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Purchase Orders
Purchase Orders

Use purchase orders to keep track of your orders across multiple vendors.

Updated over 2 months ago

Purchase orders let you track your pending orders as well as receive items when they arrive to add to your inventory stock/count.

Purchase Orders

Our inventory expert Nicole recommends creating purchase orders the same day you’re placing the orders. That way, you won’t need to recreate it when you receive the order—plus, if your order comes in incorrectly, you’ll have a source of truth to show vendors.

To create a purchase order:

  1. Select "Admin" in the left side menu

  2. Select "Inventory"

  3. Navigate to the "Purchase Orders" tab at the top

  4. Select the "Add New" button on the right hand side of the screen

    1. You can edit purchase orders from here if you select the purchase order and not 'Add New'

There are two types of purchase orders you can create (we go into how these work in more detail below):

  • Vendor-specific: adding a vendor automatically populates all items past their reorder point associated with the vendor

  • Blank: toggling "Blank purchase order" to "on" gives you the ability to add any item to a purchase order

    • These are useful for smaller orders

And if you need them, there are additional fields for:

  • Notes

  • Taxes

  • Additional costs

Once the purchase order is created, you’ll be taken to the purchase order’s details page.

Tip: We recommend keeping packing slips, receipts, and/or vendor order confirmations together with your purchase orders.

Vendor-Specific Purchase Orders

If you want to place an order for all items below their reorder point for a specific vendor, select a vendor from the dropdown in the new purchase order modal.

You can also add new additional items to the order by selecting the "Add New Item" button

Blank Purchase Orders

If you're only looking to add a few things to a purchase order, you may want to stick with a blank one. To create a blank purchase order, make sure the Blank Purchase Order toggle is switched to the "On" position when you create your purchase order.

When you create a blank purchase order, you'll have to manually select all items you want to order from the vendor. To do that:

  • Select the "Add New Item" button

  • Select the item from the dropdown

    • Shepherd will automatically add in the order quantity, which can also be adjusted

  • Select "Save & Close" or "Save & Add New" if you need to add more items onto the Purchase Order

Edit Purchase Orders

If you need to edit a purchase order that's already been made, navigate to purchase orders (Admin > Inventory > Purchase Orders).

This screen will have a list of all purchase orders for your practice.

You can view or delete a purchase order from this screen.

Note: If you delete a Purchase Order after receiving items, the purchase history, cost, and quantity ordered will be deleted. Your Quantity on Hand will revert to the original amount before the Purchase Order.

You can click the view icon or click on the Purchase order to open it. Once open you can:

  • Edit - Date, Tax, Additional Cost, and Note.

  • Print the Purchase Order

  • Change status to:

    • Pending (Purchase Order being created)

    • Ready to Order

    • Ordered

    • Partially received

    • Closed (All items received

    • Voided (Order was voided/not placed)

  • Add New Items

  • Receive Items

  • Delete individual items

Tip: Using the search bar in the Purchase Order tab, you can now search for an item to quickly see which purchase orders include that item.

Receiving Inventory

After you’ve created a purchase order in Shepherd (and once your order arrives), you’ll be able to receive inventory. You can do that in a few ways within a Purchase Order:

First, navigate to the appropriate Purchase Order, which can be done in two different ways:

  1. Navigate to the Inventory tab within the Admin section, then select the "Purchase Orders" tab at the top

  2. Select the Purchase Order from the right side of the screen on the Inventory Dashboard

Once you are in the Purchase Order, you're ready to start receiving your items! There are two ways you can do this:

  1. Enter the number of items you've received in the Received Quantity column

    1. Once you select the circled check mark, a window will open up where you can adjust the quantity and/or cost

  2. Select the Action item to the right of the screen

    1. This will open a window where you can input the quantity and/or adjust the cost

Receiving items automatically updates the quantity in Shepherd. And if you only marked some of the items you ordered on a purchase order as "received," the purchase order's status will change to "Partially Received."

If you receive an item linked to a Product and update the Cost, you have the option to:

  • Override the Selling Price which will update the Selling Price, keeping your original Markup %.

  • Toggle Off "Override the Selling Price" which will keep the original Selling Price, updating your markup %.

Product Lot Information

Need to update your Vaccine and/or controlled substance lot information after receiving new items? Navigate to Admin> Products > select item to edit > scroll down to Track Product Lots.

Enter your new lot information and Save. Then you can archive any old lots.

  • Note: You cannot archive an old until you enter the new lot information.

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