Inventory Management: Place and manage purchase orders
Use the Order List window to view, place and manage purchase orders. Orders can also be placed from the Purchasing Work List (PWL).
Before you start
- Security access to related inventory functions: Purchasing Work List, Order List and Order Maintenance and any associated order based reports.
- Vendor(s) set up to place and receive orders.
- Inventory Defaults set for Order ID and Want List items.
- Inventory group(s) set up to place orders (multi-location inventory (MLI) only).
- Invoice items set as inventory type. Maintain quantity on hand (QOH)and lot/expiration date tracking optional.
Important!
- PO Numbers cannot be modified once an order is created.
- Once a purchase order is placed (Sent status), the vendor cannot be changed. Sent status orders can be modified (items added or removed) until the order is received.
Using the Order List
Inventory > Order List
Filters
All purchase orders from past 14 days will display by default when opening the Order List. Do any of the following to modify what orders display:
- Select a vendor to view orders only for a particular vendor.
- Select an order Status:
- Closed: All items received, or the order was closed manually.
- Not sent: The order has been started and saved.
- Partial: Some items from the order have been received (from a posted receipt).
- Sent: The order has been placed. The order displays in the Receive Purchase Order window when vendor selected.
- SmartOrder® specific statuses: SmartOrder® provides the ability to order directly from integrated vendors: IDEXX, Patterson or MWI. Vendor activation is required to use this feature.
- Created from Orphan: The Integrated vendor order was not started in Cornerstone.
- Sent online: Integrated vendor order successfully submitted to the vendor. Once sent, these orders cannot be modified.
- Orphan orders (shipped orders from integrated vendor without a corresponding Cornerstone purchase order) will display in right side of the window per vendor.
- Change the Date Range by entering a date or selecting from the calendar.
- Click the Search icon
to view the new results in the Order List. - Adjust display by doing any of the following:
- Click any column header to sort information accordingly. A triangle will indicate which column and order (ascending/descending) are used.
- Set Results per page.
- Click page navigation buttons to go to next, last, previous, or first page of results.
Functions
- New Order: Create a new purchase order.
- Edit: Modify the selected order. Only Not Sent or Sent status orders can be modified.
- Change vendor on a Not Sent status order, if needed
- Update item status(es), quantities, costs and other details as needed.
- Remove or add items.
- Click Save or Place Order to complete edits and return to the Order List.
- Print: Print the purchase order or save it using the PDF options.
- Email: Send order to the assigned vendor via email. Email setup is required to use this feature.
- Select the file type of PDF or TXT format.
- Click OK to open the Communications window.
- Delete: Remove a Not Sent status order from the list.
- Close Order: Manually close purchase orders with a status of Sent or Partial. Use this if items on the order will not be received. Example: An item is on long term backorder or has been discontinued.
- Receive Order: Receive items from orders with a status of Sent or Sent Online.
- Enter a receipt number.
- Modify date if needed.
- Mark the items as Received or Backordered.
- Verify or adjust quantity received and the item cost.
- Save or Post receipt. Posting receipts will modify the order status to Partial or Closed, accordingly.
- Save: finish receiving and reviewing item quantity and cost at a later time.
- Post: update quantity and cost on hand and update pricing, if using auto-calculate price. Once you post the receipt, changes can no longer be made.
Benefits of creating an order
There are many benefits to using the order feature:
- Keep track of ordered items using the Order List or On Order report.
- Notify the staff an item is on order or backorder when using the Want List. On order items also indicated on the Item Information window.
- Mark items as backordered when ordering or receiving.
- Mark items as cancelled when receiving.
- Receiving a placed order more efficient than manually entering items on a receipt.
- Send the order directly to integrated vendors, IDEXX, MWI or Patterson, using SmartOrder® integration.
How to place an order
Start an order from the Purchasing worklist
Quickly create a purchase order from the Purchasing Work List (PWL) using Want List (staff requested) and Suggested Items (based on reorder point settings).
- Inventory > Purchasing Work List.
- Select Suggested Item and/or Want Item and click to populate the Purchasing Work List.
- Click Add to Want List to add additional items manually to the PWL.
- Select items to add to an order:
- SHIFT + click to select items in sequential order.
- CTRL+ click to select items non-sequential order.
- Choose the vendor, location group (MLI configured practices only) and click Add to Order.
- If an existing order for the vendor or a selected item is already on a purchase order, messaging will display. Choose to add to an existing order, create a new order or to add selected items already on an order.
- Modify the Purchase order number, if needed.
- Complete ordering details such as quantity, cost, special pricing, and notes. Add additional items, or change status to back ordered, if needed.
- Items appearing in red text indicate ordered quantity plus current QOH exceeds the item’s overstock point. (Lists > Invoice Item > Inventory tab).
- Click Save or Place Order to return to the Purchasing Work List. Clicking Cancel will discard changes and return to the PWL.
- Save: finish the order later.
- Place order: the order is added to the Order List as Sent status and displays in the Receive Purchase Order window when vendor selected.
Repeat steps as needed for each vendor. Manage orders from the Order List.
Start order from Order List
Create a purchase order manually from the Order List.
- Inventory > Order List > New Order
- Modify the Purchase order number, if needed.
- Choose the vendor.
- Select location group (MLI configured practices only).
- Add items to the purchase order by entering the item ID or using F2 to search for and select items from the inventory item list. Complete ordering details, such as quantity, cost, special pricing, status (back ordered) or notes.
- Items appearing in red text indicate ordered quantity plus current QOH exceeds the item’s overstock point. (Lists > Invoice Item > Inventory tab)
- Click Save or Place Order to return to the Order List.
- Save: finish the order later.
- Place order: the order added to the Order List as Sent status and displays in the Receive Purchase Order window when vendor selected.
