Allocate or Request Inventory

Allocate inventory is when you want to hold merchandise for a customer but in the end process do not care if they get that serial number or an other serial number.
Assign inventory is when you want to hold merchandise for a customer and you want to assure that the serial number assigned gets to that customer in the end process.
Request inventory places a request on the buyers screen letting them know you need this model number for this customer.

Purpose:
To let the Purchasing Department know when we are going to need the merchandise for our customer. The purpose of the screen is also designed to let one
person easily and quickly manage your current inventory and purchase what is needed. It has tools built in that are convenient to use and allow you to get the merchandise in the door 'Just In-Time' for your customer to take possession. 
You have tools to decide who tracks a customer order from the time the customer informs us they want to purchase the merchandise until the time the customer takes possession of the merchandise. Sometimes the customer wants the product as soon as possible. Other times the customer is building a new home and will not need the product for months. The tool to manage this is called the 'Target Date'. Once who ever is charge of staying in contact with your customer and confirms a date the customer will take possession, then must let the Purchasing Department know of this date and what the customer want to recieve.

How To:
Find the Customer Order then in the middle section under 'Model Numbers' click on the green 'Request' button;

When you click on the green 'Request' this next screen will appear

As you type the green OK button will change:

This gives you a chance to communicate with the Purchasing Agent. Remember the Purchasing Agent will see automatically things such as Target Date, Delivery Date therefore do not reduplicate information by saying "Setup for Delivery 2/28" they will see this. Ninety percent of the time this will be blank. One example that you might enter something in here is if the Salesperson has called and checked stock with the vendor and there is only one left, the Salesperson cannot order for obvious reasons but ask the vendor to put this on hold for a day until the purchasing department calls. Therefore you could say "Checked with Vendor only has one. Put on hold for us." You can also Request the product to be transfered to your store once it comes in. Click on 'OK' to continue. 
column 'Request' in yellow 'On Request'

See also Reading Requested notes on a Customer Order

You can request one at a time or in quantity. One at a time might be that you have sold a Viking piece that takes four weeks and you have sold them a GE piece that takes you a week. Use your 'Target Date' to stay organized for this purpose. If you do want to request many items at a time you would select the models by dropping and dragging on the Record Selectors the selected items will be highlighted in blue. Just under the model numbers is a button 'Request' 
Click on the 'Request' Button and you will then see;

Click 'Yes' to continue. The next screen will appear;



This comment will be attached to all the requested model numbers. The computer will return you to the main Customer Order screen.

Notice all the yellow 'On Request' this confirms that the Purchasing Department now knows that we need the merchandise.