What this does not do
It records what was ordered and what arrived. It settles nothing: invoices and payment live wherever your finance ledger does.
WorkspaceAvailable
Procurement
Raise and decide requests, place orders with suppliers, and book deliveries in so the stock is on the shelf.
What you can do here
Booking a delivery in puts the stock on the shelf
The receipt and the stock are recorded in the same moment. There is no separate step, so the paperwork and the shelf cannot disagree.
Asking is not approving
A ward raises a request; somebody with purchasing authority decides it. A refusal needs a reason, because a request refused in silence just gets asked again by telephone.
An approved request stays open until it is ordered
Approving something and never buying it is the failure nobody notices, so the request leaves the queue when the order is placed rather than when it is approved.
What has arrived is counted from the deliveries
The outstanding figure on each line is worked out from the deliveries booked in against it, with anything sent back subtracted. Nothing keeps a separate tally that could drift.
Closing an order short is a decision
A supplier who is never sending the rest is something only you know. Nothing closes itself, and closing short asks you why.
One code per supplier
A duplicate supplier is two histories for one company, and a spend figure that is wrong in both.
Add what is missing without losing the draft
An item that is not in the catalogue can be added from a line's item search with Add item to the catalogue, and a supplier from the order's supplier list with Add supplier. Each opens above the requisition or order with what you typed as its name, and comes back chosen on the line or the order. The rest of the draft stays exactly as it was, and cancelling changes nothing.
Follow these steps
Ask for something
- Open Procurement and stay on Requests.
- Select Ask for something.
- Choose the ward or department it is for.
- Add a line for each item, with a whole number of that item's own unit.
Decide a request
- Open Requests and select Decide on the one waiting.
- Approve it, or refuse it with a reason.
- An approved request stays visible until an order is placed against it.
Place an order
- Open the Orders tab and select Draft an order.
- Choose an active supplier and add the lines.
- Open the draft and select Place the order when you are ready to commit to it.
Book a delivery in
- Open the order and select Book in on the line that arrived.
- Enter the batch number and expiry date from the packet.
- Choose the store it is going to and how many arrived.
- The stock is on the shelf as soon as this saves.
Close an order short
- Open the order and select Close short.
- Say why the rest is not coming.
- An order with nothing yet delivered can be cancelled instead.
Helpful habits
- Book a delivery in as it arrives, not at the end of the day. The shelf and the record stay together only if the record is made when the box is opened.
- Check the batch number and expiry against the packet before saving. The same batch booked in twice with two dates is refused, and that is the mistake being caught.
- Refuse a request with a reason the ward will understand. They are the ones who have to decide what to do next.
- Close orders that are never going to complete. An order left open forever is one nobody trusts the queue for.
Tips
- Only an active supplier can be ordered from. Suspended and retired suppliers stay visible because their open orders still matter.
- A delivery larger than the line still has outstanding is refused. Book in what arrived and raise a new line for the extra.
- If two people book deliveries against one order at the same instant, one is refused. Reload the order and try again.
- A recalled batch cannot be booked in. That is deliberate: it stops recalled stock re-entering through the back door.
- Only people who keep the catalogue are offered to add an item, and only buyers to add a supplier. The same rules apply as on the Inventory and Suppliers screens.