Auto-updating item statuses to "ordered" from within a PO is crucial to moving fast and keeping your team up to date. This article will explain how this feature works and under what conditions these updates will take place.
Overview
Materio aims to streamline the ordering process, making it easier to track which items have been ordered and which have not. Materio will offer to auto-update item statuses to "ordered" once you've confirmed a PO.
When Does Auto-Updating Occur?
Initially, while your PO is in the "Needs Review" status or any status before it, Materio won't offer to make any automatic updates to item statuses, even if you save the PO. This is because in these early statuses, the PO has not yet been reviewed for accuracy, so it should not affect the rest of the project yet.
The moment you confirm the PO, Materio will offer to auto-update item statuses to "Ordered."
A PO is considered confirmed once it has been moved past "Needs Review" status into either "Confirmed" or "Fully Paid" status. Learn more here about PO statuses in Materio.
Steps to Auto-Update Item Status
Review your PO and ensure it’s correct.
Confirm the PO to move it past the "Needs Review" status.
Upon saving, a prompt will appear asking if you want to auto-update item statuses.
Choose which items you want to update. You can opt into updating all or just a selection.
Confirm the auto-updating action.
Selective Updating
Not all items within a PO have to be updated. For example, if you have more complicated component items that should not be updated until everything else is ordered, you can selectively choose which items to auto-update.
Edge cases to consider
Multiple POs for a Single Item: With the new PO workflows, having multiple POs for a single item is possible. If an item within a PO has already been marked ordered through another PO, you will not be prompted to update its status.
Items Past Ordered Status: Any item that has already passed the "Ordered" status when you choose to auto-update will not be affected. The system will only auto-update items moving from a previous status to an "Ordered" status.
Later Change to a Confirmed PO: After Materio has auto-updated the item statuses once for a given PO, it will not offer again for that PO. If you later make changes to the PO to add or remove an item, you will need to manually update those items' statuses.
Custom Items or add-ons: A custom product add-on or fee that may have been added by the vendor but not anticipated or have a line item in Materio, for example, this "Custom Product fee" from Rove Concepts.
Auto-updating item statuses to "ordered" in POs can significantly enhance your operational efficiency. This feature eliminates manual tracking of orders and ensures that all team members are on the same page regarding the status of ordered items.
Have questions? Email us at hello@materio.co