Generate purchase orders automatically in Microsoft Dynamics GP

Automating redundant tasks in Dynamics GP is a great way to simplify your workload and free up time for important tasks.

This Dynamics GP tip, written by Sean Hunter with Turnkey Technologies, can be used to automatically create replenishment for items that have fallen below minimum amounts required for stock levels. The process also identifies any demand driven quantities from sales and other areas in the system.

1. Open the Generate Suggested Purchase Orders window.
(Transactions >> Purchasing >> Purchase Order Generator)

2. Select all item numbers or enter a range of item numbers for which you want to generate suggested purchase order line items.

3. Select all sites or enter a range of sites for which you want to generate suggested purchase orders.

4. Select all buyers or enter a range of buyers for which you want to generate suggested purchase orders. Suggested purchase orders will be generated for item/site combinations that are associated with the buyer IDs in the range. If you want to specify the buyer ID that should be on the suggested purchase order, use the Buyer ID Selection field.

5. Select all vendors or enter a range of vendors for which you want to generate suggested purchase orders.

6. Select all item classes or enter a range of item classes for which you want to generate suggested purchase orders.

7. Unmark the Include Orders with No Vendor ID if you don’t want to generate suggested orders for which a vendor couldn’t be identified.

8. Unmark the Include Demand from Subordinate Sites if you don’t want to include demand at subordinate sites when determining order quantity. Keep this option marked if you are using master sites and you want to include demand from subordinate sites.

9. Select whether or not you want to assign a buyer ID to suggested purchase orders. If you select to specify a buyer ID, enter a buyer ID.

10. Enter the purchase order date to appear on purchase orders.

11. Select whether you want the promised date set to the purchase order date, the purchase order date plus the vendor planning lead time, or a specified date.

*If you choose to use a specified date, enter a date.

12. Specify the number of shipping days.

The number of shipping days helps determine the promised ship date. For example, if the vendor promise date is 10/08/17 and you specify 3 as the number of shipping days, the promised ship date will be set to 10/05/17.

13. Choose Suggest Purchase Orders. When processing is complete, the Suggested Purchase Orders Preview window will be displayed.

Suggested Purchase Orders

1. Open the Suggested Purchase Orders Preview window.
(Transactions >> Purchasing >> Purchase Order Generator >> Suggest Purchase Orders)

2. In the Display field, select how you want to view the suggested purchase orders.

*If a long list of purchase order line items is displayed, you can type in the find field, then press tab to go to the first occurrence of that item. The label of the find field is associated with the view menu and how you select to sort the purchase order line items in the scrolling window.

3. Mark the Include option next to lines you want to create, after you have resolved any errors.

NOTE: Errors most commonly include BLANK Vendor ID’s. Look for the red “x” icon to show that there is an error which will prevent the line from being purchased. A yellow triangle/exclamation point simply means that the line contains a warning such as a 0 cost or below minimum purchase quantity.

*If you don’t want to generate a purchase order line for a particular item, unmark the Include option. If a line doesn’t have any errors, the Include option will be marked.

Choose Unmark All to unmark all lines. The Mark All option will mark only lines with no errors.

4. Make any necessary changes.

• If you change the vendor ID, the quantities, promised dates, FOB, U of M, and the unit cost may be recalculated.
• If you change the U of M, the quantity ordered will remain the same, but the unit cost will be recalculated.

5. To get more information about an item, select the row and choose the Item expansion button to open the Suggested Purchase Order Detail window. When you’re finished viewing information and resolving errors, choose Save or Cancel to return to the Suggested Purchase Orders Preview window.

6. To view the formula for the calculation of Order Quantity click the expansion button (Blue Arrow) to the right of Required Qty in Base U of M

*If you selected to view a suggested purchase order line item in the Suggested Purchase Order Detail window and returned to the Suggested Purchase Orders Preview window, the purchase order line that you viewed information for will be the first item in the scrolling window.

7. Choose Generate Purchase Orders to create the purchase orders in Purchase Order Processing. When processing is complete, a report will be generated listing the purchase orders that were created. Errors will be listed in an error log that prints after the Purchase Order Generated report.

Unmarked items and items with errors will remain in the scrolling window.

8. The purchase orders that were created have a status of New; use the Print Purchasing Documents window (Transactions >> Purchasing >> Print Purchasing Documents) to print and release the orders.

That's it! If you have ANY questions regarding these steps or other enhancements for Dynamics GP, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here to help!

Contact Turnkey Technologies, Inc.

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By Sean Hunter at Turnkey Technologies, Inc. - Microsoft Gold Partner based in St. Louis, Missouri.