Store Ordering

Store Ordering Process Overview

The store ordering process allows users to order items through MMS - Inventory Management (IMS).

Select the IMS Store Orders menu to access Store Ordering.

• Only items from Department 490, Course Related Supplies, SKU type 90 and 91, are currently eligible. Uniforms, patches, name badges, duffle bags, etc. with logos cannot be ordered directly by the store. Orders for product with logos must be submitted through The GM Customer Portal u Dept 4 Supplies.
  • If not Department 490, SKU type 90 and 91, a message displays: This SKU type cannot be ordered through this application.
• If a discontinued SKU is entered, an Inactive SKU message displays.
• There is a dollar threshold maximum of $15,000.00 at cost for each store order.

Users can:

• create orders.
• review orders.
• edit orders.
• cancel orders.
• convert orders to purchase orders.
• browse previously created IMS store orders in a list.
• locate specific orders using search filters such as: Store Order Number, SKU, UPC, Vendor, Order Creation Date, Ship Date, Expected Date, and Purchase Order Number.

Locked Order Message

To prevent any processing issues, multiple users should not work in a single order at the same time. If one user is in an order, the next user that attempts to access the order receives a message that the order is locked. This prevents a second user from accessing and maintaining an order while it is in use.

A message displays showing the user who has locked the order and the date it was locked. If you receive this message, contact the user that is in the order and determine the appropriate action. If the original user is actively working in the order, select Cancel and make another selection. If the original user is not actively working the order, but has not exited the order or the session was not properly closed, you can select Continue to proceed to the order. If the original user then returns to work the order, MMS allows them to access it without displaying the message, since it recognizes the user ID as that of the locked order.

Main Ordering Steps

Store ordering follows three primary steps when ordering items through the MMS - IMS application:

1. Select Items: Create a single order by selecting items from one or more vendors.
2. Suggested POs: Submit the order to obtain suggested POs (purchase orders) referencing the order. The SKUs/items are separated by vendor, creating a separate order for each vendor.
3. Confirm PO's: Review the order to confirm items and quantities are correct.
   Once confirmed, the submitted Suggested POs for your order create individual purchase orders. You have the option to confirm a suggested PO individually or confirm all suggested POs.

Store Ordering Screens

There are 4 screens used as part of the ordering process:

Order Processing Search

• List of orders for the user’s store.
• Create New Order button (this links to the Maintain Store Order screen).

From this screen, the user can:

• Advance to the Maintain Store Order screen to create a new order.
• Use the order search filters to locate existing orders and/or orders already converted to POs.
  

Maintain Store Order

This screen displays:

• A Search Items function to complete the Select Items step of the store ordering process.
  • Description, Vendor, and Vendor Part # or SKU fields are available to search for specific items.
    Note: These fields are not case sensitive, so search results display regardless of whether upper or lower case letters were entered.
• The Default Minimum Quantity display option.
• An Order Details list that expands as SKUs are added.
  • You can search for items or enter items directly into the Order Details screen.
  • Use the Tab key on your keyboard to navigate from field to field when typing data.
    For example: Type the SKU or UPC, press the Tab key. Enter the Qty, press the Tab key. The item is added to the order.
    • The Add button is also activated to add the item to the order.
  • Each SKU is added to the top of the order grid, displaying the most recently added SKUs first.
  • Important: Order Details pulls standard price information from MMS and cannot be edited. If your store has a specific pricing agreement with the vendor, the item still invoices correctly and the correct price is reflected during the receiving process.
• A Create Suggested Orders button.

From this screen, the user can:

• Maintain/update an existing order.
• Create a new order.

Note: Item SKUs or UPC can be keyed or scanned. Search functions are also available to select SKUs by Description, Vendor, or Vendor Part #.

Maintain Suggested POs

This screen displays:

• All suggested orders that were created from the original store order until any or all of the items become POs.
• Any error messages that warn the user a modification is needed to proceed.
• The Confirm Suggested PO and Confirm All Suggested POs buttons.

From this screen, the user can:

• Select a PO to perform maintenance due to error or need.
  (e.g., Change a quantity to meet minimum vendor requirements; delete an item no longer needed.)
• Move Suggested POs to Confirm status after errors have been resolved.

Confirm POs

This screen displays:

• All confirmed POs for a single order.
• The Create POs button.

From this screen, the user can:

• Submit a request for all confirmed POs to be created.
  

Note:  100% of the confirmed POs for the order need to be ready. No error alerts!
Changes to a PO cannot be made here. Select Back to return to the Maintain Suggested POs screen.

How to Create a New Order

Also, see Resources for a job aid to support the process.

Select Items

To begin a new store order, select Create New Order located on the top right corner of the Order Processing Search screen.

The Maintain Store Order screen displays.

Select the gray button at the upper right corner of each screen to return to the MMS main menu.
Note: An additional tab displays with the MMS main menu. Close both tabs when finished.

To search for an item to be added to the order, select the Search Items blue bar to open the search screen.

Other functionality on the screen includes:

1. Default Minimum Quantity Checkbox
   If this box is checked, the minimum quantity (inner pack) that can be ordered for a SKU is defaulted in the quantity column, if the quantity column is blank. The quantity can be increased, but must be a multiple of the minimum quantity.
   
   For example:

• If the minimum quantity is 6, 6 is displayed as the Order Quantity.
  The quantity can be changed to 12, 18, 24, etc.
• If the order quantity is changed to a number that is NOT a multiple of 6, such as 7, then the application rounds up the quantity to 12.

