If you are still placing your orders via text message, phone call or carrier pigeon, losing invoices, or having to manually enter your invoices into your Accounting package - welcome to the 21st century #poweredbykounta
Experience dreamlike efficiency. With Kounta Purchase, getting stock for your business is simple, traceable, and connected to your inventory, reporting, and accounting systems.
Kounta Purchase enables you to quickly create detailed purchase orders, send them to your suppliers, and keep track of when orders are received - all in one place.
This guide will walk you through the steps to send a purchase order and how to update it when the order is delivered so that you always have the perfect amount of stock on hand.
What’s in this guide?
Send the Purchase Order via email
Before you begin
You will need:
- Kounta Purchase enabled from the Back Office
- Have your suppliers added in Kounta
Send a Purchase Order
Create the draft
1. From the Dashboard in Back Office, select Launch Purchase
2. Select New Order from the upper right side of the screen
3. Select from which supplier you’d like to order.
4. Select a category to see the assigned products under the supplier. You can also look for any category or product using the search bar
5. You can now enter the quantity of the stock you would need to order. Below, you will see a description of the other parts of this page.
- Quantity - you can enter the quantities right next to the assigned stock items for this supplier
- Stock/ Par - The first number is the stock on hand. The second number is the set par level - a dash will appear if the par level is not set.
- Order Number - a number Kounta generates automatically
- Delivery Date - The default date here will be tomorrow. You can edit the date by selecting it
- Delivery Note - Here's where you can jot down more specifications about your order
- Order Note (below product line) - In the image above, there’s an order note on the third item saying “Packed separately from the Packs of 4 - Sausage, please” - this was added by selecting the product and entering this on the Note field.
5. Once you are happy with your order, select Review Order.
Preview the Purchase Order
Purchase orders are sent to suppliers as a pdf attached to an email. You can preview this pdf before sending.
6. From the page of the draft you are making, select the menu button on the top right corner
7. From the flyout menu, select View as PDF
Pro Tip - Make sure to complete your supplier’s details and your own business details so that the fields auto-populate on the pdf.
If you need to edit anything, select the back arrow - this is the last stage where you can edit
Send the Purchase Order via email
Once you are happy with your order, you can send it to your supplier’s email.
9. From the page of the draft you are making, select Place order
10. Check the details auto-filled in the following dialogue box. You can add email addresses in the CC and BCC fields
11. You will get notified that the email was sent.
12. This will send an email to your supplier, like so:
Receive deliveries
Once the order is delivered to you, follow the steps below to track received orders and update your stock levels. This will also allow your purchase data to sync directly to your integrated accounting app (Xero, MYOB, Quickbooks - you name it) - no more time wasted entering invoices!
1. From the Dashboard in Back Office, select Launch Purchase
2. You will see the list of purchase orders. Select the order you are receiving
3. This will open the order. Update the Invoice no. with the invoice number from your supplier
4. In case you receive a different amount/price than originally ordered, select the item from the order summary to note the changes. The search bar is also available if you need to enter additional stock items that got delivered but wasn’t in the original order
5. Select Receive order
6. For easy documentation, you can attach packing slips, invoices, and/or other photos to the purchase order after receiving it. Select Add PDF/Image.
Note - If you are using Kounta App, you’ll be able to upload a photo from the camera of the device.
The status of the order will be updated. This is viewable in the same location, the Purchases page.
Review Past Purchases
1. From the Dashboard in Back Office, select Launch Purchase
2. You will be taken to the Kounta Purchase Homescreen.
On this page, you can see an overview of all orders and their stages:
Draft - Order has been saved as a draft ready for review to send
Placed - You have reviewed the order and sent it to the supplier
Delivered - Order has arrived on site but not marked off or put away
Received - Order has been checked off for discrepancies, and once marked as received will be sync'd with your accounting package if you have this feature enabled
Cancelled - This is the status of orders cancelled by either you or the supplier. When a supplier accepts an order and then deletes or cancels it, this is the resulting status.
Rejected - This is the resulting status when orders are immediately rejected by the supplier.
Track Purchases
Using Kounta Insights
Better decisions every day, with Kounta Insights. Kounta Insights captures your data and presents it in clear comprehensive reports - so you can uncover important data trends in your purchasing that you may otherwise have overlooked. Use Kounta Insights to get uncover truths on what you purchase, how much you purchase, purchases vs. sales and more.
If you want to know more about the various reports available on Kounta Insights for purchases and various other data points, this guide on Getting Around Kounta Insights* will be helpful.
In Back Office
The purchase report in Back Office is a bit more basic. It contains a breakdown of all stock movements.
1. From the Reports page in Back Office, select Purchases
This report can be filtered by date, product, site, and supplier.
There is also an option to download.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I cancel a purchase order I sent?
Simply select the placed order. Once the order opens, select the menu button on the upper right corner - you will find an option to cancel the order. This will notify your supplier.
How do I automatically send purchase orders on a schedule?
Kounta Purchase enables you to save recurring purchase orders that automatically send on a schedule. You can set the day, time, and interval. Another option is to send order reminders to your own email.
Can I automatically order low stock products?
Not for now. You can, however, see your stock level and PAR level for each product when drafting your purchase orders.
Will the stock automatically update after I receive the order?
After an order is marked as received it will automatically update your stock levels.
How can I remind my staff to replenish stock?
This can be done in two ways.
Recurring purchase orders are actual order drafts that are sent automatically and repeatedly on the specified schedule. They notify the Kounta user one hour in advance before automatically sending the purchase order to the supplier.
Meanwhile, Order reminders are email prompts for the Kounta user towards an action - like create a purchase order, send a draft, and etc.
What if I receive less than or more than the original order I sent?
As you receive deliveries (as discussed above), you will have the option to change the quantity of received items. If you receive other stock items from your supplier, you can also add them using the search bar.
What's my next step?
Automation makes life easier. With Kounta Purchase, you can automate sending purchase orders to your suppliers using Recurring orders - Or you can simply automate sending regular reminders to your email using Order reminders.
If you enter your PAR level for a stock item, you’ll be able to see this number side-by-side with the stock count of that item. This shows on the same page where you create purchase orders - helping you make the best purchase decision every time.
Once your stock items are entered, you can enter your recipes. With Kounta’s recipe add-on, every time a product is sold (or entered as wastage), it will automatically update your stock count of how much of the ingredients are left.
Stock Counts on Kounta automatically sync with your purchases, sales, and wastage so that inventory management reaches a whole new level of ease.
Managing wastage is a challenge for many businesses in the hospo industry. Track your wastage (the why, who, and how much) and sync your inventory data automatically - so you save time and effort.