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Purchase Order Kanban

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Purchase Order Kanban

Setup Purchase Order Kanban

Using Purchase Order Kanban

Purchase Order Kanban

Discover the Purchase Order Kanban board, a visual and intuitive way to manage your open Purchase Orders (PO). Leveraging the Kanban concept, this board displays your POs as cards organized into status columns, allowing you to follow your procurement process from initial creation to costing. Easily identify which POs are in progress, potential bottlenecks at each stage, and the distribution of your purchase orders by status.

The Kanban board enables you to effortlessly update the status of a purchase order using a simple drag-and-drop action. Just click on a PO card and move it to the next relevant stage.

Setup Purchase Order Kanban

If you are new to Purchase Orders or the procurement processes in Unleashed, and don't have any open POs, your view on the Kanban page will be empty. You can use the links provided on the page to add custom statuses for your purchase orders or create a new Purchase Order.

 

Role Permissions

All superusers should have automatic access to the Purchase Order Kanban page. For other user roles, access to this feature might be restricted. To grant access, your account's owner or administrator can modify the permissions for specific user roles.

To manage a user role's access to the Purchase Order Kanban:

  1. From Unleashed's main menu, go to Settings, Security and select Role Permissions.
  2. Use the Role dropdown menu to select the appropriate Role.
  3. From the Permission sections listed, select Purchases.
  4. Find Purchase Order Kanban and click on the padlock icon to update it. 

When a permission's padlock is green the role will have access to it. If a permission's padlock is grey, access to the option is restricted and the role won't have access to it. 

 

Purchase Order Statuses

By default, the Purchase Order Kanban will use Purchase Order statuses to arrange your PO's into Kanban boards. Each PO status will be it's own board, displayed from left to right in the following order:

  • Parked
  • Placed
  • Custom Purchase Order Statuses
  • Costed.

NOTE: The Receipted or Complete statuses will not be displayed on the Purchase Order Kanban.

Custom Purchase Order Statuses can be added to reflect specific stages in your procurement workflow. These custom statuses will appear as additional columns between "Placed" and "Costed" on your Purchase Order Kanban board.

To create a new custom Purchase Order Status:

  1. From Unleashed's main menu, go to Settings, System and select Purchase Order Statuses.
  2. Under Custom Statuses, provide a Name for the new status. This name will be the status' label.
  3. Select a Color, which will apply to the new status.
  4. Click Add.

Using Purchase Order Kanban

The Purchase Order Kanban board will display all your open POs as cards, organised by their current status in columns. At the top of the page, you'll find various filtering options to help you focus on specific PO's.

Filter Field Descriptions

At the top of the Purchase Order Kanban page use the following filter field options to refine your Kanban view: 

  • Purchase Order Delivery Date: Select a date range to view purchase orders with expected delivery dates within that period.
  • Warehouse: Use this dropdown to filter purchase orders based on the destination warehouse.
  • Sort By: Use the dropdown menu to order the purchase order cards by either Delivery Date or Purchase Order Number. The adjacent up and down arrows allow you to choose between ascending or descending order.
  • Supplier: Use this dropdown to filter purchase orders based on the supplier for that purchase order.
  • Supplier Reference: Use this search field to narrow down a purchase order based on the supplier reference free text field on each purchase order

Kanban Layout

The default Kanban Layout will show each Purchase Order Status as it's own column, where the column's title is the status name. Each columns includes a count to indicate the number of PO's currently in that status. 

The default order of the Kanban boards is:

  • Parked
  • Placed
  • Custom Purchase Order Statuses, in alphanumeric order.
  • Costed.

However, you can edit this layout to suit your workflow needs.

Edit the Kanban Layout

Users with permission to view the Kanban board can customise it's layout, select the default sort order of the cards, change the order of the columns, decide which columns to display, and hide or show card content. 

To change the layout, of the Kanban page:

  1. From Unleashed's main menu, go to Purchases and select Purchase Order Kanban.
  2. In the top right corner, select Edit Layout.
  3. A sliding panel will be displayed on the right side of your page, called Kanban Layout.
  4. Use the options available to complete any of the following actions:
    • Make the Kanban Layout a Default.
    • Share the Kanban Layout with other users.
    • Create a New Kanban Layout.
    • Delete the current Kanban Layout.
    • Rearrange the Kanban Columns, drag and drop each column into the preferred order.
    • Add or edit the custom Purchase Order Statuses, when selected you will be directed to the Purchase Order Statuses page. 
    • Set a Default Sort Order that will apply to all Kanban Columns.
    • Select the Additional Card Content to display on each PO card in the Kanban Columns. 
  5. Click Save.

 

 

Purchase Order Cards

Each open PO on the Kanban board is represented by an individual card that you can interact with directly on the page. Click on any PO's card to open the full Purchase Order in a new browser tab.

The following default content is displayed on each card provides a quick overview of the PO:

  • PO Number: The unique reference number for the purchase order.
  • Destination Warehouse: The name of the warehouse where the ordered items are to be delivered.
  • Supplier Name: The name of the supplier providing the goods.
  • Supplier Code: The unique code assigned to the supplier.
  • Related Transactions: See the specific sales orders or assemblies that triggered the creation of this purchase order.
  • Delivery Date: The expected date of delivery. This date will be highlighted in green for future dates, clear for today's date, and red if the delivery date is in the past.
  • Cost Value: The total cost of all items on the purchase order.
  • Comments: Hover over the speech bubble icon (if present) to view any comments associated with the purchase order.

Tip: Click on Edit Layout in the top right corner of the Kanban page and use the Additional Card Content menu to choose which PO details are displayed on the Kanban cards per PO

Manage Purchase Orders

Update the status and progress of PO's from within the Kanban view by dragging and dropping them from one column to another. Once a PO's card has been moved it's status will be updated immediately to the new column's status. 

You can also move purchase orders up and down within the same column to reorganize their display in your current view.

NOTE: If you leave the Purchase Order Kanban page or refresh it after moving a PO card within it's current column the Kanban will revert columns to the layout's selected "Sort By" order.

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