Reviewing a Shopping Cart or Open PO

• About Reviewing a Shopping Cart or Open PO
• Working in the Purchase Orders Listing Screen
  • Filtering
  • Searching for a PO
  • Opening a PO
  • Setting Columns on the Purchase Orders Listing Screen
• Searching for and Filtering Items in a Cart or PO
  • Searching for Items in a Cart or PO
  • Filtering Items in a Cart or PO
  • Viewing Recipes and Quantity of a Food Item
  • Viewing Logic on How Product is Selected
  • Setting Columns on a Cart or PO Screen
  • What is the ID Column on a Cart or PO screen?
• Special Order POs (Vendor-Specific)
  • What is a Special Order Product?
  • Special Order POs (Vendor-Specific)
  • Note Regarding Vendor-Specific Functionality
• Products Shipped Directly from Manufacturer
  • Note Regarding Vendor-Specific Functionality
• Printing a Purchase Order Worksheet to Check Inventory
  • Sort Items on Purchase Order Screen to Match Purchase Order Worksheet
• Exporting Cart or PO to Excel® Spreadsheet

About Reviewing a Shopping Cart or Open PO

When you populate a shopping cart or have an open PO (i.e., the PO has not yet been submitted), you can review the vendor products and their order quantity. 

Also note that a common practice is to check inventory amounts while reviewing your cart or open PO so that you can make adjustments. For example, spices may need to be removed because you have bulk spices in stock. To help with this review process, you can print a PO worksheet, which consists of the existing items in the cart or PO, the quantity required, and the auto-calculated order amounts. You can then use this worksheet to mark existing inventory and then return to the cart or PO to remove items, adjust the order quantities, or change the vendor products.

Working in the Purchase Orders Listing Screen

The Purchase Orders Listing screen is where your carts and POs are listed for you to review. Open the Purchase Orders Listing screen by selecting Procurement > Purchase Orders from the left navigation sidebar. 

Filtering

Via the Filters tool at the top right of the screen (screenshot below), you can determine what displays on the screen.

The following filters are available:

• Vendor 
• Status:
  • Open
  • Submitted
  • Confirmed with Changes
  • Confirmed
  • Rejected
• Submitted Between date range
• Expected Between date range 

Searching for a PO

The Search field at the top right of the screen allows you to input a PO number. It is not necessary to prefix the number with "PO".

Opening a PO

To open a PO, click its PO number. 

Setting Columns on the Purchase Orders Listing Screen

You can set the columns to display on a shopping list screen, along with their sort order. To do so:

1. Click the Set Columns button. The Set Columns pop-up appears.
2. For the columns you want onscreen drag-and-drop them from the right side of the pop-up to the left side of the pop-up. For the columns you do not want onscreen, drag-and-drop them from the left side of the pop-up to the right side of the pop-up. 
   
   
    
3. You can determine the sort order of the columns displayed onscreen by clicking, holding, and dragging a column to it desired spot in the column list.
   
   
    
4. Click Apply to apply your changes and close the pop-up. 

Searching for and Filtering Items in a Cart or PO

Searching for Items in a Cart or PO

For an open cart or existing purchase order (Procurement > Purchase Orders > click on cart or purchase order), you can search for a specific item or vendor product via the Search field at the top right of the screen.

The Search field will return results from the following inputs:

• Item description or
• Vendor product description or
• Vendor product number

Filtering Items in a Cart or PO

You can use various filters to help you narrow down the onscreen items you see in a shopping cart or PO. During the review phase of a cart or open PO, using filters is recommended. To use filters, complete the following step: 

1. From the left navigation sidebar, select Procurement > Purchase Orders and click on the desired cart or PO to open it. 
2. Click the Filters tool at the top right corner to expand the screen with the filter options.
   
   
    
3. Select the filters as needed, described as follows:
   • Food And Non Food Categories - filter by food item and non-food item categories. 
   • Stock Item Category - filter by the stock item category of the item. 
   • Vendor - filters by specific vendor(s).
   • Availability - filter products by the availability statuses that are applied by the vendor. Statuses that are not self-explanatory are explained as follows:
     • Special Order - a special order product is one that has a different (or "special") delivery date from other products that are ordered. See Special Order Products and POs below for more information.
     • Seasonal - a product that is only available certain times of the year. For example, a Christmas desert.
     • Discontinued When Out - a product that will be unavailable when its current stock is depleted, but will again become available (i.e., vendor does not want to remove it from their product catalog).
   • Brand - filter by the brand of the vendor product. A common use for this filter is to select a brand that you don't want to purchase to ensure that that brand is not on the cart or open PO, and if so you can change it for another product of another brand. 
   • Pull By - filter by a food item's Pull By setting: either Stock Unit or Exact Amount. This filter will be used more for the perpetual inventory functionality that will be introduced in a future release, but can have a current use if filtering by Exact Amount, as this indicates an item you may want to remove from your cart or open PO (such as a spice) because it is not purchased frequently. 
   • Breakable Stock Unit - filter by vendor products with the following Breakable Pack settings:
     • - breakable pack product with the "always purchase" setting set to full pack 
     • - breakable pack product with the "always purchase" setting set to individual stock unit. 
   • Always Break Stock Unit - filter by vendor products with the following Breakable Pack setting:
     • - breakable pack product with the "always purchase" setting set to individual stock unit. 
   • Catch Weight Items - filter by vendor products with the Catch Weight setting selected (). Catch weight items (i.e., cheeses and meats) are important to review as they usually are expensive and as such you will want to make sure that the system is not excessively ordering more quantity than is actually needed by production. For example, assume the recipe calls for 10 pounds of ham, and the average catch weight for this item is to purchase it in nine pounds; as such the order quantity calculated on the cart or PO is 2. During the review phase you can adjust the order quantity to 1 and then buy a smaller ham to reach the 10 pounds required for production. 
   • Items Without a Vendor Product - filter by items without a selected vendor product. This filter is important to select during the review phase of a cart to ensure each item has a vendor product. For more information, see Adding a Product to a Food Item that has the "No Vendor Product" Label.
   • All Unavailable Products - products not available from the vendor as detected by the PO interface with that vendor. 
4. Click GO to refresh the screen with results that match the filter criteria. 

Viewing Recipes and Quantity of a Food Item

On shopping cart and PO screens, an informational icon appears for an item in the Qty Needed column (first screenshot below). When clicked, the Calculation Breakdown window is displayed for the food item, listing the recipes it is required, and the amount in each recipe (second screenshot below). 

Viewing Logic on How Product is Selected

On shopping cart and PO screens, an informational icon appears for a product in the Product column (first screenshot below). When clicked, the Calculation Steps window is displayed (second screenshot below) for the product, allowing you to scroll down to see how the vendor product selection logic is being performed: 

Setting Columns on a Cart or PO Screen

You can set the columns to display on a shopping cart or PO screen, along with their sort order. To do so:

1. From the Purchase Orders Listing screen (Procurement > Purchase Orders), open the desired open PO. 
   
   
    
2. Click the Set Columns button. The Set Columns pop-up appears.
3. For the columns you want onscreen drag-and-drop them from the right side of the pop-up to the left side of the pop-up. For the columns you do not want onscreen, drag-and-drop them from the left side of the pop-up to the right side of the pop-up. 
   
   
    
4. You can determine the sort order of the columns displayed onscreen by clicking, holding, and dragging a column to it desired spot in the column list.
   
   
    
5. Click Apply to apply your changes and close the pop-up.

What is the ID Column on a Cart or PO screen?

When setting columns for a cart or purchase order, the ID column is available (screenshot below). This column is an internal identifier for each food and non-food item in the MealSuite database. It is different from the Food ID and Product ID. 

Special Order Products and Purchase Orders

What is a Special Order Product?

The definition of a special order product is specific to the vendor and typically means the product must be manually ordered from the vendor (i.e., phone, email) as opposed to be automatically submitted through the PO interface. A special order product is identified in a cart and PO via its Availability status.

