Purchasing — buying well

Menu: Supply chain → Suppliers → Items · Supply chain → Quotations · Supply chain → Rate contracts · Supply chain → Charge types · Supply chain → Purchases · Who: owner and branch manager

Writing a purchase order is in Inventory. This chapter is about deciding who to buy from and what it really cost: which supplier is approved for which item, asking two or three of them for a price before you order, the price you agreed for the half year, and the freight, duty and labour that turn Rs 2,400 a bag on the bill into Rs 2,475 on the shelf.

All of it comes with the Purchasing module. A shop without it still buys exactly as before — one supplier per order and freight as one figure.

What a supplier sells you

Who: owner and branch manager · only with the Purchasing module

The Items button on a supplier's row lists what they sell you, and whether they are approved for each item. Beside each one you can keep their own code for it, the pack it comes in, how many days it takes to arrive and the least they will deliver.

When the module is first switched on, every item a supplier has already delivered to you arrives on their list as approved — your own purchases are the proof.

On a purchase order, an item the supplier is not approved for is flagged under the line. It can still be saved and received. If Settings → Purchasing → Buy only from approved suppliers is on, the order is refused instead, and every purchase has to name its supplier. A correction to a delivery already received is never refused for this — it only records goods that already arrived.

Asking suppliers for a price

Menu: Supply chain → Quotations · Who: owner and branch manager · only with the Purchasing module

A quotation asks several suppliers what they would charge for the same things before you order. Write it once — the items, how much of each, who to ask, and when you need them — then Print request gives each supplier a sheet with an empty price column. Sellify sends nothing itself: you hand it over or send the PDF, and when they answer you type the price in.

Open the quotation and press Enter answer beside a supplier. Give their price per the unit they sell in — a carton, a kilo, a single bottle — how many days they take, and how long the price stands. Leave a price blank for anything they do not sell.

The comparison puts every answer at the item's own stock unit, so a carton of 24 and a single bottle compare fairly, and shows what the quantity you asked for would cost from each. The cheapest standing price is marked and picked to start with. A price whose date has passed is shown but cannot be chosen.

Choose per item: cheese from one supplier and flour from another is normal. If you pick somebody who is not the cheapest, you are asked why, and the reason is kept on the quotation. Order writes one ordinary draft purchase order per supplier, at the quoted price and in the unit they quoted in, with the date you needed them as the expected date. From there it is an ordinary purchase order — edit it, receive it. Anything left unpicked is not ordered.

If Buy only from approved suppliers is on, an order to a supplier not approved for an item is refused, and none of the orders is written.

Reports → Purchasing → Quotation comparison lists every price you were given and shows how much was paid above the cheapest, with the reasons.

Rate contracts

Menu: Supply chain → Rate contracts · Who: owner and branch manager · only with the Purchasing module

A rate contract is a price a supplier has agreed for a period: Basmati at Rs 2,400 a bag from July to December. Write the supplier, the dates (leave the end empty if there is none), the branches it is for — tick none for every branch — and a price per item, with an optional ceiling ("up to 200 bags"). A branch manager can only write one for the branches they work at; a contract for every branch is the owner's.

One item has one contract price at a time. A second contract for the same item on dates and branches that overlap is refused when you save it, whoever the supplier is.

When you add an item to a purchase order, Sellify looks for the contract in force at that branch on the order's date. If there is one, it fills the price and the unit — and the supplier too, if you have not picked one. Under the line it says the contract price and how much of the ceiling is left. A price typed above the contract is allowed and marked Above the contract, and the saved order keeps the contract price beside what you paid, so a contract changed later never rewrites an old order. Buying the item from a different supplier is off contract, and the line says who the contract is with.

If Owner's PIN to buy above a contract price is on (Settings → Purchasing), anyone but the owner needs the owner's PIN to save a line priced above its contract. A branch manager's own PIN is not accepted for this.

A contract that has ended, or that you cancel, is kept as it was and cannot be edited. An item somebody has bought against stays on its contract; to change suppliers, cancel it and write a new one.

Reports → Purchasing → Contract compliance shows, by supplier and item, what was bought on contract, what was paid above it, what was bought off contract, and how much of that was bought while a contract for the item was in force with somebody. Only a contract already written into Sellify when the delivery was booked counts: one typed in today with a start date last month does not mark last week's deliveries as missed.

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Freight, duty and other charges on a delivery

Menu: Supply chain → Purchases (the purchase form) · Supply chain → Charge types · Who: owner and branch manager · only with the Purchasing module

Bringing goods in usually costs more than the goods: the transporter's freight, customs duty, the clearing agent, the labourers who unload the van. On a purchase order, under the lines, Add charge for each one. Pick what it was, type the amount, and the sales tax on it if the bill shows any — that tax is claimed back like the tax on the goods, and never becomes cost. Duty is cost, not tax.

Each charge is spread into the cost of the lines. By value puts more on the dearer lines; by quantity spreads it per unit; by weight spreads it per kilo — which is what labour and freight are usually charged on. A charge type has its own usual way (Labour by weight, Duty by value) and you can change it on any charge. For weight, an item kept in kg or g is weighed by its quantity; anything else needs Weight per unit (kg) on the item under Supply chain → Items. A charge spread by weight over an item with no weight is refused, naming the item — it is never quietly given nothing.

Owed to says who is owed the charge. Left as the goods' own supplier, it goes on their bill as freight always has. Pick somebody else — the transporter, the clearing agent — and it becomes their own bill on their account when the goods are received, due on their payment terms, with their bill number. The goods' supplier's bill carries only the goods. Paying the transporter is an ordinary supplier payment.

The purchase shows Landed on the shelf — the goods and every charge, before tax — beside what the goods' supplier is owed.

A charge that turns up later — the clearing agent's bill a week after the goods arrived — is added by correcting the received purchase (Correct, then add the charge). If some of those goods have already been sold or used, the correction is refused: there is nothing left on the shelf to carry the cost, so record it as an expense instead.

Supply chain → Charge types is the list a charge picks from: Freight, Duty, Clearing, Labour, Insurance and Other to start with. Add your own, rename them, change how each is spread by default. A type already used on a purchase is hidden instead of deleted.

Reports → Purchasing → Landed cost shows, for every delivery line, what the goods cost, each charge's share and the landed figure per unit — so you can see why a kilo of cheese cost Rs 1,910 and not 1,850. The Sales tax return claims the tax on charges on its own line.

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How a supplier's prices have moved

Reports → Purchasing → Supplier price history lists every delivery of every item, at the price per stock unit the supplier charged, beside what the same supplier charged the time before and how much that moved. Freight and duty are left out of that price — it is the supplier's own figure, which is what you negotiate — and the landed figure sits beside it. Pick a supplier, or type part of an item's name, to narrow it. This is the page to have open when a distributor tells you prices have gone up.

The reports

All under Reports → Purchasing: