Summary
Inventory Planner's Automations functionality can be used to automatically send emails to specified recipients with predefined reports attached as CSV files. It can also schedule the creation of purchase order and transfer orders on a recurring basis, taking into account relevant filters (e.g. replenishment needs, vendor and warehouse details) and prioritization considerations.
Outline
Automations overview
Access the Automation section from the Account toolbar. New Automations can be created from the Automations page, or from other relevant pages (e.g. the sub-menu in Replenishment).
It will load a window listing your current Automations. To create a new one, click "+ New Automation" on the bottom left-hand side of the page:
If you click the arrow, you'll have 2 options:
Automate Stock Orders
Automate Report Emails
Automate Stock Orders
Use Automations to generate multiple purchase orders or transfers at once as a “stock order batch” on a defined schedule.
When clicking in "Automate Stock Orders" you'll be able to configure the following settings:
Enable Automation: Enable the functionality in order to use it. Enabling Automation allows the user to schedule future events or batches.
Name: Give the rule a descriptive name
Frequency: Choose how often you want the Automation to run, from daily, weekly, monthly and yearly
Notification emails: Choose which email addresses will receive the notification every time an automated stock order is created
Type: Choose whether to create purchase orders or transfers
Status: Set the default status when purchase orders or transfers are created
Item type: Choose whether to add simple variants or assemblies
If assemblies are selected, additionally choose whether to replace the assemblies with their component variants, and whether to link the assemblies to a purchase order
Filters: Set your preferred filters to decide which products to add to the orders
If creating purchase orders:
If creating transfer orders:
Source warehouse: Pick the warehouse for the stock to originate from on the transfer
Limit transfer quantities by: Choose whether to limit the transfer quantities by the current stock or the available stock
Transfer UOM: Enable to consider the transfer UOM for the created transfer orders, as configured in Catalog > Warehouses.
Note that transfer UOM is configured for the source warehouse (not the destination). If there is no transfer UOM or no source warehouse specified, the vendor UOM is used (if applicable)
Round quantity: Choose whether to round the quantity up (highest number) or down (to the lowest number)
Destination Warehouse: Select the destination warehouse for the stock order or transfer, as well as the replenishment warehouse if different
If creating transfers, you can also choose how to prioritize your transfers if more than one destination warehouse is selected
Automate Purchase Orders
Automate Transfer Orders
Transfer orders have a prioritization method.
Prioritization Methods for Transfer Orders
When adding destination warehouses, Inventory Planner allows you to prioritize them in cases where there is insufficient stock in the source warehouse to replenish all warehouses.
In such cases, the primary method is used to determine how to distribute the stock. If there's a tie, the secondary method is used instead. Inventory Planner attempts to satisfy replenishment recommendations for the top priority warehouse before considering replenishment for the next warehouse.
There are three methods:
Stock Cover: First fulfill replenishment recommendations for the warehouse that has the lowest stock cover.
Warehouse Replenishment: First fulfill replenishment recommendations for the warehouse that has the highest replenishment needs.
Manual: First fulfill replenishment recommendations for the warehouse that is first in the list. Use the handles to drag and drop warehouses into the correct order.
Once you're happy with your configuration, save the automation. A pop-up will appear. Click "Save and Enable" if you are sure about the configuration and to confirm the Automation creation.
Automations page
Once you've created an automation rule, the Automations page displays a summary of your rules. You can click into each rule for more information about the individual rule and to edit the rule.
Each page will list the next upcoming purchase order or transfer, as well as a summary of the purchase orders or transfers that have already been created with the rule.
You can also click the “Create Now” button to run the automation immediately, instead of waiting for the next scheduled date.
Viewing past Automations and Automation history
The past Automations section displays several pieces of useful information.
You can hover over the details icon in the history to view a summary of how the rule was configured at the time the batch was created:
If there were any errors, you can view details of the errors or any other information that may explain changes to quantities (e.g. if they were rounded due to minimum order quantities).
Clicking into Automation History will show you details such as the rule's creation date, the user who created it, any changes made to the rule and any orders created using the rule.
Source metric in Stock Orders
Your purchase orders and transfers will be displayed in the Stock Orders report. On creation, a batch number will be automatically assigned to the orders created at once. To view how your stock orders were created, use the Source column and filter.