Special Order POs (Vendor-Specific)

Because a special order product must be manually ordered from the vendor, then certain vendors in the system manage special order products by creating a separate "special order PO" during the PO creation process. 

A special order PO is identified as such with the prefix "SO" before its number (e.g., PO-SO1813) and is listed in the Purchase Orders listing screen, from which it can be opened. 

Once opened, it can be printed (first screenshot below) as a downloadable PDF (second screenshot below) to be used to manually submit (i.e., phone, email) the products to the vendor.  

Note Regarding Vendor-Specific Functionality

Because each vendor can handle special order products differently, there may be exceptions to the information documented above. You can reach out to MealSuite Support to learn if there are exceptions. 

If you are a MealSuite Support, see the internal articles on vendor-specific functionality listed in the Submitting a Purchase Order (PO) section. 

Products Shipped Directly from Manufacturer

Certain products are not available to be shipped from the vendor DC and instead are shipped directly from the product manufacturer via a 3rd-party carrier (e.g., UPS or FedEx). Such products are identified with an attribute that is specific to the vendor, such as Direct (first screenshot below) or Demand (second screenshot below). 

A product shipped directly from a manufacturer will have a separate delivery date from the products shipped from the vendor DC. Such products are listed in a separate Items Shipped Separately section on the cart and PO, with the estimated delivery date if ordered today. 

In addition, depending on the vendor, if you hover your cursor over the Demand or Direct label, a pop-up appears containing the estimated delivery date if you place the order today. 

Note Regarding Vendor-Specific Functionality

Because each vendor can handle products that are shipped directly from the manufacturer differently, there may be exceptions to the information documented above. You can reach out to MealSuite Support to learn if there are exceptions. 

If you are a MealSuite Support, see the internal articles on vendor-specific functionality listed in the Submitting a Purchase Order (PO) section. 

Printing a Purchase Order Worksheet to Check Inventory

A common practice is to check inventory amounts while reviewing your cart or open PO (i.e., the PO has not yet been submitted) so that you can make adjustments. For example, spices may need to be removed because you have bulk spices in stock.

To help with this review process, you can print a PO worksheet, which consists of the existing items in the cart or open PO, the quantity required, and the auto-calculated order amounts. You can then use this worksheet to mark existing inventory and then return to the cart or open PO to remove items, adjust the order quantities, or change the vendor products.

Below is an example of a PO worksheet (organized alphabetically). 

To print a purchase order worksheet, complete the following steps:

1. From the Purchase Orders Listing screen (Procurement > Purchase Orders), open the desired open PO. 
2. Click the PO Worksheet button and select from one of the following options:
   • Alpha - lists items alphabetically.
   • Storage Location - lists items according to their assigned storage areas.
   • Stock Item Category - lists items according to their stock item categories.
   • Category - lists items according to their food categories. 
     
     
      
3. A PDF of the PO worksheet is generated in a new browser tab. Print the worksheet and use it to mark inventory.

Sort Items on Purchase Order Screen to Match Purchase Order Worksheet

When you print your PO worksheet and finish checking inventory, you can then return to the PO and remove items or adjust amounts accordingly. Utilize the PO screen filters as needed to narrow down the items that appear onscreen. Another helpful feature is to sort the items on the PO screen to match the PO worksheet so that the items align in each for you to easily cross-reference between the two. 

For example, if you printed the PO worksheet by storage location, you can sort the items on the PO screen via their storage location by clicking the Storage Location column header.* A column sorts its content either in ascending or descending order each time you click its header.  

*To set the columns that appear on a PO screen, see Setting Columns on the Cart or PO Screen. 

Exporting Cart or PO to Excel® Spreadsheet

To export a shopping cart or purchase order to an Excel® spreadsheet, complete the following steps: 

1. From the Purchase Orders Listing screen (Procurement > Purchase Orders), open the desired open PO. 
2. Click the Export button to generate the Excel file.
3. A prompt appears when the file is ready to download. Click the Download button to download the file.