The Purchasing Agent is a very powerful and efficient tool in [i] Merchant. It automatically applies vendor discounts, based on the Vendor Discount Schedule in Vendor Properties, and it differentiates between POs that have met the suggested vendor minimums for quantity and dollar amount and POs that have failed to meet those minimums. Keep in mind, the Purchasing Agent will not process any POs. You still are in control of which POs get processed and which do not. But it will make your decisions easier, because you will see all applicable information for the planned POs created after running the Cut PO process.
You access the Purchasing Agent directly via the Cut PO process. Once the Purchasing Agent option is selected, you will be taken to the Purchasing Agent screen.
The top left of the Purchasing Agent screen is where you actually process the POs. This section is labeled "Create POs for". We will look at the choices in this section momentarily. But first, let's take a look at the informational portions of the screen.
The top middle of the screen is called "Summary of planned purchases." This provides you with a summary of basic PO information for the following: POs meeting minimums (the minimums are established in Vendor Properties); POs not meeting minimums; All planned POs; and Discount override--if it exists. The information from the top two rows (POs meeting minimums and POs not meeting minimums) is added together in the third row (All planned POs). This data gives you an overview of all of the planned POs currently displayed on the Purchasing Agent screen.
The top right corner of the screen is the Discount Schedule box. This is informational, and displays the Vendor Discount Schedule for the vendor who is selected in the middle portion of the screen, in the "Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned" section. The tier of discount that will be used for the planned PO for the selected vendor will be highlighted in green. Please note, if you selected a discount override during the Cut PO process for a selected PO, the Vendor Discount Schedule will not apply to that PO--the discount will be what you manually determined it should be via the override.
Speaking of the "Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned" portion of the screen, this is also an informational display. Each vendor for the various planned POs included on the screen is shown in this table, along with pertinent information that summarizes the totals from the POs as well as the vendor minimum amounts. The last column is a Yes/No column, letting you know if the POs have met the vendor minimums. (If a PO has not met the minimums, simply compare the values between the Min. Order Qty and Min Order Amt columns and the Order Qty and Total Order Amt columns.) Those that have are highlighted in green, and are displayed at the top of the list of vendors in this box. Any POs that have not met vendor minimums can still be processed, if you so choose. By clicking on a vendor in the "Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned" box, you will have that vendor's information display in the Discount Schedule box as well as the "Items to order from Vendor" box, which is discussed in the next paragraph.
The bottom portion of the screen contains the "Items to order from Vendor" box. This is another informational display, showing all of the items on the planned POs for the vendor you have selected in the "Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned" box. Pertinent information on each item included in the PO is shown here. Take note of the "PO Order Discount" column. This will reflect either the applicable tiered discount from the Vendor Discount Schedule or the manual discount override percentage you manually keyed in during the Cut PO process, if that's the route you took.
Now that you are familiar with the informational displays on the Purchasing Agent screen, let's take a look at how you actually create POs. This is accomplished via the "Create POs for" portion of the screen, in the upper left corner. You have four choices . . . .
If you want to create POs only for the planned orders that have met vendor minimums (those shaded green in the "Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned" box, click on the "Vendors meeting minimums" button. A Confirmation dialogue box will appear, asking if you want to proceed. This dialogue box will also give you a summary, detailing the quantity of items that will be ordered, the cost, and the number of different vendors involved. Click on "Yes" if you want to proceed, "No" if you want to back out and return to the Purchasing Agent screen with nothing having been processed.
Assuming you clicked "Yes," the orders are created, and you are taken to the Find Purchase Order screen, where the POs you just created are listed in the grid at the bottom of the screen. To view one of these POs, simply double-click on it, and you will be brought to the Purchase Order Properties screen. You can add to the PO here, or simply review the information on it. (Click here to read more on the PO Properties screen.) Close out of the PO Properties screen when you're finished reviewing the information.
If you want to create POs only for vendors that you have manually selected from the Purchasing Agent screen, do the following. . .
In the "Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned" box, using standard Windows techniques, select all of the different vendors for whom you want to create POs.
Once you've selected the desired vendors, click on the "Selected vendors only" button. The Confirmation Dialogue box appears. Click on "Yes" to proceed, "No" to back out. If you clicked "Yes," you will be taken immediately to the Find PO screen, and the POs you just created will be listed in the grid at the bottom of the screen.
If you want to create POs for all of the vendors listed in the "Vendors for whom Purchase Orders are planned" box (in other words, all possible POs represented by this session of the Purchasing Agent program), simply click on the "All Vendors" button. The Confirmation Dialogue box appears. Click on "Yes" to proceed, "No" to back out. If you clicked "Yes," you will be taken immediately to the Find PO screen, and the POs you just created will be listed in the grid at the bottom of the screen.
If you do not want to create any POs at the moment, click on the "Cancel - No Vendors" button. A dialogue box appears, asking you to confirm the Cancel. If you click on "No," you will be taken back to the Purchasing Agent screen. If you click "Yes," you will be taken to the To Be Ordered screen, and the items you had used to begin the Cut PO process will still be listed in the grid at the bottom of the screen. From here, you can restart the Cut PO process or simply back out of the TBO screen altogether.