The Purchase Orders tab (POs) is where you turn the materials on a project into actual orders to your vendors. Riffle groups everything by vendor, tracks how much of each item you've ordered, and builds the POs for you so you can see at a glance what's been ordered and what still needs to go out.
Your PO totals at a glance
Across the top of the POs tab, three summary cards keep track of your ordering against your estimate:
Total Budgeted/Planned: The total of your estimated material costs for the project.
Committed To-date: The total value of every PO you have created so far.
Committed Difference: How far your ordering is running over or under your budget, shown as a percentage and a dollar amount. It turns red when you go over.
The basics
When a project enters the Project WIP phase, Riffle automatically pulls the materials from the latest version of your estimate and groups them by vendor so you're not starting from a blank page. Totals update as you go and everything saves automatically.
Tip: Move quickly with the keyboard. Tab jumps to the next field and Enter applies a change.
You can manually add a vendor PO at any time by pressing Add another Vendor PO and recording all the necessary information about the materials.
Related: How Do I Create a PO?
Vendor cards
Each vendor has its own card listing the materials you'll buy from them.
On a card you can:
Add line items for anything the estimate didn't include.
See what's linked to the Catalog, what's a close match to an existing Catalog item, and what's not in your Catalog today.
See where each item stands: how much you need, how much you have ordered, and how much is still remaining.
Enter how much to buy in the Purchase column, or press the All? toggle to order everything still remaining on that line. Typing a quantity is what stages a line for your next PO.
Delete the card if you don't need it. The materials in the card aren't deleted, they move to the Orphaned Items card so you can move them elsewhere.
Remove a line item you don't need.
Add notes about an item.
Reorder the items in the card by dragging and dropping.
Linking POs to the Catalog
Riffle shows you when PO line items are found in your catalog so you can ensure information like Part/Model number, description, and unit cost are always correct.
If you're adding new line items to the PO card, input the Part/Model number or Description to search the Catalog. Selecting an item will pull in all of the relevant information needed for your PO. Then you just have to confirm the quantity needed and the item will be ready for when you create the PO.
Related: How Do I Create a PO?
Order status at a glance
Riffle shows where each material stands using a simple color key:
Green: you've ordered everything you need for this item.
Orange: some has been ordered, but not the full quantity yet.
Gray: nothing has been ordered for this item so far.
Once every item on a card is fully ordered, the Create PO button changes to Fully ordered, so you won't order the same materials twice.
The materials you order on the POs tab flow straight into the Receiving tab, where you'll track what actually shows up on site. Order it once in POs, and it's waiting for you to receive it.
Related: Receiving Materials
Materials without a vendor
If a material isn't tied to a vendor yet, it shows up as an unassigned (orphaned) item. When you have any, these collect in an Orphaned Items panel beside your vendor cards. To put one on the right card, just drag it onto that vendor, and it will join their list and be ready to order.
Tips
Let the color key guide your day. Anything gray or orange still needs attention.
Check for orphaned items before creating POs and move them to the appropriate vendor card so each order is complete.
Review Previous POs and quantities on existing line items to check what you've already sent a vendor before creating another PO.