Purchasing and suppliers

Purchase orders are how you buy stock: build them in the back office or on the iPad, send them to the supplier, then receive the delivery against them. This page also covers your suppliers and the purchasing settings; receiving is on Receiving and supplier invoices. Inventory is only on plans that include it — see Plans and billing. On the iPad, Purchasing is in More only on those plans.

Orders in the back office

Inventory › Purchasing › Orders lists all your purchase orders: drafts made in the back office, orders placed from the bar on the iPad, deliveries received without an order and deliveries received from a supplier invoice. Each of those is kept as an order too, so your history all looks the same.

Who can do this: admins and managers.

Find an order

1. Go to Inventory › Purchasing. Orders opens first.
2. Read the row: the supplier (or No supplier), the status badge and, for a delivery with no order, a grey badge — "direct receipt" or "invoice".
3. The grey line under it shows the number of lines ("6 lines"), "received" or "expected" with a date, and the notes. The money is on the right.
4. Click the row to open the order.

Order statuses

• On the order's page, a badge says where it came from: bar (placed on the iPad), direct receipt (received with no order) or invoice (received from a supplier invoice, with no order). Orders made in the back office have no badge. The list shows only the last two.
• The money on the row: a Received order shows what was received, before IVA. Every other status, Partial included, shows the ordered total, before IVA.
• Dates are in the venue's time zone.
• The list shows the 50 most recent orders. Older ones can't be reached from it.
• The order's page shows only the lines that were ordered. Something that arrived without being ordered, or a substitute received on the iPad, shows only in that delivery's totals.

Start something new

Click New at the top right and pick:

• New order — an empty draft (see Create an order in the back office).
• Draft from stock — drafts orders from your pars (see Draft orders from stock).
• Receive without an order — see Receiving and supplier invoices.
• Supplier invoice (XML) — opens Invoices to import a supplier's invoice (also on the receiving page).

Create an order in the back office

The back office builds an order as a draft: pick the supplier, an expected date and notes, then add items with a quantity and a price. You can change a draft freely until you send it.

Who can do this: admins and managers.

1. Go to Inventory › Purchasing › Orders and click New › New order.
2. In New purchase order, pick the Supplier or leave No supplier. Optionally pick an Expected date and type Notes (for example "Weekly spirits order").
3. Click Create draft. You see "Draft created" and the draft opens.

Add lines

1. In Item, type to search and pick the item. The search ignores accents and punctuation, and also matches the SKU. Items already on the order aren't offered; when every item is on it, the box reads "All items added".
2. Price fills with the item's last price paid — per bottle for a bottle, with "per 750 ml" under it, or per unit for anything else.
3. Type the Qty — in bottles for a bottle ("bottles of 750 ml" shows under it), in the item's unit otherwise. Fractions are allowed.
4. Change the price if the supplier quoted another one, then press Enter in the price box or click Add. The cursor goes back to Item for the next line.

Change a draft

• Change a line's quantity or price in the table; it saves when you leave the box. A line shows a message only if the save fails.
• Click ✕ (Remove line) to drop a line.
• Supplier and Expected date save the moment they change; Notes save when you leave the box. A floating "Saving…" and then "Saved" confirms each one.
• The Ordered total at the bottom follows the lines.

Delete a draft

Click Delete and confirm "Delete this draft order?". You see "Draft deleted" and go back to the list.

Rules for orders

• One line per item: adding the same item again says "That item is already on this order." Only active items can be added.
• Quantities typed in bottles are stored in the item's unit (bottles × the bottle's ml). A box you don't change is never saved again, so its figure isn't rounded.
• Prices are kept exact, per ml or per unit, to fractions of a cent. A price box you don't change keeps the stored price.
• The order's total is each line's quantity × price, rounded once to the cent, added up.
• You can type a price finer than a cent, such as "0.017" for a gram. "1,500" is fifteen hundred; in "180,50" and "0,385" the comma is a decimal point; anything that could mean two things is refused.
• Only a draft can be changed or deleted in the back office ("Only draft orders can be edited.", "Only draft orders can be deleted."). A sent order can still be changed on the iPad, or cancelled (see Cancel an order).
• Messages when adding a line: "Pick an item", "Enter a quantity", "Enter a unit cost". When changing one: "Enter a valid quantity and cost".

Draft orders from stock

One click proposes everything that is below par, in whole bottles and units, grouped by each item's usual supplier and priced at the last price paid. Creating it makes ordinary drafts — one per supplier — that you can still change line by line before sending. This is the back office's "order up to par".

Who can do this: admins and managers.

