Saved Buy Lists

Saved Buy Lists / Buy List

Operator Guide P2 Updated 2026-09-07 Matches the live screen

Saved Buy Lists

Every time someone saves a buy list from the PO Workbench, it shows up on the Saved Buy Lists screen (reach it from the Saved Buy Lists button on the Workbench). Opening a list gives you the Buy List screen for it: exactly what was checked, at what quantity, cost, vendor and delivery date.

The index lists each list's number, when it was saved and by whom, how many lines it has, how many are to buy, how many are Pending Count, an estimated total, its status and its note.

What the status means

A list is always in one of four states:

Open — the list has been saved but not released yet.
In Process — some of it has been released to purchase orders and there are still lines left to buy.
Completed — nothing on the list is left to buy. Usually that means it was all ordered; it also covers a list whose purchase orders were later deleted in QuickBooks, so check the line pills.
Cancelled — the whole list was cancelled.
Cancelled — somebody cancelled the list. It stays on record and can still be read, but nothing on it can be edited any more.

A list is Open from the moment it is saved. In Process and Completed only appear once release to purchase orders is in use. Each individual line also carries its own status — Pending Count, Dropped (a line the system recomputed to nothing), PO Cancelled (its purchase order was deleted in QuickBooks — the quantity is back on the workbench, re-buy it there), or nothing at all when the line is settled.

Numbers moving after you saved

Every time you open a saved list, the on-hand and on-order numbers are re-checked against what's current. If something has moved since you saved the list — say, another job used up the last few units — that row is highlighted and shows the old number and the new one side by side, so nothing sneaky slips through between saving a list and acting on it.

If you typed in your own quantity for a row, that number is always kept exactly as you left it. The system will never quietly change a quantity you set yourself.

Changing a line

While a list is still open, you can change Qty, Cost, Vendor, Delivery and the CC? box directly on the line — type and click away, it saves on its own. There is a tick box in the CC heading to switch the whole page at once. Dropped lines are read-only. Whenever you type your own quantity, that number is protected from then on.

Non-inventory rows show a dash instead of a tick box — there is no stock behind them to count, so they can never be flagged for a count. (2026-09-07)

Items waiting on a count

Any row where the Count-before-buy box was checked shows as Pending Count and won't release until that item has actually been counted. Count it on the regular Cycle Count screen — once a fresh count for that SKU is entered, this list picks it up automatically: the row's status clears, and if the buy quantity needs to change based on the new count, it updates and is flagged for you to review. If the new count means nothing is needed after all, the line drops off with a note explaining why (unless you had already set your own quantity on it — that's kept, as above).

CC Complete

If you would rather clear the whole list's count flags in one go — the counting is done, or it turns out it was not needed — use the CC Complete button. It clears every Count-before-buy flag on the list, re-checks each line's Qty to Order against current on-hand and on-order figures, flags the lines whose number changed, and drops any line that now works out to nothing. It tells you how many it cleared, changed and dropped. Note the difference from a normal reopen: CC Complete is a deliberate action, so a line that recomputes to zero drops even if you had typed your own quantity on it.

Printing the count sheet

If the list generated one, a Print count list option gives you a shelf-order sheet of every item that still needs counting for this buy list. Each line shows the item's bin and description; if an item has no bin assigned, its general location (Gen-Loc) is shown instead, so nothing goes out on a count sheet with a blank location. Lines print in bin order, blanks last.

Exporting and cancelling

Export CSV gives you the whole list to hand off or file, and Print prints the list as it reads on screen. Cancel list marks the list as no longer active — it stays on record, nothing is deleted. Cancel and CC Complete only appear while a list is still open, and only if your access level can save buy lists.

About releasing to purchase orders

You'll see a card explaining that releasing a saved list straight into purchase orders isn't built yet. For now, purchase orders are keyed in by hand using this saved list as the source.

Sorting and cancelled lists (2026-09-07)

Click List #, Saved, To Buy, Est. Total or Status to sort the list; click the same heading again to reverse it.

Cancelled lists are not in the list by default. Nothing is deleted - a cancelled list is kept for the record, and the line under the table tells you how many are out of view. Show cancelled puts them back on screen, Hide cancelled takes them away again.

Purchasing Workbench at the top takes you back to the workbench exactly as you left it - same filters, same sort.

Sorting and cancelled lists (2026-09-07)

Click List #, Saved, To Buy, Est. Total or Status to sort the list; click the same heading again to reverse it.

Cancelled lists leave the screen after 7 days. Nothing is deleted — a cancelled list is kept forever for the record. Use Show cancelled at the top to see the older ones, and Hide old cancelled to put them away again. The line at the foot of the table tells you how many are hidden.

Purchasing Workbench at the top takes you back to the workbench exactly as you left it, with the same filters and the same sort.

The screen keeps itself up to date (2026-09-07)

You should never have to reload this page to see your own edit. Change a quantity or a cost and the line's Ext Cost and the Est. Total at the foot both change straight away. Tick or untick CC and the Status pill follows it. Correct a vendor name and the "Not ready to release" notice above re-checks itself and the error disappears once the name matches QuickBooks - PO numbers you have already typed into the release box are kept while it re-checks.

Release to PO (changed 2026-09-07)

The release card creates the purchase orders in QuickBooks, one per vendor, and marks the list Ordered. You no longer type PO numbers here - that box is gone on purpose, so this screen has one job and cannot be worked around by hand.

The button is disabled while Allow Auto-Create POs is off in Settings. If QuickBooks is unreachable and a non-inventory item has to be ordered anyway, raise the PO in QuickBooks and record its number on the RO line (Add PO reference) instead.

Stock SKUs belong on a buy list and get bought like anything else - what is non-inventory-only is the link back to an RO line.

Sorting the list (2026-09-07)

Click any column heading to sort the list by that column; click it again to reverse. Blank cells always fall to the bottom. Numbers sort as numbers and dates as dates. Button and checkbox columns (Actions, Detail) don't sort. The sort works on the rows already on screen, so it never hides anything the page was showing.

Ver 2 — 2026-09-07

Dave: the list header now says Open / In Process / Completed rather than Ready to Order / Pending Count / Ordered, because the lines carry their own statuses and the header only needs to say how far the list has got. New line status PO Cancelled for lines whose purchase order was deleted in QuickBooks.