Creating a purchase order with a few items is fairly straightforward. But when a purchase order includes dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of lines, entering each item individually can quickly become time-consuming.
Acumatica offers several tools that make large purchase orders easier to manage. Depending on how your organization receives purchasing information and how often you place similar orders, you can add multiple items at once, import purchase order lines from Excel, or reuse information from previous transactions.
Here are three options that can help streamline purchase order entry in Acumatica.
When creating a purchase order, you always have the option to add inventory items one row at a time. You can select an Inventory ID, enter the quantity, and continue adding lines until the order is complete.
For purchase orders with many lines, the Add Items button provides a faster alternative.
Selecting Add Items opens an inventory lookup where you can view and select multiple inventory items at the same time. For example, you can filter items based on criteria such as item class, warehouse, and vendor-specific items.
The Only Vendor's Items option can also be used to limit the list to items associated with the vendor on the purchase order. If you want to see a broader selection, you can uncheck that option.
Once you've narrowed the list, you can select multiple items and enter order quantities directly within the lookup. When you're finished, select Add and Close, and Acumatica will populate those lines onto the purchase order.
The system can also pull in additional information already associated with the inventory item or vendor, such as unit cost.
This approach works well when you know which items you need but don't want to build a large purchase order one line at a time.
If purchasing information already exists in a spreadsheet, importing it into Acumatica may save even more manual entry.
For example, you may receive a vendor file containing Inventory IDs or SKUs along with the quantity you want to order. Rather than retyping that information into Acumatica, you can use the Load Records From File option to import it.
Your Excel file doesn't need to contain every field available on the purchase order. A simple file could include inventory ID, description, if desired, and order quantity. That file could contain 30 lines, 500 lines, 1,000 lines, or more.
When uploading the spreadsheet, Acumatica walks you through matching the columns in your file with the corresponding fields in the system. Columns with matching names may be identified automatically, while others can be mapped manually.
You can then choose how the import should treat the records. If you're creating the purchase order for the first time, you can select Insert All Records. Acumatica will bring the purchase order lines into the system and populate additional information available from its existing records, such as unit costs.
This can significantly reduce the amount of data that needs to be entered manually.
Excel imports can also be useful when purchase order information changes.
Suppose you've already uploaded a large order but receive revised quantities from the vendor or purchasing team. Instead of finding and editing each affected line in Acumatica, you can make the changes in the spreadsheet and upload it again.
This time, select the option to Update Existing Records. Acumatica can use the revised spreadsheet values to update the existing purchase order lines.
For organizations that regularly work with large spreadsheets of purchasing data, this gives teams another way to manage changes without extensive reentry.
Sometimes the easiest way to build a purchase order is to start with one you've already created.
Acumatica provides copy-and-paste functionality across transactions, including purchase orders. If a new order is similar to an existing one, you can copy the previous transaction and paste it into a new purchase order.
From there, you can adjust quantities or other details that have changed rather than rebuilding the transaction from scratch.
For recurring purchases, you can take this one step further by saving the transaction as a template.
For example, if you place a similar order with the same vendor every month or quarter, you can save that purchase order as a named template. The next time you create an order, you can select the template and use it as your starting point.
The purchase order lines will populate automatically, allowing you to update quantities or other information based on the current order.
Templates can be particularly helpful for recurring purchases that involve many of the same inventory items each time.
The best method depends on how your team works.
If you're selecting products directly within Acumatica, the Add Items function can make it easier to find and enter several items at once. If purchasing information is already maintained in Excel, uploading the spreadsheet can eliminate duplicate entry. And if you're regularly placing similar orders, copying an existing transaction or creating a template can give you a repeatable starting point.
You can also use these features together depending on the situation.
Large, multi-line purchase orders don't have to mean entering hundreds of rows manually. By taking advantage of Acumatica's bulk-entry, import, and template capabilities, your purchasing team can spend less time building transactions and more time moving orders through the purchasing process.
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