Send one order per supplier: batch and merge POs
Order parts for each sales order as it comes in, then send the supplier one PO a week. Each line stays linked to its own customer order, so received stock still goes to the right job.
Where it is
- Purchasing → Purchase Orders — Send as one order: suppliers with more than one open order not yet sent.
- Purchasing → Suppliers — Edit a supplier to turn on Batch orders into one PO.
Raising a PO from every sales order means sending a supplier one small order a day. There are two ways to send them one order instead. Either way, each line keeps its link to its own sales order: when the stock arrives it is held for the right customer and the right job, exactly as if it had come on its own PO.
Batch: one open PO per supplier
- Open the supplier from Purchasing → Suppliers, click Edit and tick Batch orders into one PO under Purchasing & Tax.
- From now on, parts you order for a sales order (Order missing, + Create PO, or the automatic draft POs) join this supplier's open draft PO instead of starting a new one. The message says Added to PO-….
- When you're ready, say every Friday, open that PO, check it, approve it if needed and Send to Supplier. The next order you raise starts a new draft.
Merge POs you already have
- On Purchase Orders, Send as one order lists each supplier with more than one open order not yet sent. Click it.
- Or open one of the POs and click Merge with … other orders.
In the Merge purchase orders window, untick any order to leave out, pick which PO number to Keep, and click Merge into PO-…. The lines move onto the PO you keep, and the others are cancelled with a note saying which PO took their lines.
Only orders that haven't been sent and have nothing received can merge, and only for the same supplier, currency and warehouse. Drop-ship orders (each goes to a different customer), external services, head-office orders and vehicle purchases don't merge.
On the merged PO
- For N sales orders at the top lists every order it covers and the customer. The Reference lists the order numbers, and the purchase order list shows Several orders.
- Print Part Labels labels each part with its own sales order and customer, so the delivery can be sorted as it is unpacked.
- Each sales order and invoice still lists the PO. An invoice counts only its own lines toward its cost and margin.
- If the combined total reaches your approval limit, the PO needs approving again before it can be sent.
- A PO for several customers can't be switched to drop ship.