|
Purchasing Features
One of IPro's major functions is to assist in purchasing inventory in the
right quantities and at the right prices. Ordering correctly keeps stock
on hand at a minimum so as not to tie up your money needlessly and prevent
waste, while at the same time, insure there is enough stock to prevent shortages.
IPro calculates order quantities using any of a wide variety of powerful
ordering formulas- build to minimum par, build to maximum par, etc. The resulting
order amounts are reported as quantities in worklists rather than quantities
in activity reports or order reports. This means that in order to see the
order quantities, you must view or print the worklists.
The reason for doing things this way is that in practice, order quantities
are suggested amounts which you are likely to modify item-by-item. You can
do this easily with worklists because they are interactive and normal reports
are not.
Order Quantity Calculation Methods
Ordering Formulas Setup Screen Example
Basic Methods: IPro has eight basic order calculation methods, each
of which can be adjusted by its related settings:
Build to minimum par (normal method)
Build to maximum par
Build to maximum par if below minimum par
Item-by-item % of last use
Build to minimum par times a percentage
Last usage times a percentage.
Standard order times a percentage.
Forecast quantity times a percentage.
Largest-of-the-Above: You may select any one method or any combination
of methods. If you select a combination, IPro calculates order quantities
by each selected method and only applies the quantity by the largest method
on an item-by-item basis.
For example, let's say you normally order by just building inventory up to
minimum par levels. However, the upcoming week includes a holiday which normally
causes business to jump by 20% or more. You can ask IPro to order the normal
build-to-minimum par amount, but use the forecast amount if it is greater.
This way, item-by-item, you only buy the normal amount if it is sufficient
but you get the extra amount where the forecast calls for it.
Adding or Replacing Order Quantities: If you are processing existing
lists, you can either replace the lists' existing quantities with the order
quantities or you can add the order quantities to the original quantities.
Let's say that you normally use a buy list with order quantities which are
manually prepared for some special reason such as "things that must be ordered
on Monday no matter what". However, this week you have a large special event
and you want to add the forecast requirements to the regular order. To do
this, you:
- Make a sales log for the special event and select it as the forecasting source
list.
- Make the special Monday buy list the target list
- Select "forecast" as the order method.
- Select "Add original target list qtys to order qtys"
Build-To Base Level Options:
Four of the order methods are "build-to":
- Build to minimum par (normal method)
- Build to maximum par
- Build to maximum par if below minimum par
- Build to minimum par times a percentage
These methods depend on the current stock level and the other methods do
not. For example, build to minimum par subtracts the current stock level
from the minimum par level to get the order quantity. Standard order times
a percentage only refers to each item's standard order quantity and does
not refer to stock levels at all.
Stock Level Types: The build-to methods depend on stock levels, for
which there are actually several kinds:
- Periodic: This is the last amount actually counted without any further
adjustments by sales, items received or any other activity type. This is
the usual method because it does not depend on anything other than the last
physical count. It is usually accurate because ordering is usually done
immediately after taking inventory.
- Perpetual: This is the last estimated amount including sales, items
received, etc.
- Zero: This treats the stock level as zero which allows you to order
amounts equal to the par levels regardless of the current stock levels.
- Forecast version of the above: With this option, IPro subtracts forecast
quantities from the above to give forecast stock levels as the build-to basis.
Scaleable Methods: Several of the methods can be scaled (multiplied
by a percentage) to adjust ordering up and down in a very general way. For
example, if you normally only order the standard order amount but you are
anticipating a poor week due to bad weather, you can change the standard
order's scalar from 100% (the normal scale) to 80% to reduce the order quantity
to 80% of the standard order.
Order Rounding and List Clean-Up: "Exact" order quantities are not
usually useful just as they are. The ordering formulas can derive negative
and zero quantities which mean that you don't need to order the item. Positive
quantities such as "3.5" are not useful if you can't order fractional amounts.
Even whole quantities like "8" may not be useful if the item must be ordered
in multiples of six. IPro gives you these "finishing" options:
- Use precise quantities: This is useful if you want to see the "raw" quantities
so you can use your best judgment as the final part of the ordering process.
- Round to the nearest whole number: This option rounds up positive orders
and rounds down negative orders: "3.15" becomes "4" and "-3.15" becomes
"-4".
- Round to a multiple of the standard order: If the standard order is also
a minimum order unit, this option rounds to the nearest multiple of the standard
order. For example, if mayonnaise only comes in four-bottle cases and the
precise order quantity is "14", IPro can round that up to the nearest multiple
of 4 which is "16".
- Include items with order quantities less than or equal to zero
("<=0"): Normally, you do not use this option because you only want to
see those items which need to be ordered. If you select this option, all
the items which were originally selected for the list remain on the list,
even if their order quantities are zero or less.
|
