Guide: Inventory and purchasing in Allmoxy
How Allmoxy tracks supplies: locations, linking supplies to products, Needed, Allocated and Used, Need to Purchase, purchase orders and the reports.
A supply linked to a product is counted as Needed when an order is saved, reserved (Allocated) when the order is verified or goes into production, counted as Used when it's pulled for the job, and released at Shipped if any is left. Anything short of your minimum shows on Need to Purchase, where you build purchase orders and receive deliveries into stock. This guide maps the area and links the steps.
Applies to: catalog and itemized orders on every shop that tracks supplies. Project orders don't work out Needed; their supplies are listed by hand on the Purchasing tab: Track supplies on a project.
In this article
- Before you start
- How supplies flow through an order
- Set up supplies and locations, then link them to products
- Keep counts right and stay stocked
- Inventory reports
- Who can do what
- Things to know
Before you start
Inventory tracking is a large project. If you're new to Allmoxy, get comfortable with order processing and your catalog first; that cuts the discrepancies of moving to a new internal system. Then set up in this order: locations; supplies and vendors, with a minimum and group size on each stock row; supplies linked to products; a test order; a count; purchasing.
How supplies flow through an order
A supply is a material you keep in stock (plywood, hinges), counted in its piece size, with its own on hand, minimum and "order in groups of" number at each location.
Allmoxy links inventory directly to your products, so supplies are worked out from what the customer picked. The order's Resource Allocation tab lists every supply tied to the products on the order: Needed (what the products call for, rebuilt on every save; compare it with Available, on hand minus everything reserved), Allocated (reserved for this job, set once at Verified or In Progress) and Used (checked out; automatic at In Progress only when Auto-Checkout Supplies is on). You can edit the Allocated or Used numbers and add rows of supplies by hand. At Shipped, anything still reserved is let go; moving an order back does not put supplies back. See How supplies are reserved and used and My supply counts look wrong.
Set up supplies and locations, then link them to products
Locations live at Settings > Operations > Supply Locations; supplies on Supplies > Supplies, each with a piece size, vendors (the preferred one sets the cost) and, per location, on hand, minimum and group size. Import many from Settings > Utilities > Import, or change many at once with Supplies > Supply Updater. Steps: Set up supplies and locations.
A part on a product then carries a supply row with a quantity formula, linked to a dropdown attribute so the supply follows the customer's choice, or fixed. Steps: Link supplies to products.
Keep counts right and stay stocked
At the top of Supplies > Checkout/Order is the Check-In / Check-Out form: check supplies in or out by hand (tied to an order or not), move stock from one location to another, and record a physical count. Steps: Check in, check out, move and count.
Below the form, the Need to Purchase list shows what is short: the On Hand amount, the amount Allocated to orders, the Min Qty you set, and a Qty to Order you can edit before generating a purchase order. The need is minimum plus reserved, minus on hand and on order, rounded up to whole groups; a row with no minimum and no group size never appears. From the list you create purchase orders (one per vendor), email them, and mark lines received, which adds the stock (checking in by hand does not close the PO line). Export Purchase Order Queue and Purchase Order Batches send purchase orders to your accounting software. Steps: Order with purchase orders and Receive or change a purchase order.
- Special items you rarely buy but still offer: keep on hand 0, minimum 0 and Order in groups of 1; the item appears on Need to Purchase when an order needs it, with no stock kept.
- Waiting on an item? Extend the order's expected ship date; see Schedule orders.
Inventory reports
Details: Production reports and Managerial reports.
| Report | Reports menu | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Allocated Supplies | Production | Which orders have reserved items. Filter by supply tags. |
| Resource Allocation | Production | Supplies needed for all orders, or totals per supply. Filter by status (in it, or transitioned out) and entered, ordered, authorized, shipped or installed date; group by order or item. The plan, not use. |
| Supplies in Use | Production | Supplies used (checked out) on In Progress or Completed orders, priced. |
| Supply Movement | Production | Every check-in, check-out and transfer. Filter by movement date, supply name, order number, location or tags. |
| Current Inventory | Managerial | What is stocked now. |
| Inventory in Use | Managerial | See below. |
| Inventory Usage | Managerial | Quantities used over a date range, priced. |
| Received Supplies | Managerial | Received PO lines. |
| Purchase Orders | Financial | Your purchase orders. |
Inventory in Use (Reports > Managerial > Inventory in Use) is a snapshot of all inventory attached to orders for the selected status: filter for In Progress or Completed (project shops: In Production or Ready to Install) to see the allocated and used inventory for each job. Columns: Actual Ship Date, Order ID, Location, Item, Part #, Piece Size, Available (the location's on hand), Allocated, Used, Price and Extension, plus a grand total. Extension is the price per unit times allocated plus used: $2 with 4 allocated and 6 used shows $20.
Who can do what
- Manage Supplies: supply list and editor, Supply Updater, purchase orders, Need to Purchase.
- Manage Supply locations: the Supply Locations page.
- Check in/out inventory: the Checkout/Order page and the Supply Check In toolbar button.
- Resource Allocation: an order's Resource Allocation tab (View/Edit All Orders for orders you didn't enter).
- Edit open POs, Edit closed POs: change a purchase order. View Inventory In Use: that report. See Employee permissions: what each one does.
Things to know
- Receiving a purchase order and typing over on hand write no movement row, so Supply Movement and Inventory Usage don't show them; Received Supplies shows receipts.
- Allocated is set once. If the order changes after Verified, Needed changes but Allocated doesn't: fix it by hand.
- Project orders skip Needed and Need to Purchase (Purchasing tab, linked above).