Purchase Orders

Goal #

Match the lines of a supplier invoice to your own articles through the purchase order they were bought on, and have Trackberry check each line against that order: quantity, price and sizes.

Before you start #

• The product catalogue switched on. Purchase orders live next to your products and supplier references, under Products, in a third tab. They are there for organizations that keep a catalogue (general goods by default).
• Your articles loaded. An order line points at an article by its ERP code, so load the catalogue first. See receiving shipments.
• Any role except Viewer to upload. Viewers can read the list but not change it.
• Suppliers that print your order number on each invoice line. Many do (“Po No.”, “Your order”, “Customer PO”). The number is read from the line when the invoice is extracted. A line without one is matched the way it always was.

What to ask your ERP for #

An export of your open purchase-order lines, one row per order line, as a CSV or an XLSX file. These columns, under any names your ERP uses (English and Spanish headings are recognized):

Ask for the whole list of what is open, not only what changed: the file is how Trackberry learns that a line is no longer open. Export once a day, or whenever you place or receive a lot of orders. A per-supplier extract works too: only the suppliers named in the file are touched.

Uploading the export #

1. Open Products, then Purchase orders, then Upload purchase orders.
2. Choose the file. Trackberry reads it in the background and finds the columns on its own. If it is not sure, it shows you the columns to confirm. The next file with the same headings is read without asking.
3. Check the preview. Nothing has been saved yet. It shows:
   • New lines: order lines Trackberry did not have.
   • Lines changed: a quantity, price, date or article that differs.
   • Lines reopened: lines that had been closed and are open again.
   • Lines closed: open lines the file no longer carries.
   • Article codes not in your catalogue and suppliers not identified: these lines are kept, but cannot match anything until the catalogue or the supplier is known. The next upload fixes them.
4. Choose Confirm import.

An empty cell never erases what a line already has. Lines are never deleted, only closed, so you can always see the history in the Closed tab.

What gets closed #

On the preview you choose what happens to the open lines the file does not carry:

• Only update the suppliers in this file (the default). Open lines of the suppliers named in the file that it no longer carries are closed. A file with Progum’s orders never closes Fijaciones’ orders. A file with no supplier column names no supplier, so this choice is not available and nothing is selected to close.
• This file lists all open order lines. Every open line the file does not carry is closed, whoever the supplier is.
• Don’t close anything. Lines are only added and updated.

Each choice shows how many lines it would close. If the choice would close more than half of your open lines, you have to tick a box to confirm it. Uploading a file in parts? Keep the default and send one supplier at a time.

If a newer import was confirmed after you uploaded a file, the older file is refused: upload it again so it cannot undo the newer one.

Orders are told apart by their series, number and line, per supplier: AA/100 and BB/100 are two orders, and PO-35264, PO 35264 and 0035264 are written differently but are one number. A file that gains line numbers later keeps the lines it already had.

Uploading the export by email is not available yet. Upload it from the page.

How invoices are matched #

When an invoice line prints your order number, Trackberry looks for your open order lines with that number, from that supplier, that have an article. Order lines with no supplier only count when the supplier has no order with that number. The order number is compared without punctuation and leading zeros, and the series has to agree when the invoice prints one: AA/35.264, AA-35264 and aa/0035264 are the same order, BB/35264 is not. An invoice that prints a bare 35264 fits when your supplier has one series with that number.

An order number alone is a weak witness, because numbers are reused and suppliers print what they like. So a match is confirmed only when the order line also agrees with the invoice line on something else: the unit price, the quantity (ordered or still to arrive), the type and sizes, the description, or the part number. Otherwise the article is suggested, with the usual tick and cross for you to settle.

• One article fits and the order line agrees: the line is matched and confirmed. The Article column says By order AA/35.264, and hovering shows what the order says: quantity ordered, quantity still to arrive and price.
• Several order lines fit: Trackberry narrows them by unit price, then quantity, then the sizes in the description, then the description itself. If one article is left, the rule above decides between confirmed and suggested.
• Still several articles: the best is suggested.
• None fit: the line is matched the usual way, by supplier reference.

A supplier reference someone confirmed to a different article wins over the order: the order’s article is not offered. An order match never replaces an article you chose yourself, and an article you turned down is not offered again for that line. After each upload, the lines of your open shipments that are still unmatched or only suggested are matched again, and so are the lines of an order line whose article changed (except your own picks).

What gets remembered #

A confirmed match through an order (one that something besides the order number corroborated) teaches Trackberry, so the next shipment does not need the order:

• A line with a real part number that your supplier has no reference for yet gets a confirmed supplier reference, shown as From purchase order. An existing reference, yours or an ERP import’s, is left alone.
• A line with no part number (or only a type such as UN) is remembered by its description: the next line from that supplier with exactly the same words and the same numbers is matched to the same article. UN 32.0 X 40.0 is the same as un 32 x 40, and never the same as UN 32.0 X 45.0. What you pick or confirm yourself is remembered the same way, but only as a suggestion until you have confirmed it on a second shipment, and a match you turn down stops being trusted. A description learned from a corroborated order match is trusted straight away.

Checks against the order #

Invoice lines matched through an order are checked by Invoice Matches Purchase Orders:

• Quantity: billing more than the order line still had to receive when the line was matched fails the check, so goods received later don’t make a correct invoice fail. Several invoice lines on one order line are added up.
• Price: a unit price different from the order’s fails it, compared at the precision the invoice prints, and only for prices per piece in the same currency.
• Sizes: a description with other sizes than the order’s (“UN 32.0 X 45.0” against “UN 32.0 X 40.0”) is a warning, not a failure.

Like the other checks, a failure can be acknowledged by an admin when the supplier is right and the ERP is not, and the check can be switched off in the organization’s check settings.

Frequently Asked Questions #

My order numbers have a prefix the invoice does not print. Will they match? #

Yes. A prefix of letters followed by a slash is ignored on both sides, as are spaces, dots and dashes.

The invoice only has the supplier’s own order number. #

The supplier’s number (labelled “Order No.”) is not your purchase order, so it is not used. Only the number labelled as yours is.

A line was matched to the wrong article. #

Pick the right one in the Article column. Your choice wins over any later order match and is remembered.