Summary
The Merge Orders screen is the screen where orders are stored when they are placed into the Hold For Merge status in the Place Orders screen. It is available by clicking to Purchase --> Merge Orders.
Applies To
Holding an order in StockIQ for later merging is useful when you are using the StockIQ substitutes feature from Place Orders. Taken over the course of a full day's of ordering, if those were immediately sent to those suppliers, they would receive MANY order documents with 1 or just a couple lines on them. Especially for one of your warehouses, they would not like seeing such volume of documents.
Instead, by holding all of these small orders in StockIQ until all substitute activity is done, you can marge them into one sensible order per supplier at the end of the day, and your warehouse receives 1 order for 25 lines, instead of 25 orders of 1 line apiece.
Orders placed into the "Hold For Merge" status are not outputted to the outside world (e.g. to your ERP), and are assigned a special temporary order number that usually looks something like "MRGxxxx", showing that it does not have a real order number assigned to it.
Orders in "Hold For Merge" status ARE included by StockIQ in your open supply (e.g. on order) counts, since it is expected you will convert those into orders unless you specifically cancel them in the Order History screen
Column Description
Step 1: Select Headers
When you load the Merge Orders screen, a list of all orders with at least one line in "Hold for Merge" status is shown. You can click on each order to show the lines on the order in the "Order Preview" window.
You can select multiple orders using the CTRL+Click, or select all using the CTRL+A keyboard shortcut.
After you have selected an order or orders, matching lines for the selected order headers are displayed in the order preview. It's not necessary to select any lines - those are just a preview. When you've selected the order headers you want to work on, click Next.
Step 2: Select Lines
In the second screen, now you select the specific lines that you want to operate on for merging. These lines can be destined for one or multiple orders - you'll be able to specify criteria for actual order number assignment later. You can even mix PO and transfer-order type lines held for merge, or even select all lines at once.
Select the lines you wish to work on using the same SHIFT+Click, CTRL+Click, and CTRL+A keyboard shortcuts as before. Click next.
Step 3: Merge Orders
Step 3 of the Merge orders screen looks almost exactly like the order number assignment screen from Place Orders. Here you can set the rules by which the selected lines will be bucketed into PO's, e.g. by Supplier, buy line number, by subcategory, etc.
Make your selections using the checkboxes. Note that you can place the resulting order directly through to the ERP to be approved, or it can be sent into Review status for the Review Orders screen too.
When you're done with your selections, click Next.
Step 4: Review Order
This step is almost exactly like the last step of Place Orders, in that you can enter any order level information or comments.
Step 5: Place Orders
Clicking the blue "Place Orders" button will output your order to the ERP or the Review queue.
New PO's and Transfers will be created according to the lines you selected and assigned PO and Transfer order numbers.
The orders and lines that you selected with the "MRG" prefix will have their status changed to "Merged", and no longer count for any open order / in coming supply etc.