🛒 Step 5: Placing a Purchase Order
To fully activate Optiply and begin effectively managing your stock, you need to kickstart your suppliers' order cycles. You do this by reviewing the system's purchasing advice and placing your very first order!
Here is how to review your proposed orders, make adjustments, and confidently send them to your suppliers.
✅ 1. Getting Started: The Prerequisites
Before you attempt to place your first order, ensure that all of your supplier details from Step 3 are correctly configured in Optiply. The algorithm needs these rules to generate accurate advice:
Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)
Delivery Time (Lead Time)
Manual Order Period (Reorder Period)
Once everything is in place, the algorithm will run its calculations, and your first order advice will appear under Purchase > Proposed Orders.
💡 Pro Tip for Your First Order: When placing an order with a supplier for the first time via Optiply, you get to determine the start date of the order cycle yourself (by clicking the "Start Purchasing" line). This flexibility allows you to set the initial order date that works best for your warehouse operations!
📝 2. How to Place an Order
When you are ready to order stock, follow these simple steps:
Step 1: Open the Proposed Order. Navigate to Purchase > Proposed Orders and click on the specific order line you want to process.
Step 2: Review the Details. The full details of the purchase order will be displayed on your screen. Check the order details carefully to ensure the quantities, costs, and product selections are accurate.
Step 3: Choose Your Action. Once reviewed, you have two options to proceed:
Place the Order: Click the Order button on the right side of the screen to finalise and formally place the order.
Save as a Draft: Click to save the order as a Draft Order if you need to pause and come back to it later.
Note: Draft orders are static. Once saved as a draft, the algorithm will not update those quantities any further, even if your sales data changes overnight.
🛡️ 3. Helpful Tip to Avoid Errors
Sometimes, making heavy manual adjustments to the proposed purchase advice right on the initial screen can trigger an error when you finally hit save or place the order.
If you encounter issues while adjusting the purchase advice, follow this workaround:
Save the proposed advice as a Draft Order first, without making any manual adjustments.
This safely stores the baseline order details and prevents potential generation errors.
Open the newly saved Draft Order and make your manual adjustments there!
By following this workflow, you can smoothly manage your purchase orders in Optiply and maintain an efficient, error-free inventory workflow.
❓ 4. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Where does my order go after I click "Order"?
Once you officially place an order, it moves out of your "Proposed" or "Draft" views and into your active Purchase Orders list. From there, Optiply will track it as "incoming stock" so the algorithm knows those items are on the way.
Can I delete a Draft Order if I change my mind?
Yes! If you save a Draft Order but decide you don't need it (or you want the algorithm to recalculate the advice from scratch based on today's data), you can simply delete the draft. The system will then generate fresh purchasing advice during its next calculation cycle.