Auto Purchasing

SOMAX can  automatically generate purchase requests for parts that are at or below their minimum quantity for stock parts that have been set up for Auto Purchasing. 

This article describes how to set up auto purchasing and how to generate purchase requests automatically.

Auto Purchasing Set Up

There are a few factors that must be in place in order to automatically generate these purchase requests. All of these factors depend on the existing quantities and properties of the part - for more help with parts and navigating their overview pages, see About Parts.

Part Quantities

You can edit part quantities by scrolling down and selecting Edit in your part's overview page. Under "Quantities and Costs," you should be able to edit the maximum and minimum quantities as well as select Auto Purchasing. A part must have both a Minimum and Maximum quantity and the Maximum quantity must be more than the Minimum quantity to set a part up for Auto Purchase Generation.

You must have Auto Purchasing selected to use the auto generator.

Whether or not you can auto generate a purchase request for a part depends on the part's Minimum quantity. You can only generate for that part when its on hand quantity is at or below the minimum quantity and the on order plus on request plus the on hand quantity is less than or equal to the minimum quantity. 

Formula to trigger reorder stock part 

(Qty On Hand + (Qty On Request + (Qty On Order - Qty received))) <= Minimum Quantity

The quantity of parts that SOMAX will automatically fill in for the generator depends on the Maximum quantity. SOMAX will automatically generate the request to get the part's on hand quantity back up to the maximum, although you can directly edit the quantity you want to purchase if you do not wish to get back to the maximum or if you want to order more than what will return the on hand to more than maximum. 

For example, here the minimum is 5, maximum 100, and on hand 1. Since the on hand is less than or equal to the minimum, you will be able to auto purchase this part. When using the generator, the quantity for purchase will be 99, since that is the number of parts to get the on hand up to the maximum. 

Formula to trigger reorder stock part 

(Qty On Hand + (Qty On Request + (Qty On Order - Qty received))) <= Minimum Quantity

Formula how much to reorder for stock part 

Maximum Quantity - ( Qty On hand + (Qty On Order - Qty received))

100 - (1 +(0+(0)) = 99

Vendors

You can access your part's vendors by using the left menu on your part's overview page and selecting Vendor. Here, you should see the vendors you have for that part and their relationship to the part.

You must have at least one preferred vendor attached to the part. 

You can edit the vendor to note it as preferred by selecting the green pencil icon at the rightmost column and checking the box next to Preferred. This step is extremely important as this is the vendor who will be linked when you use the auto generator.

For help linking vendors and parts, see Adding a Vendor to a Part. 

Using the Auto Generator

Below is a screenshot of the auto purchasing page when you first access it; below that are steps on how to navigate it.

Using the Auto Generator

1. To access the page, from the left sidebar select Procurement and then Auto Request Generation.
2. Either start typing in the vendor box or select Vendor Lookup to find the vendor you wish to order from. Remember that this will be the preferred vendor for the part you are low on. If you do not know what exactly you are low on, you can select Vendor Lookup and then select the very top checkbox next to "Vendor ID". 
3. Select Apply when you are done using the Vendor Lookup.
4. Select Process when you are done attaching all of your vendors. This will display any parts that are linked to these vendors that you may be low on. The picture below shows what this should look like - the part that appeared was the only one below minimum quantity and linked to that vendor.

1. You may edit the order quantity for the request by typing directly in that box. The number that automatically appears upon processing is the number of parts that will get the quantity up to its maximum. For example, the maximum parts for this part was 100, and there were only 5, making 95 the number that would get it to 100.
2. When you are done editing the quantities, select the checkbox in the leftmost column of every part you would like to create requests for. 
3. Select Create Purchase Requests. The auto generation confirmation should appear.
4. Select OK.
5. You will now be able to find the auto requests in the requests page - to do so, from the left sidebar select Procurement and then Requests. Auto generated requests will say "Auto Generated" in their descriptions.

For more help with the processes after creating requests, see About Purchasing.