels.
   • Click the forecast chart or icon next to a product to view detailed data such as historical usage, predicted demand, and past consumption, helping staff make informed inventory decisions.
   • Edit the minimum or maximum stock levels by clicking on the current value and entering a new one.
   • Adjust the quantity to specify how much you will order from the vendor.
   • Update the cost field to reflect the amount you will pay the vendor for the product.
   • View the subtotal of the purchase order before adding any shipping fees.
   • Add a shipping fee, representing the shipping cost charged by the vendor.
   • See the overall total of the purchase order.
   • Add a note if needed.
   • Remove items from the purchase order by clicking the trash icon next to each product.

     
     

7. You can submit the purchase order or save it as a draft 

Once submitted, you can export it as an excel or a PDF, print it, or email the PO to the vendor.

Creating New Products While Creating a Purchase Order

Things to know:

• You can add new products one at a time directly from the purchase order page by clicking the + Add new product link each time.
• The ability to create new products while creating a purchase order depends on two access control settings: Access to Inventory Details and Manage Purchase Orders.
• If Access to Inventory Details is set to View Only and Manage Purchase Orders is set to Manage, attempting to add a new product using the +Add New Product link will display a permission error.
• If Access to Inventory Details is set to Edit and Manage Purchase Orders is set to Manage, new products can be created successfully and will be added to both the purchase order and the inventory.
• When you add a new product, the quantity ordered will default to 1, but you can adjust it to your desired amount.

To create a new product while creating a purchase order:

1. Navigate to POS > Inventory.
2. Select Purchase Orders from the left panel.
3. Click the Create Purchase Order button in the upper right corner.
4. Choose a supplier from the Vendor list, then click Next.
5. In the product library, click the + Add New Product link.
6. The product modal will appear. Enter the product details as follows:
   • Photo: Add an image of the product (optional).
   • Product Name: Enter the product name associated with the SKU. This field is required.
   • Category: Select the product category. This field is required.
   • Brand: Specify the brand of the product.
   • External ID (Product): A custom identifier to help identify products and assist with updates or data imports. This ID will also show in inventory exports.
   • Active: Indicate whether this product can be ordered.
   • Vendor: Automatically filled based on the vendor selected for the purchase order.
   • Description: Add a text description, often provided by the manufacturer.
   • Sell to Clients (And Apply Taxes): Specify if the product should be sold to customers via POS.
   • Commission Eligible: Select Yes if employees earn commissions on selling this product; otherwise, select No.
   • SKU Name: Name the specific SKU (including size, color, flavor, etc.).
   • Manufacturer SKU #: The unique stock-keeping unit for this product version.
   • Barcode: Enter the barcode number (UPC or EAN format) found below the barcode image.
   • Vendor SKU: The SKU number assigned by the vendor, if different from the manufacturer SKU.
   • Cost: The price paid to the vendor for the product.
   • Retail: The price clients will pay for the product.
7. After entering all product details, click Save.

The new product will be added to both the purchase order and the inventory. The order quantity defaults to 1, but you can adjust it as needed and update the product’s minimum and maximum stock levels.

    Related Articles:

• Auto Generate Purchase Order by Max Quantity
• Auto-Generate Purchase Order by Forecast
• Searching for Products When Creating Purchase Orders
• Receiving / Checking In Purchase Orders
• Email / Print / Export Purchase Order
• Exporting Purchase Order
• Importing Purchase Orders via CSV File (Ingest Data)