1. Click New › Draft from stock.
2. The dialog reads "Checking stock against pars…" and then lists, for each supplier (named suppliers A–Z, No supplier last), each item as "3 × 750 ml" or "14 each", and the supplier's total.
3. If some active items have no par, a note says "X active items have no par level and are never proposed — set pars under Items → Par & reorder."
4. Click Create X draft orders. You see "X draft orders created".
5. Open each draft from the list, check it and send it.

A finalized count's page also links here: Draft purchase orders from this stock → opens the Orders list (see Stock counts).

What gets proposed

• Active items with a par above zero whose shortfall is above zero. The shortfall is the par minus what is on hand and what is still to come on draft, sent and partly received orders. The rest of a partly received order counts as on its way, so a draft made after a split delivery doesn't order those bottles again; a line that a received substitute stood in for doesn't count. It's the same rule as From par on the iPad.
• Bottles are rounded up to whole bottles; other items to whole units.
• The reorder point plays no part: anything below par is proposed.
• Each line is priced at the item's last price paid.
• Each draft's notes read "Drafted from stock vs par".
• The proposal is worked out again when you click Create, so the drafts match the stock at that moment.
• It's all or nothing: if one draft fails, none are kept and you see the error.
• "Nothing is below par." — nothing qualifies, and the button is greyed out.
• Clicking it twice before sending makes no duplicates: the first click's drafts count as on order.
• On hand is the figure in Activity. An item whose stock reads below zero (never counted) is proposed as if it were that far below par, so count before you order.

Send an order

Sending marks a draft as Sent, so it can be received, and emails a copy of the order to your venue's own purchasing address — the office's paper trail. The email doesn't go to the supplier: send the order to the supplier by WhatsApp, or copy it and paste it anywhere.

Who can do this: admins and managers.

1. Open the draft. It needs at least one line; Send is greyed out otherwise.
2. Click Send and confirm "Send this order? It can no longer be edited once sent."
3. Read the message:
   • "Order sent — emailed to compras@example.com." — the copy went to your purchasing email.
   • "Order sent. No purchasing email is set — add one in Settings → Venue." — see Purchasing settings.
   • "Order sent, but the email failed: …" — followed by the reason.
4. The order is Sent in every case.

Send it to the supplier

1. Click WhatsApp on the sent order. A new tab opens WhatsApp — the app, where you have it — with the order's text already written: the title "Purchase order — (your venue)", the supplier, the expected delivery when you set one, one line per item and the estimated total.
2. In WhatsApp, choose the supplier's chat and send the message. Barform sends nothing to the supplier itself.

Or click Copy order — you see "Order copied." — and paste it wherever you talk to the supplier.

WhatsApp and Copy order appear on orders that are sent, partial or received and have lines. A draft can't be shared.

What the email and the text say

• The email's subject reads "Purchase order — Distribuidora Norte — Barform POS", with your supplier's name. It shows your venue's name, the supplier, the expected delivery day, each line's name and quantity, the estimated total and the notes. There are no prices per line. It's in the back office's language.
• The WhatsApp and copied text has a title with your venue's name, the supplier, the expected delivery (when set), one line per item such as "• 12 × 750 ml — Tequila blanco", and "Estimated total: $…". There are no notes and no prices per line. It's in the back office's language.
• Quantities read as whole bottles ("12 × 750 ml") when the line is a whole number of bottles; otherwise as the quantity and unit, such as "900 ml" or "24 each".

Rules for sending

• Clicking twice never sends twice. If the email fails, the order stays sent.
• Orders placed on the iPad are never emailed; they're sent from the start, and the back office sees them in the list.
• Barform never sends anything to the supplier's own email address.
• After sending, the order can't be changed in the back office. It can on the iPad until something arrives.

Cancel an order

An order the supplier won't fill can be cancelled while nothing has arrived against it. Cancelled orders stay in the back office's list for the record. An order that has partly arrived is closed short instead (see Receiving and supplier invoices).

Who can do this: admins and managers — on the iPad, a signed-in admin or manager.

In the back office

1. Open the sent order and click Cancel order.
2. Confirm "Cancel this purchase order?". You see "Order cancelled".

Cancel order shows only on a sent order. A draft is deleted instead.

On the iPad

1. In Purchasing › Open orders, tap the trash icon on the order (Delete order).
2. The alert "Delete this order?" shows the supplier and the total, and says "the supplier is not told; cancel it with them too."
3. Tap Delete order, or Keep. You see "Order deleted."

On the iPad the trash icon shows on draft and sent orders. Deleting there cancels the order: it stays in the back office's list as Cancelled.

