Vendors and purchase orders

Set a par level for each item — the amount you want on hand — and the app turns your latest counts into a ready-to-send order for each vendor. Ordering becomes a review, not a chore.

Setting up vendors

On the Vendors page (managers and admins), create a record for each supplier with their contact and ordering email. Two optional settings matter for ordering:

• Minimum order value — if the vendor requires, say, a $150 minimum, enter it so you can see when an order is under the line.
• Auto-order after counts — an opt-in, per-vendor setting. When someone submits a count of that vendor’s items, the app automatically creates and emails an order that tops everything up to par. Great for routine vendors like your bread or milk supplier; leave it off for vendors you want to review by hand.

Then link items to the vendor so the app knows who supplies what (and the vendor’s item numbers, so their warehouse recognizes your order).

Par levels

A par is the quantity you want on the shelf, in the item’s count unit — “par 3 cases” or “par 12 bottles.” When your on-hand (from your latest counts) drops below par, the item shows up as below par and gets suggested for ordering.

Day-of-week pars

Some items need different pars on different days — more milk going into a weekend than a Tuesday. For those items you can switch on day-of-week pars and set a separate par for each of the seven days (Monday through Sunday, all seven required). The app then uses today’s par, in your shop’s timezone, when deciding what’s below par and how much to suggest.

Building a purchase order

From Purchase Orders → New, pick a vendor. The app pre-fills the order with every item that’s below par, showing on-hand, par, and a suggested quantity that tops you back up to par. From there you can:

• Adjust any quantity,
• Remove lines you don’t want,
• Add any other item — including items with no par or already at par.

If everything is at or above par, the app says so — no phantom orders.

Sending, receiving, closing

When the order looks right, send it — the vendor gets it by email as a clean order document. You can also close or cancel orders as deliveries land. Pair this with receipt scanning on delivery day to keep prices current.

Shopping-route line order

By default, order lines are listed in a sensible fixed order — but you can do better. On each vendor’s page you can drag items into the order that matches how you (or the vendor’s warehouse, or whoever shops the order) actually walk the aisles. Every purchase order for that vendor — on screen, in the PDF, and in the email — follows that same route.