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Purchase order question

4/12/16       
Ted

I’d like to know how other custom cabinet companies order materials. When I first started it was me making the phone call, if not running to pick up the materials. Now, we are a company of 7, and with new project managers I have been explaining which supplier to buy what supplies and realize I never had a good system in place for it.

I believe we need a better way of keeping track of A) each type of material, and B) who the vendor is and C) Vendor Contact information.

We use Cabinet Vision, but have not considered using the reporting in order to generate purchase orders. We manually list out hardware, sheet goods, finish supplies, etc for each project. We then send each order to each vendor as an email.

How do other custom cabinet, small to mid-sized shops do it?

4/12/16       #2: Purchase order question ...
Steve Member

I have always used my bookeeping software to provide PO's to our vendors. It's an older software(DacEasy v12) but works for us.

I would assume that any accounting software would provide Purchase Orders alond with the Vendor files.

4/13/16       #3: Purchase order question ...
TomB

Use Cabinet Vision. V9 has a preferred vendor setup in the materials section. I use it and it works great.

4/13/16       #4: Purchase order question ...
Sam Jackson

You should check out allmoxy. Talk to one of the Lewis boys (the have made the software). We use it for material ordering and po generation. Using it more and more everyday!

http://www.allmoxy.com

4/13/16       #5: Purchase order question ...
Rich Kuban  Member

Website: closetexperts.com

Online ordering through vendors has almost made this question moot. Eventually all ordering will be done this way.

If you want something simple and basic, make up a spreadsheet vendor template with the quantity, description, and pricing for each line item. The spreadsheet can autoenter date, and calculate extension and total. I often used date for po number sometimes with job name as a prefix. Simple enough for small shops.

Save spreadsheet, then save and email as pdf. I kept purchase orders by vendor and year for reference. The trick is to set it up for as few keystrokes as possible.

4/21/16       #6: Purchase order question ...
David Waldmann  Member

Website: vermonthardwoods.com

"Online ordering through vendors has almost made this question moot."

On the contrary, I think it's made it worse. The reason is that it forces you to make the entries twice. Once online and once in your system.

I say "system" because anyone with 7 guys should be using accounting software.

A proper accounting (or, maybe better yet, ERP) software will allow you to generate a PO and email (or fax, or call it in) to your vendor. When the product comes in, you receive it in the software which adds it to inventory. When you get the bill, you enter the bill against the PO receipt, and the costs are passed to where they should be (generally an inventory asset account). When you use the material, it's issued to the job/item/project, and therefore your inventory is reduced, and the cost passed on to the invoice.

I'm not familiar with Cabinet Vision and its accounting abilities, but Quickbooks is the standard accounting software and can do all that.

4/21/16       #7: Purchase order question ...
Ted

Gentlemen,

Thank you for the input!

First of all- we use Quick Books online, and I don't see a convenient way to generate a purchase order. It is also not currently used by our project managers who are the ones making the orders.

Allmoxy- Looking into this. Has been recommended for other office solutions. Really love what I see, but have to wrap my head around how it works before I take the leap into getting it up and running.

CV- probably the best solution if possible. TomB- do you generate a report and then email this to the vendors?

David, must agree with you about online ordering possibly being more complicated. We are looking to cut down on the steps of ordering. We currently have multiple places where we keep track of all this information, and I'd like for it to be centralized. (must say I like Order Link system for Conestoga, and the new Hafele Ordering system)

4/21/16       #8: Purchase order question ...
David Waldmann  Member

Website: vermonthardwoods.com

From Quickbooks website:

Purchase orders are available in QuickBooks Online Plus and in our older QuickBooks Online Edition products (with optional Sales package enabled). To see if the feature is enabled in your company, go to the Plus Sign Icon and click on Purchase Order. If you don't see this, click Show more at the bottom. If you get "We're sorry! Purchase Orders is turned off.", you'll need to enable the feature before you can use it. Purchase orders aren't available in QuickBooks Online Essentials or Simple Start.

Quickbooks Online - POs

4/21/16       #9: Purchase order question ...
Ted

David. I stand corrected. Looks easy to use. We'd just need to set this up. Thanks for the correction! Do you use this system?

4/21/16       #10: Purchase order question ...
David Waldmann  Member

Website: vermonthardwoods.com

Ted, sorry but we don't. We use an ERP system for our wood business.

However, I do have Quickbooks for some other businesses so I am somewhat familiar with it. BTW, I have the Desktop version, mainly because it allows unlimited companies and I currently have four. Also, with remote control software I can access my desktop from anywhere, so the web part of QB Online doesn't really add value to me.

Hope this helps.


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