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Purchasing Best Practices

Chipply Purchasing gathers everything your stores and sales need, by vendor, so you can order it in one place. It works best when every order goes through it, including orders from vendors you aren't integrated with. When Chipply knows what you've bought, it can show you what still needs to be ordered, keep a purchase order for each order, and carry substitutions through to your work orders, packing slips and sorting sheets.

When products are ordered somewhere else and never marked purchased in Chipply, they keep looking like they still need to be ordered. That's how items get ordered twice, or missed, and your team ends up checking emails, vendor websites and spreadsheets to see where things stand.

The one rule

Every product you buy for a sale should be recorded in Chipply Purchasing: ordered digitally if you're integrated with the vendor, marked as purchased if you're not, or marked as pulled if it came from your own stock.

Order from integrated vendors digitally

If you're integrated with a vendor, place the order right from Chipply. It checks stock, sends the order, and creates the purchase order for you in one go. Not sure which vendors you're integrated with? Ask your account manager; the Integrated column on the first step of Purchasing shows it too.

The Best practices

  • Mark everything else as purchased, the same day you order it

    • For vendors you aren't integrated with, place the order the way you always do (their website, phone, email or rep). Then go straight back to Chipply and mark those products as purchased. That's the step that creates the purchase order and takes the products off your "still needs to be ordered" list. If you wait, it's easy to forget, and someone may order them again.

  • Mark products from your own stock as pulled

    • Products you take off your own shelves should be recorded too, so Chipply knows they're covered. Mark them as pulled instead of purchased.


  • Group orders the way your shop works

    • When you can, order the products for one process together. For example, order all the full front print items in one order and all the embroidery items in another. Each box then arrives already sorted for one department, and receiving can send it straight over. This works best when you can meet the vendor's minimums, or you're in a program without them. If grouping isn't worth it, order everything at once.

  • Make substitutions in Chipply

    • If a product is out of stock and you swap it for something else, do the substitution in Chipply instead of just ordering the replacement. Chipply updates your work orders, packing slips and sorting sheets, and receiving checks in the product that actually arrives.

  • Use a PO number you'll recognize

    • Use the vendor's order or confirmation number as your PO number when you can. When the box arrives, anyone can search for that number on the Purchase Orders page and find the right order.

Watch how Purchasing Works

 

The steps and screenshots below use SanMar as the example. Ordering works mostly the same way for every other integrated vendor, though some steps can differ slightly (for example, SanMar is the only vendor that requires you to check availability before ordering). If you have questions about a specific vendor, reach out to your account manager.

  1. Choose a vendor. Open Purchasing and select one vendor at a time, then click Next. The Integrated column shows which vendors you can order from digitally.
     
  2. Choose what to order. Products are listed by store and process. Leave everything selected to order it all, or select just one process (like your full front items) to group that order. Click Next.
     
  3. Check availability (required for SanMar). Click Check Availability, enter a PO number and your shipping details, and click Accept. A green check means a product is in stock. A yellow warning moves the product to the top so you can easily deal with it.
  4. Substitute anything that's out of stock (see below).
  5. Click Order Digitally. Then go back to Select Vendors and work through the next vendor until they're all ordered.

How to mark an order as purchased (non-integrated vendors)

  1. Place the order with your vendor however you normally do, and keep their order or confirmation number.
  2. In Purchasing, select the vendor and the products you ordered, the same way as above.
  3. Select the products, click the ⋮ (More Actions) at the bottom of the page, and choose Mark as → Purchased.
     
  4. Enter the PO number (the vendor's confirmation number is a good choice) and confirm.

 Chipply gives you a purchase order document with everything you marked, split up by vendor and grouped by process, which is handy to work from while you place the order. The products are now recorded as purchased, and the purchase order shows up on Fulfillment → Purchase Orders. For products from your own stock, choose Mark as → Pulled instead. 

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Using dealer inventory? See Pulling From Your Dealer Inventory in Purchasing for how to decide what to pull and what to order. 

How to substitute a product

  1. Select the product you need to replace, click ⋮ (More Actions) and choose Substitute.
  2. Same product, different color? Pick the new color and click Accept.
  3. Different product? Search by style number (turn on Exact Match to narrow it down), pick the product from the vendor you want, choose the color and size, and click Accept.

Chipply swaps the product everywhere it appears: work orders, packing slips and sorting sheets. Before you substitute, follow your usual process for checking with the customer if the change is noticeable.

Fixing a mistake

If you marked something purchased by mistake, open the purchase order on Fulfillment → Purchase Orders and use Mark Not Ordered. The products come off the purchase order and go back to waiting to be purchased.

Frequently asked questions

  • Do I really need to mark orders from non-integrated vendors?

    • Yes. It's the only way Chipply knows they were ordered. Without it, the products keep showing as still needing to be ordered, and if you use receiving, there's no purchase order to check them in against.

  • Does Chipply send my order to a vendor I'm not integrated with?

    • No. Marking products as purchased only records the order in Chipply. You still place the order with the vendor yourself.

  • I ordered something weeks ago outside of Chipply. Can I still mark it purchased?

    • Yes. Mark it purchased now so it can be received when it arrives.