Rules for cancelling

• A received order can't be cancelled: "A received order can't be cancelled." (on the iPad, "A received order can't be deleted.").
• A partial order can't be cancelled: "Stock has already been received against this order — close it short instead." (on the iPad, "Stock has already arrived on this order — close it short instead.").
• A cancelled order no longer counts as stock on its way when Barform proposes orders.
• There's no way to undo a cancel, and neither app tells the supplier.
• Cancelled orders aren't shown on the iPad.

Order from the iPad

The whole purchasing loop works at the bar, with no laptop: build a shopping list at the end of the night — from par or from nothing — where each line picks its own supplier, and place it as one order per supplier. The same screen lists open orders (share, edit, delete, receive, close short), received orders, deliveries without an order and supplier invoices.

Who can do this: a signed-in admin or manager. The Purchasing tile is in their row of More; other roles can't get in with a manager's PIN.

Tap ··· › Purchasing. It opens full screen; the ✕ at the top left closes it. The tile reads "X open orders", counting draft, sent and partial orders.

Build an order from par

1. In the New order card, tap From par.
2. The list opens with every item below par, each on its usual supplier, in whole bottles, at the last price paid. Each line shows the price "each" and how much is on hand. If nothing qualifies, the card says "Nothing is below par." — or, when no item has a par yet, "No par levels yet — set them in the Backoffice → Inventory → Par."
3. Adjust the list (below), then place it.

Build an order from nothing

Tap Empty order, then add items with the search (below).

Work the list

1. Lines are grouped the way they'll be placed: one group per supplier ("X lines"), with No supplier last.
2. Tap a line's supplier chip (the box icon) to move the line to another supplier, or to No supplier.
3. Use − and + to change whole bottles (1 to 999).
4. Tap the pencil (Edit line) to type the quantity and the price. For a 750 ml bottle the boxes read Quantity (750 ml) (fractions allowed) and Price per 750 ml (MXN). Tap Save.
5. Tap ✕ (Remove line) to drop a line.
6. Under Add an item, type in Search inventory and tap a result. It's added with one bottle, at its last price paid, on its usual supplier.
7. Optionally type Notes (optional).
8. Tap Place order · $X — or Place X orders · $X when the list has more than one supplier. You see "Order placed." or "X orders placed."

Both Edit line boxes read a comma the Mexican way: before three digits it separates thousands (1,500 is fifteen hundred), before one or two it's a decimal comma (180,50 is 180.50). A figure the iPad can't read keeps Save off, with "Enter a quantity and a price."

Share an order with the supplier

In Open orders, tap the share icon (Share order) and pick an app — WhatsApp, Messages, Mail, Copy, or whatever else the iPad offers. The text reads "Order — " with the venue's name and the date, then the supplier, one line per item such as "• Tequila blanco: 3 × 750 ml", and the notes. It has no prices. It's in the iPad's language, and the date is the day the order was made.

See what came in

Tap Received (X) to unfold the 30 most recent received orders. Each lists what actually came — a substitute under its own name, a line that never came left out — with the tags "without an order", "from an invoice" or "closed short". The money is what arrived, before IVA. (Before anything arrives, an order shows its ordered total.)

To receive or close short, see Receiving and supplier invoices. To edit, see below; to delete, see Cancel an order.

How the iPad's list works

• From par proposes active items with a par above zero, for the shortfall: the par minus what is on hand and what is still to come on draft, sent and partial orders. A line that another item already stood in for (a substitute that was received) doesn't count as still to come. It rounds up to whole bottles for a bottle, whole units otherwise. The reorder point plays no part.
• Prices start at the item's last price paid, per bottle. A price you type replaces it.
• Placing checks every line first, then creates one order per supplier, all at once, each one sent and marked bar. The same notes go on every order of the list. The button's total is what is stored.
• If the connection drops and you try again, Barform returns the same orders instead of placing them twice.
• Open orders lists every draft, sent and partial order, including drafts made in the back office.

Limits on the iPad

• No email from the iPad: the share button is how the supplier gets the order. There's no expected date on the iPad.
• An item can be on a list only once (the search hides items already on it), so one item can't be split between two suppliers in the same list.
• The search matches the item's name only — not the SKU — ignoring accents and capitals, and shows up to 8 results.
• Placing needs the connection. Offline, it fails with "Could not place the order: …" and nothing is placed.
• Suppliers can't be created on the iPad.

Edit an open order on the iPad

An open order that nothing has arrived for can be rewritten on the iPad: its supplier, every line and the notes.

Who can do this: a signed-in admin or manager.

