Purchasing Utilities lets you make changes to your reorder settings without manually changing your levels item by item.  For example, if you want to change the lead time on items received from Supplier ABC, rather than going through your “Item Master List” changing one item at a time, you can use Purchasing Utilities to make one system-wide change.

7.1    Global Changes to Reorder Levels

1.      Under “Purchasing” on the main menu, select “Utilities.”

2.      Choose the items that you want to be affected by the change.

3.      Use the fields at the top of the window to filter your inventory.  For example, you can choose to change the settings of items received from a certain supplier, items that have a particular ID, or items that were received during a certain period of time (and are still in stock).

4.      If you do not fill in one of the filter fields, the change will apply to all of your current inventory.

5.      Choose what you want to change about the items.

6.      Select one of the tabs (explained below).

7.      Enter the new level (numeral only) in the field at the bottom left of the window.

8.      Click “Set [utility]” at the bottom right of the window.

9.      A window will appear showing the item IDs, the old levels, the new levels, and a note describing the change that you’re making.  If these changes are correct, click “Apply”; if not, click “Discard.”

7.2    Changing Purchasing Utilities

Select “Utilities” under “Purchasing” on the main menu.  Enter information on the following tabs:

 

·         Lead time—the amount of time in days required for items to be received from the supplier after they are ordered.

·         Units per pack—the number of individual units stored in a particular package.  For example, someone that ships shirts may count each shirt as an individual item but transport large shipments in cartons that contain 100 shirts each.  This user would enter “100” because there are 100 units in each larger package.

·         Economic order—indicates the multiple in which items need to be ordered (usually because of how they are being shipped or packed).  For example, if units are being shipped in larger containers that hold 5 units each, the economic order is 5.

·         Reorder level—the minimum level of inventory allowed before the item must be reordered and will appear on the “Items to Order” report.

·         Fill to level—the maximum level of inventory that will be kept on hand.  More items may be ordered if some inventory is already committed.

·         Monthly demand—you can enter the monthly demand or have Almyta Control System calculate it for you.

7.3    Generating Purchase Orders

Once you have set reorder levels for your inventory, you can use Almyta Control System to generate purchase orders. These will only be accurate if you have all the appropriate fields populated for all of your items.  For example, the main supplier must be populated for the item or all items with this field blank will be combined on one purchase order.

 

1.      Choose the “Make Purchase Orders” tab on the “Purchasing Utilities” screen.

2.      Using the filters at the top of the window, choose the inventory items for which you want purchase orders to be generated.

3.      Specify an end date—Almyta Control System will calculate what needs to be ordered to guarantee sufficient stock through that date.

4.      Click “View Suggested Purchase Orders.”

 

Almyta Control System will calculate what you need to order based on the reorder levels that you specified and the end date that you set.  If you agree with the suggestions, click “Apply.”  Almyta Control System will create the necessary purchase orders—all you need to do is go to “Purchasing” and approve them.