Purchase Order Management
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- Streamlining Purchasing with Luminous
- Bulk Product Addition to Purchase Orders (POs)
- Robust Approval Flows
- Splitting Shipments Across Multiple POs
- Tracking Landed Costs
- Key Takeaways
- Example: Landed Cost on One Container
- Tips for Better Purchasing
- The PO Lifecycle in Luminous
- Common Questions
- Luminous: Your Purchasing Partner
Streamlining Purchasing with Luminous
Effective purchasing is at the heart of a well-run business, especially for ecommerce companies that manage a lot of inventory. Luminous simplifies the purchasing process, offering flexibility, transparency, and ease of use. Here's a look at how Luminous handles purchasing, making it easier to manage your supply chain.
Bulk Product Addition to Purchase Orders (POs)
Luminous makes it simple to manage large inventories by allowing you to bulk add products to your purchase orders. Whether you’re working with a small set of items or an extensive catalog, this feature saves time and reduces manual data entry. You can also import prior purchase orders into the system.
Robust Approval Flows
Luminous lets you set up robust, flexible approval flows, so every purchase order goes through the right people before it's sent out. Whether your business needs a single approval or several layers of oversight, you can set it up to match your process. See how to set up PO approval flows.
Splitting Shipments Across Multiple POs
For brands that deal with multiple containers or staggered shipments, Luminous makes it easy to split shipments and track all of your different containers across multiple POs. See how to split shipments in Luminous.
Tracking Landed Costs
Accurate landed cost tracking is essential for maintaining profit margins and understanding your true costs. Luminous lets you add any cost you'd like, such as freight, duties or handling fees, directly onto a PO or a shipment. That way, all costs are accounted for and your product costs stay accurate.
Key Takeaways
- Faster PO creation: Bulk add products to a PO, or import prior purchase orders.
- Built-in control: Flexible approval flows make sure POs go out correctly.
- Container-level visibility: Split shipments and track containers across multiple POs.
- True product cost: Add any cost to a PO or shipment for accurate landed costs.
Example: Landed Cost on One Container
Say you order 1,000 units at $5.00 each, for $5,000 in product cost. When the container ships, you add:
- Ocean freight: $800
- Duties: $400
- Port and handling fees: $300
That's $1,500 in extra costs, bringing your total to $6,500, or $6.50 per unit. If you only tracked the $5.00 product cost, every margin calculation on that SKU would be off by 30%.
Tips for Better Purchasing
- Start from history: Importing prior purchase orders gives you a baseline for what you usually order, from whom, and how often.
- Match approvals to risk: Small, routine reorders might need one approver, while large or first-time orders may deserve an extra set of eyes.
- Think in containers, not just POs: When one container holds goods from several POs, or one PO ships in several containers, tracking at the shipment level keeps receiving clean.
- Add costs as soon as you know them: Freight quotes, duty estimates and fees can change, so update the PO or shipment as invoices come in.
- Review landed cost by SKU: Products that look profitable at factory cost may tell a different story once freight and duties are included.
The PO Lifecycle in Luminous
Want to go deeper? These videos walk through each step of a purchase order:
- Approve it: Set up PO approval flows
- Send it: Send a PO to your supplier, using PO export templates
- Keep it organized: Store files and information within a PO
- Ship it: Split shipments and manage inbound shipments
- Receive it: Perform partial receipts and add costs upon receiving
- Cost it: See how purchasing affects cost layers
- Sync it: Sync POs to QuickBooks Online
Common Questions
Can I import my existing purchase orders?
Yes. Luminous lets you import prior purchase orders into the system, and bulk add products to new POs.
Can one shipment cover multiple POs?
Yes. You can split shipments and track your containers across multiple POs.
What costs can I add to a PO?
Any cost you'd like, such as freight, duties or fees, on either the PO or the shipment, so your landed costs are accurate.
Why do approval flows matter?
Purchase orders commit real cash. Approval flows make sure the right people review a PO before it goes to your supplier, so mistakes get caught before they become expensive.
Luminous: Your Purchasing Partner
Luminous’ purchasing features are designed to simplify and enhance the way you manage inventory and supply chains. From bulk product addition and flexible approval processes to shipment splitting and landed cost tracking, Luminous makes purchasing straightforward and effective for ecommerce businesses of all sizes.
Ready to streamline your procurement processes and boost your bottom line? Luminous has the powerful tools you need. Book a demo today!
Video transcript
Purchasing in Luminous
This is what purchasing looks like inside of Luminous. First and foremost, Luminous makes it extremely easy to bulk add products to a PO, or to import prior purchase orders into the system.
Approval Flows
We also allow users to set up robust and flexible approval flows, to make sure your POs get sent out correctly.
“That is brilliant.”
Splitting Shipments
Another thing Luminous does a great job of is splitting shipments. You could be a brand that wants to track all of your different containers across multiple POs, and you're able to do that.
Landed Costs
Lastly, one of the most important things about purchasing is tracking landed costs. You're able to add any cost you'd like onto a PO or a shipment, to make sure your costs are accurate. And that's about it. Thanks.