Suggested Ordering (Manual and Automated)

Manual Suggested Ordering

The Suggested Ordering wizard will help you to create suggested orders to save time, and to identify where there is a potential over-ordering.

The wizard looks at the average actual (i.e. stock counted) consumption of the stock items, averaged over the last 4 weeks’ use, per £1,000 of sales. Then based on your forecasted sales that you enter each time you run the wizard, as well as your current stock picture what you have on order and when your next delivery will be, it works out what you should need to order.

The idea is to run the wizard first, print out its results, then take it around the stockroom to check the suggested order amounts.

How to manually place an order via the Suggested Ordering wizard

Step 1

Go to the Orders page, select a supplier, then click on the ‘Add a Suggested Order’ button.

Step 2

Select the relevant delivery basket.

Step 3

The wizard will display the sales projections based on the last week’s sales figures which are gross amounts including discounts. Revise these figures and update them if your forecast is different for the week, then click on the ‘Save’ button.

Important notes

  • The number of days’ sales you will have to enter will depend on when your next delivery is.

  • If you have entered figures on the Settings / Sales page, the wizard’s sales projections will show these sales as your forecasted sales. If you have not forecasted sales, it will use last week’s actual sales.

Step 4

The next page will display the suggested order figures for the products.

Important notes

  • The displayed pack sizes are the buying pack sizes. So, in the example above, this restaurant has 8 of the (5x14) pack size from the product called ‘Ingredient 12’ in stock.

  • If a product has two available pack sizes to order, then the figures will be displayed for the bigger pack size.

  • If you un-tick the ‘Show All’ button, then only those items will be shown what the wizard thinks you should order.

  • If you disagree with the wizard and you change the order figure for any of the products, the wizard will save the updated figure automatically.

Step 5

Click on the ‘Print’ button, then this will take you to a screen where you can print the results, which you can take around your stockroom and check if it’s correct. This page will display the products in an alphabetical order and will always show everything, not just the items the wizard thinks you should order. Once you have printed the results, click on the ‘Create Order’ button.

Step 6

Revise your order, and if necessary, change the order quantity of the products or add extra products, then click on the ‘Confirm’ button.

Step 7

Click on the ‘Send’ button to send your order to the supplier.

Please note, the delivery date cannot be amended for a suggested order because the wizard already calculated the suggested order figures based on the initially selected delivery date.

Step 8

If you decide to send your order later, you can click on the ‘Send Later’ button. However, the order will have a new wizard icon on it to warn you that if you leave the order for a long period and your stock figures change (invoice or transfer arrives), the order becomes less accurate. Therefore, suggested orders should always be sent on the same day when the order is created.

Important notes

  • The wizard will suggest anything that is active and on the order list, and that you have an actual consumption of. It is not based on recipes. It will suggest ancillary, if you count it, and it will account for over portioning and wastage.

  • Beware of the products that have been delisted but haven’t yet been removed from the order list because if you have used stock of them over the last 4 weeks, the wizard will suggest to order them. Also, it won’t know if you need to use up a product which is about to be delisted.

  • If you start to use a new product, it will take 4 weeks to build up an accurate stock picture.

  • Some sites have said that they don’t get enough stock of long shelf-life lines (where the delivery happens only around once a week), frozen items (where extra defrosting stock is required), and drinks (where shelf stock is needed). Please keep an eye on this and remember, this is a tool to help you to order but the suggested orders should always be checked.

  • Beware of the lines that you might not sell much of but you need to keep on stock – for example, one site likes to keep at least 6 bottles of the high-end wines, in case, they have a business party come in, but they only sell on average 1 bottle a week.

Automated Suggested Ordering

Orders can be created and sent automatically for a supplier if the Automated Suggested Ordering functionality is activated for a supplier, which will work alongside the manual Suggested Ordering wizard.

Please note

An automated suggested order is only created and sent if an order has not been sent for a given delivery slot.

Example

You have a delivery schedule of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with a cut off time of 3pm, 2 days prior to the delivery date. If at least one order has been placed for Monday and Wednesday but not Friday, the system will automatically generate an order for a delivery for Friday at 3pm at the point of the order cut off.

The logic for automated suggested orders will be the same as when you manually create a suggested order. If the sales have not been forecasted for the week on the Settings / Sales page, the automated suggested orders will be based on last week’s sales.

Once the order has been sent, it will be displayed within the orders list.

The order’s “Sent by:” field for automated suggested orders will be displayed as ‘Auto Generated’ to indicate that the order was generated by the system and not by a user.

How to activate the Automated Suggested Ordering for a Supplier

Step 1

Ensure that a delivery schedule is configured for the supplier.

Step 2

Go to the supplier’s Details page, then flag the ‘Automated Order’ field on the right-hand side of the page.

If you would like a copy of each automated suggested order to be sent to the site where the order originated from, flag the ‘Copy Of Automated Order To Site’ field as well.

Important note

If an order has been created but not sent, this will not equate for any items on order – the order must have been sent.