How Do I Order Parts From My Supplier?

Ordering Parts

Once you have made a design, Plandroid will automatically create a take off list of parts in the Costing page. From the costing page, you have a number of ways of getting your take-off list into whichever stock management software you use:

• Exporting to a CSV or Excel file
• Email Ordering from a supported supplier ()
• Uploading to the 'cloud' ()

Exporting to a CSV or Excel file

The simplest way to export your costs table from the Costing page is to use the menu item File -> Export Costing -> Export Costing as CSV File to create a comma separated variables file (*.csv) . Many programs, including Excel, can read CSV files without difficulty. CSV files are simple text files that contain no formatting information.

Likewise you can export your costs table directly to Excel with the menu item File -> Export Costing -> Export Costing as Excel File. This will export the costing data into an Excel file, using a template Excel file that gives you full control over the formatting and layout of the file. To edit the Excel template file use the menu item File -> Export Costing -> Edit Excel Template. Naturally you must have Windows Office installed to be able to use Excel.

You can also just use the toolbar Copy function to copy a selection from the Costs Table and paste it directly into Excel.

Email Ordering from a Supported Supplier

You can automatically place an order for the parts you need with the menu item Tools -> Place Order, if you have used a catalog from a supplier who supports the 'shopping trolley' automatic email ordering. If you are on the Costing page, you can also use the Toolbar button Order From... (). If your supplier is supported, you will be prompted for the ordering information needed to send a parts order directly to your supplier. You can choose to create an email to send to your supplier, or you can save the order as a file to send yourself or to archive.

Only parts from the specified supplier will be ordered, and your design must contain at least one part from a particular supplier in order to activate the ordering function for that supplier.

Note that not all cost items will necessarily be included in the order form - for example user cost items are not included in the order, nor are any parts that are not in the active catalog. In some cases Plandroid will do some processing of your parts list, so there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between parts in the costing spreadsheet and in your supplier's order form. Some parts in the order form may represent multiple items in the costing table, or vice-versa. Additional, more rigorous design checks specific to that supplier may be done before the order can be sent to ensure the parts in your design are consistent.

When emailing orders, Plandroid will invoke your default email program to send the order. If you do not yet have a default email program set up, you can typically do that through the Windows Control Panel, under Programs.

Uploading Your Order to the 'Cloud'

The Upload to the Cloud toolbar button () can be used to send the parts take-off list to a stock management server over the internet. To use this function, you must first have set the Tools -> Options -> Costing -> Cloud Connection settings to specify the URL of the specific software you wish to use, such as simPRO, a webhook, or an email address. If you need to complete the server Authentication (login) process, you will automatically be prompted to do so before using the service.

This method will upload all of your design data, from all of the suppliers that you have used in your design and does not do any supplier-specific design checking.

For some providers, you can also synchronise your catalogs between Plandroid and the cloud server by using the context menu item Sync Catalogs on the Design page -> Parts catalog tab. You can synchronise by either uploading the Plandroid catalog data or by downloading the pricing information from the cloud into Plandroid.

Excluding Parts From an Order

Cost items that have been hidden using the Hide Items toolbar button () or the Filter Items button () in the Costing page are excluded from any orders placed with the 'shopping trolley' Place Orders tool.

Maintaining an Order Trail

Items that have been ordered with the shopping trolley button will automatically remember their order status, are marked as Ordered in the Costing page, and show the date they were ordered on. The Costing context menu item Order Info displays all the information about the order so that you can maintain a comprehensive order trail. You can also manually mark any cost items as ordered, and manually edit the order dates.

Managing Stock

You can manage your parts stock inventory with the Costing page columns In Stock, Dispatched, and Date Dispatched. Right-click on the Costing column header row to bring up the Columns Visible menu to turn these columns on or off.