Repeat steps as needed for each vendor. Manage orders from the Order List.
Additional information
General
- Modify how information displays on the PWL, Order List and Create/Edit Purchase Order windows:
- Sort the window using the available filters and column headers.
- Right-click the column header row to choose which columns display.
- Drag columns to preferred order. Column order selections retained per logged in user.
- Any inventory type item can be placed on a purchase order and received. Tracking quantity on hand is not required.
- The item’s buy unit of measure (UOM), is used to place orders. The UOM can be changed to the sell UOM, if needed (in cases where a package size is not available and temporarily ordering an alternate size).
- Select an item on a purchase order and click Information for {item} bar at the bottom of the purchase order to view:
- Item history tab includes received, ordered, adjusted, etc.
- Item information tab includes item QOH, set up and pricing details.
- Create a new inventory item with basic information, by clicking Add an Item at the bottom of the Search for Inventory item window. Basic setup does not include Maintain QOH.
- Modify item setup under Lists > Invoice Item.
- Cost will prepopulate on the order with the vendor’s last cost.
- View last cost from the Information for {item} bar at the bottom of the purchase order (Item Information tab).
- Modify cost information under the Item Vendor button on the item’s Inventory tab.
- Vendor cost is updated when receiving the item.
- If ordering an amount for an item that is less than its suggested quantity, the item will remain on the Purchasing Work List with a recalculated suggested quantity.
- Example: The suggested quantity is 3 and the amount ordered is 2. The quantity on the Purchasing work list will be updated to 1.
- This applies to placing orders by either method.
- Multi-location inventory (MLI) only: If location groups are not used to place orders, then the suggested order quantity will stay on the PWL when filtering by location, but will show appropriately when looking at all locations together.
- Once an item is placed on an order, the following information cannot be modified until the item has been received (posted receipt) or canceled:
- Item status
- Unit of measure (UOM)
- Maintain Quantity on Hand (QOH)
- Buy/Sell ratio
Ordering from the Purchasing Work List
- Items will display on the PWL with their primary vendor. Select a different vendor to order from, as needed.
- When adding multiple items to a purchase order:
- The suggested or want quantity is added to the order for you. The Order Quantity field in the Add to Order area of the PWL will be blank.
- Ordered quantity will be applied to Suggested Items when an item is on both the want list and suggested list.
- Item quantities are combined in a single row entry on the purchase order when an item is on the PWL more than once and selected.
- To maintain separate row entries on the purchase order for the same item, such as multiple want list requests do either of these:
- Drag the Create Purchase Order window to the side to view and use the PWL to replicate row entries as additional items on the purchase order.
- Print and use the Want List report for quantity and note details before starting an order.
- Use the Want List report to key in separate entries on the purchase order to retain quantity/note per line for special orders.
- To maintain separate row entries on the purchase order for the same item, such as multiple want list requests do either of these:
- For buy x, get y specials (BOGO) entry:
- Add the item at the ‘x’ quantity for the usual price
- Add the line again for the ‘y’ quantity. Modify the cost to the special price and indicate the cost as such by selecting Yes in the SP column.
- This method will retain the vendor cost as the full price.
- Suggested items
- If ordering an amount for an item that is less than its suggested quantity, the item will remain on the Purchasing Work List with a recalculated suggested quantity.
- Example: The suggested quantity is 3 and the amount ordered is 2. The quantity on the Purchasing work list will be updated to 1.
- MLI only: If location groups are not used to place orders, the suggested order quantity will stay on the PWL when filtering by location, but will show appropriately when all locations selected.
- Want List items
- Inventory defaults determine if want list items are deleted from PWL and Want List report or changed to a status of Completed once ordered: Controls > Defaults > Practice and Workstation > Inventory.
- Notes entered on the Want List will display on the order and the receipt.
- Any quantity ordered satisfies the item’s want list entry and the item is deleted/completed. Example: The want item quantity is 3 and the amount ordered is 2.
- This also applies when there are multiple want list entries for the same item, and not all lines are selected to add to order. Example: There is a want list entry for the quantity of 2 and another entry for the quantity of 3 for the same item. The quantity of 2 is ordered and the the item is removed from the want list.
- Deleting a Not Sent order that was created from Want List items will not replace items on the PWL.
- Multi-location inventory (MLI) only:
- If multiple Want List entries are on the PWL for same item and same location or group, any selected entries placed on an order will delete/complete all entries for that location or group, and any want item entries for different locations/groups are retained.
- If a location or group is not indicated on the Want List entry, then any quantity ordered for that item will delete/complete all entries.
Ordering from the Order List
- Use the Want List and Reorder reports to create orders manually from the Order List > New Order.
- As items are received on a posted receipt, order status will change automatically to Partial. The order status will change to Closed once all items are received (or canceled).
- Editing an order will update the purchase order date. Orders with a Sent Online status cannot be edited.
- As items are received on a posted receipt, order status will change automatically to Partial. The order status will change to Closed once all items are received.
- Check the Order List for past month(s) to ensure no lingering partial, sent or unsent orders.
- Deleting a Not Sent order that was created from Want List items will not replace items on the PWL. Once ordered, Want List items are considered complete or deleted, based on inventory default settings.
- Any Orphan orders from IDEXX SmartOrder electronic inventory ordering appear on the right side of the window, if using.
- For buy x, get y specials (BOGO) entry:
- Add the item at the ‘x’ quantity for the usual price
- Add the line again for the ‘y’ quantity. Modify the cost to the special price and indicate the cost as such by selecting Yes in the SP column.
- This method will retain the vendor cost as the full price.
Related reports
- Want List Report
- Reorder Report
- On Order Report
- Backorder Report
- Partial Receipts Report
