TUTORIAL: Introduction to Purchases
We'll cover
This tutorial should take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
What are Purchases?
Purchases (or Purchase Orders - POs) are the records of purchasing your materials. They are the mechanism you'll want to use whenever you buy raw materials and want to add them to your inventory.
By adding purchases, you'll be able to automatically increase your material stock levels and track your exact unit costs.
Adding new Purchases
For this tutorial, we will assume that the material already exists, so the guide below will take you through the process of restocking a quantity of material.
To get to your new purchase form, the fastest way is to click on your + menu option in the top navigation bar and select the "Add Purchase" menu option. This option is best if you have many different materials to enter from the same purchase.
Alternatively, to have a purchase already populated with the material you wish to add to your inventory, you can navigate to your material's detail page, click on the Purchases tab, and then click the + Add Purchase button.
Now that we are on the purchase form page, let's take a closer look:
The first field, Purchase Date, is for the date that you purchased the items. You can either type a date here or select it from the calendar view.
The next field, Code, is an optional field that you can use to identify any numbers or codes that help you identify the purchase. This can be the code that the vendor provided to you, or it can be your own. You can search your lists via this code, which can be a good way to locate your purchases quickly.
Crafybase will automatically number your purchases for you if you don't enter anything in this field.
The Vendor field is for adding information about the company you purchased your material from. This is an optional field, but it is useful for keeping complete purchase histories from your vendors. You can either use the search box to search through your existing vendors or create a new vendor on this page by clicking the New Vendor link to the right of the box.
Let's move on to the purchases items section of the form, where you will enter your materials. Select the Add Purchase Item button here, and you will see a new window open. This is the Add Expense Item form: let's go through the fields on this page in a little more detail:
The Category selection allows you to select the category for this particular purchase item. A purchase can have many different line items, and each line item can have a different category if required.
You'll notice that the Materials option has been pre-selected for you: this is the category you will use for any material purchases. If you wish to rename this category to represent better the way you categorize your material expenditure, you can do so at any time via your settings pages.
The Material category is the only one that will allow you to link directly to a material. If you switch this category to a different one, you'll notice that the material search box will disappear, and other fields will appear.
The next field is to link a Material in your inventory to this purchase item: this is a search-enabled box that allows you to find any Material in your list. If you have navigated to this page via a material page, you'll see that it has been prepopulated with the material for which you wish to add an expense. Otherwise, it will be blank and ready for you to search for material that already exists in your material list.
If you need to add a new material (i.e., this is the first time you have purchased this material), then click the Add new material link to the right of the search box - this will load the new material form for you to add your details and then shift back to your purchase, without losing any of the details you have added so far.
Now, move on to the Tracking Quantity, Unit, and Total Cost fields. These allow you to define exactly how many of these items you purchased and how we should increase your inventory levels from this purchase.
If you have defined a Purchase Quantity for the Material, you will notice that you will see an extra box called Purchase Quantity here (if you don't see this, you might like to go back and add in a Purchase Quantity and Multiplier first).
If you don't need this, it can be a convenient shortcut if you purchase different units from the ones you manufacture. The Purchase Quantity field allows you to enter the quantity in the defined purchase quantities. When you change this quantity, you'll see that the Tracking Quantity box will update with the correct unit quantity you will be increasing.
You can ignore the purchase quantity and enter the tracking quantity directly if you have this information ready. In this case, your purchase quantity will adjust accordingly.
Your Unit Cost is the amount it costs to purchase a single unit in the tracking unit you have defined. Remember: this is not the purchase unit price. When you adjust the unit cost, your total cost will be calculated automatically. Likewise, if you change the Total Cost, your Unit Cost will be recalculated. This gives you a huge amount of flexibility to enter your purchases in a variety of different units and prices.
The next section, immediately below your quantity and costs, is your restocking advice. This shows you the total quantity that will be restocked into your inventory and how it will change your current stock on hand. You can choose to unselect the Received. Checkbox: If the item is still on order, then uncheck this box, and your stock will not yet be increased.
When you receive the item, edit the expense and mark it as received, and your stock will increase. If you toggle this checkbox, you'll see this in action - the New Stock on Hand will recalculate to include and exclude the current expense quantity.
Finally, you'll see a small field for adding any notes you wish about the line item itself. Enter any notes you want to keep here, then click the Add Purchase Item button to move this item into your Expense form.
You'll now see an item under the Purchase Items section with the details you just filled out. By clicking the Add Purchase Item button, you can make any last-minute adjustments or add another line item.
Now that we have entered our purchase, let's move to the totals area.
The first row is your item total, which is calculated from all items within the purchase. As we only have one item in this purchase, this will be the same as the item total. If you have multiple items in the purchase, it will be the sum of all line item totals.
Next, there is a Discount textbox to enter any savings you have been given for this particular purchase. These will be removed from your grand total and proportionally calculated for each of the items in your purchase.
Tax and Shipping are in the following rows, and like the Discount field above, they are proportionally calculated for every purchase line item. Tax and Shipping are added to your purchase total.
The last row shows the Grand Total, calculated using the formula: Item Total - Discount + Tax + Shipping.
Then Estimated Arrival Date. This is the date you expect to receive these items.
Purchase ETAs are available in our INDIE+ plans.
The next field is Notes and is for any additional details you wish to store about this purchase.
The Paid check box allows you to mark if a purchase still needs to be paid for. The Paid / Unpaid flag will display this on the Purchases list view.
Once you are happy with the details on the purchase form, click the Save button, and you'll be returned to the material page. At this point, all inventory calculations will be made, so you'll see your newly increased stock levels appear.
Have some questions?
If you have any additional questions, please get in touch, and we'll be happy to help.