Purchasing Workbench

PO Workbench

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

Purchasing Workbench

The Workbench shows one row for every item that either has open orders waiting on it, or has fallen below the quantity you like to keep on hand. It is where you decide what to buy this round — it does not place the order for you.

Open it from the PO Workbench tile on the Logistics Main Menu.

What each column means

Reading left to right:

Priority — blank for normal work, a red RUSH chip when a Rush request is behind this item, or the number 1–5 that came from the job in FieldPulse. When several orders need the same item, the row shows the most urgent of them.
Age — for a Rush row only: how long the longest-waiting Rush order behind this item has been sitting (minutes, hours, or days). Rush rows sort to the top of the list, oldest wait first.
Req Qty — how much is currently needed across open Requirement Orders.
OH — how much is on the shelf right now.
On PO — how much is already coming on an open purchase order.
Min / Max — the reorder point and the target stocking level for this item.
Qty to Order — what the Workbench recommends buying. You can change this number for any row.
Qty on Buy Lists — how much of this item is already sitting on a saved buy list. It is taken off the Qty to Order so you are never asked to buy the same need twice. Select the number to see which lists it is on.
Qty on PO — how much is already on an open purchase order in QuickBooks (refreshed each night). Select the number to see the purchase orders.
Qty to Order already has the quantity on saved buy lists and on open POs taken off it, so the same need is never bought twice.
UOM — how the item is counted (each, feet).
Cost — the base cost you pay the vendor, before freight or tax.
Vendor — defaults to the item's usual vendor. If a row is highlighted with a warning, this item has no usual vendor on file and the Workbench filled in the last vendor it was bought from instead — check that it's still right before you buy.
Delivery — defaults to today plus the item's normal lead time. Change it if you know better.
CC? — check this if the item should be physically counted before this buy goes out. It starts checked by default; uncheck it if you're confident in the on-hand number already.
Ext Cost — Qty to Order times Cost, so you can see what the row is worth before you commit.
CC? and Buy? each have a tick box in the column heading that checks or unchecks the whole page at once.
Buy? — check this to include the row when you save your buy list.

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)

Filtering the list

Use the filters at the top to narrow the list down by vendor, by Requirement Order number, by a required-by date range, by priority (All priorities, Rush (R), or 1–5), or to inventory items only versus non-stocked items only, then click Apply. Clear puts the list back to everything. The chips under the filters are one-click switches: Below min only, Include 0 to order and Rush only. Non-stocked items don't carry an on-hand, min or max — the recommended quantity there is simply what's been asked for.

By default the workbench only shows items that actually need buying. Turn on Include 0 to order to also see items whose Qty to Order works out to zero — useful when you want to look at an item that's already covered rather than only what's short. A Rush row is the exception: it always shows, even when Qty to Order reads 0, so nobody waits on a rush that quietly dropped off the list. If it is already on the shelf, go pull it.

You can also sort the list by clicking the SKU, Vendor or Delivery headings; clicking the same heading again reverses it. Sorting by a column replaces the Rush-first default order. Long lists are paged 200 rows at a time, with First / Prev / Next / Last under the filters.

Click the arrow on the left of any row — or the Req Qty, On PO or Qty on Buy Lists number itself — to see exactly which orders are driving the demand number, which purchase orders are already covering it, and which saved buy lists already have quantity on it. The three panels are divided so you can read them separately. In the demand panel each order shows its own priority, and if your access level allows it you get a Set Rush / Clear Rush button per order. Clicking the SKU opens the full SKU Detail screen for that item.

Saving a buy list

Check the rows you want to buy, adjust anything that needs adjusting, add a note if you like, and select Save buy list. This does not send anything to your accounting system — it creates a saved list you can open again, print, or export, from the Saved Buy Lists screen. If you checked the CC box on any row, saving the list also prints a count sheet for those items, in shelf order, so they can be counted before the buy goes out.

There is no button here to release these as purchase orders yet — for now, POs are still keyed in by hand from the saved list.

Status

The Purchasing Workbench is In review, not live — it cannot go live before Requirements Orders do, because the demand it buys against comes from ROs (Dave, 2026-09-06). Buy lists you save now are real, but nothing is released to QuickBooks as a purchase order yet.

Cost, and why the numbers do not reload every time (2026-09-07)

The Cost box has no up/down arrows - type the amount.

On hand and On PO come straight from QuickBooks and the stamp under the grid says when they were taken. A snapshot less than two minutes old is re-used, so paging, sorting and coming back from a buy list are instant instead of waiting on QuickBooks each time.

Cost, and why the numbers do not reload every time (2026-09-07)

The Cost box has no up/down arrows — type the amount.

On hand and On PO come straight from QuickBooks, and the stamp under the grid says when they were taken. A snapshot less than two minutes old is re-used, so paging, sorting and coming back from a buy list are instant instead of waiting on QuickBooks each time. Take a fresh one at any time by reloading after the stamp is two minutes old.

Ordered non-inventory lines and remembered vendors (2026-09-07)

A non-inventory line is bought for one job line and nothing else, so once a PO has been recorded against it the workbench nets that off: On PO shows what is on order and Qty to Order drops to 0, and the row leaves the list unless it is a Rush (a Rush always stays visible so you can see it exists) or you have "Include 0 to order" on. That means a line already ordered will not be put on another buy list by accident.

The vendor you type on a row is now remembered. Change it, leave the box, and it stays on that row next time you open the workbench - it also clears the "no primary vendor" warning for that row. Empty the box to go back to the suggested vendor. This is a workbench note only; it does not change the item's primary vendor in the Item Master or anything on the RO.

Include 0 to order (2026-09-07)

With the chip off you see only rows that actually need buying. Rush rows at 0 to order used to stay on screen; they no longer do, because a rush at 0 is already covered by stock or an existing PO. Turn the chip on - with Rush only, if you want just those - to see every covered 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.