1. In Open orders, tap the pencil on the order (Edit order). It opens with its lines.
2. Pick the Supplier chip for the whole order — one order goes to one supplier.
3. Change the lines as when building a list: − and +, the pencil, ✕, and Add an item (a new line joins the order's supplier).
4. Tap Save · $X. You see "Order saved."

The footer reminds you: "Saving rewrites the order. The supplier is not told — share it again if it changed."

• The pencil and the trash icon show only on draft and sent orders. A partial order shows Close short and Receive instead.
• A draft stays a draft, and a sent order stays sent.
• A line keeps its own price unless you type a new one.
• Once anything has arrived, the order can't be changed: "Stock has already arrived on this order, so it can't be changed."
• The iPad can change a sent order; the back office can't.

Suppliers

Your suppliers are the companies you buy from, each with a contact, phone, email, RFC, whether their paper prints prices with IVA, and notes. Items are linked to their usual supplier on Items; orders, deliveries and invoices name a supplier.

Who can do this: admins and managers, in the back office. The iPad can only pick a supplier and, from an invoice, save a supplier's RFC.

Go to Inventory › Purchasing › Suppliers.

Add a supplier

1. Click New supplier.
2. Fill in Name (required), Contact, Phone, Email, RFC (tax id), the box Their prices include IVA — it starts the way your venue's Received prices include IVA is set — and Notes.
3. Click Create. You see "Supplier created".

Edit or delete a supplier

• To edit, click the pencil on the row, change the fields and click Save. You see "Supplier updated".
• To delete, click the trash icon and confirm "Delete "…"?". When items use the supplier, the dialog adds "X item(s) will lose this supplier." You see "Supplier deleted".

Export the list

Click Export CSV. The file has the columns Name, Contact, Phone, Email and Items. It has no RFC column.

Good to know about suppliers

• Each row shows the name, the number of items (active items whose usual supplier it is), the contact, phone, email, RFC, and "Their prices include IVA" when that's on.
• RFC (tax id) is saved in capitals, without spaces at the ends, up to 20 characters: "As it appears on their invoices — used to match them automatically." An imported invoice finds its supplier by RFC (see Receiving and supplier invoices).
• Their prices include IVA presets the receive screens to "with IVA" for this supplier's deliveries: "On for a supermarket ticket; off for a distributor invoice that prints prices before IVA. Presets the receive screen." Costs are always stored before IVA. A new supplier — added in the New supplier window or by a spreadsheet import — starts with the box ticked or not as your venue's Received prices include IVA says; tick or untick it per supplier.
• Deleting is permanent. Items, orders, deliveries and invoices that named the supplier stay, with no supplier. What the supplier taught Barform — its product codes, and the last prices and pack sizes on its paper — is deleted with it, so its next invoice is matched from scratch.
• Give each supplier its own RFC. The form doesn't stop two suppliers having the same one, and an imported invoice then goes to the older supplier. Saving an RFC from an invoice does check: "… already has this RFC. Nothing was saved."
• Email must look like an email address ("That does not look like an email address."). It's contact information only: Barform never emails a supplier. A missing name is refused with "A name is required."

Pars and ordering

Pars are what From par on the iPad and Draft from stock in the back office order up to. You set them — and accept par suggestions from the last 28 nights of sales — in Items › Par & reorder (see Items and stock).

• An item with a par above 0 is proposed when its stock, counting what is already on its way, is below the par, for the shortfall. An item with no par is never proposed, however low its stock.
• The reorder point is never used by a proposal. It only drives the Low badge and the To reorder filter on Items.
• Pars change only when someone saves them or accepts a suggestion.

Purchasing settings

Two venue settings: where sent purchase orders are emailed, and whether received prices include IVA by default — for new suppliers, and for a delivery with no supplier.

Who can do this: admins. Managers don't see the Venue tab. The Purchasing card shows only on plans with inventory.

1. Go to Settings › Venue, and the Venue sub-tab.
2. In the Purchasing card, type the Purchasing email. It saves when you leave the box or press Enter ("Saving…", then "Saved").
3. Switch Received prices include IVA on or off. It saves at once.

• The email is sent only by Send in the back office.
• For a supplier's deliveries, that supplier's own Their prices include IVA sets the price mode. Changing the venue setting later doesn't change the suppliers you already have: each keeps its own.
• Deliveries from a supplier invoice use neither: an invoice's prices are before IVA.
• A bad address is refused: "That does not look like an email address."

Related

• Receiving and supplier invoices
• Items and stock
• Stock counts
• Venue settings, hours and targets