2. Search Type
   Description: Enter words contained in the item description. Be as specific as possible to obtain the best results. For example, ‘tracing paper’ is better than ‘tr’.
   Vendor: Begin typing the vendor name; a drop-down displays to offer selections that contain the letters that have been entered. As more letters are typed, the search narrows until no more matches are found.

Vendor Part # or SKU: Type a number to display a list of matches for the numbers entered.

3. Store Assortment
   The Store Assortment checkbox is checked, or not checked, as part of the configuration for each store. The checkbox can be changed by the user.
   
   When the box is checked, this allows only items from the store’s assortment to be included in the order.
   
   

For this example, 'macph' was keyed into the Vendor field and Search was selected.

4. The results displayed in the Search Items list are the active items, SKUs for Macpherson in Dept 490, SKU Types 90 and 91.
   
   
5. Since the Default Minimum Quantity box is unchecked, the minimum quantities are not defaulted in the order Qty column.
6. Click the check box in the Add column to the left of the item SKU to add items to the order.
7. Type the quantity to order in the Qty field.
   Or, if the default quantity shown in the Min Ord Qty column is acceptable, the Qty field can be left blank and the default quantity is added to the order.
8. Select the green Add to Order button when ready.
   The selected items are added to the Order Details grid.

Additional SKUs, including SKUs from other vendors can be added. Select Search Items and repeat the process: Search Items, make selections, check the Add check box, and Add to Order.

In the Order Details screen below, six items from vendor Prestige Medical were added.

Alternate Vendors

Some SKUs in Department 490 are set up with an alternate vendor option. The primary vendor is displayed first. When an alternate vendor is available, it displays in the Order Details section with a drop-down arrow.

Click the drop-down arrow to display the alternate vendor choices.

Important: The only way to use an alternate vendor is if it appears in the drop-down to be selected.

If the alternate vendor number is used to search for SKUs in the Search Items section of the screen, the SKU does not display in the alternate vendor's SKU list. It will only display in the Search with the primary vendor's SKU number.

Suggested POs

Once all SKUs are added to the store order:

9. Select Create Suggested Orders to move to the next step.
   
   

The Maintain Suggested POs screen displays.

In this example, TWO Suggested Orders are created:

• ONE for Macpherson
• ONE for Prestige Medical.

Note: The order number 50700237 will split into:

• 50700237-01 (Macpherson)
• 50700237-02 (Prestige Medical)

All Suggested Orders that were created from the original store order display together on the Maintain Suggested POs page, until any or all of them are converted to Purchase Orders.

Above is a screen shot of the two Suggested Orders that were created previously.
As part of the process, the vendor minimum order quantities are checked against the totals for the order.

Review the blue header bars, this example shows:

• Macpherson requires 50 units to be ordered. The total units ordered is only 18.
• Prestige Medical has a dollar amount requirement of $150, and this order only has items totaling $65.

Error messages in red display to warn the user the order needs modification to proceed.

The blue bar with the Macpherson PO was selected for maintenance.

In Maintain Suggested POs, order quantities can be changed or SKUs can be deleted.

To proceed, in this example, the quantities were increased and Update was selected.
A green message displays. The order now meets the minimum order quantity of 50 units.

Confirm POs

This order can now advance to the PO confirmation step.

11. Select Confirm Suggested POto move to the last step.
    
    

The Confirm POs screen displays.

The PO can be viewed by selecting the blue header bar to make a final confirmation before submitting the order for
PO Creation.

• If a change is needed, no changes can be made in this screen. Select Back to return to Maintain Suggested POs to update. The process to confirm Suggested POs is repeated.

To create the PO, select Create POs.

• If there are no other Suggested Orders pending, the Order Processing Search screen displays. The order displays in the Order list on the lower part of the screen.
• If there ARE other Suggested Orders pending, the user is returned to the Maintain Suggested POs screen to complete the remaining orders.
  

Check Status Using Order Processing Search

If you created the order or submitted the PO recently, it may be displayed toward the top of the list. If the order has been processed, the assigned PO number displays in the PO column. If not, see the Status column for more information.

• The first order, 50700237-01 for Macpherson, was submitted for PO creation and has completed processing.
  The status is Completed. The PO Number and Ship Dates are displayed.
• The second order, 50700237-02 for Prestige Medical has not yet been confirmed, so the status is Suggested Order.

If a PO was submitted for creation, but is still processing, the status displays as In-Progress until the job is complete and a PO number is assigned.

• Any orders in Open or Suggested Order status may be viewed and maintained (changed).
• The Ship Date and Expected Date fields are populated based on the vendor profile.
• In-Progress or Completed orders may NOT be viewed on the Order Processing Search screen. For an updated status, see Receiving Details from the PO Receiving screen for more information.
• Once the shipment arrives, receive normally in MMS.

Using Search Filters

Select Show Filters to see additional search features, e.g., check the status of POs from a specific vendor.

The additional search features are displayed.

In this example, the vendor Macpherson was used as search criteria, (enter ‘macph’ in the Vendor field, select Search). The resulting list displays all orders for Macpherson in descending Store Order Number order.

Most of the columns have up and down arrows that can be clicked to sort the orders by the selected key, either in ascending or descending order. Page number links are available on the bottom right to display additional search results. The Show entries’ selection at the bottom left allows users to customize the number of entries displayed on each screen.

Resources

Use the Store Ordering Process Job Aid as a quick reference.