Introduction
Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, and Transfer Orders are all additional supplies and demands for Items in Inventory. Whereas Purchase Orders are universally increases in supply and Sales Orders are always going to consume material, Transfer Orders present both a supply for one Warehouse (the one receiving the transfer) and a demand from a different Warehouse (warehouse where transfer was initiated).
Key Concepts
Purchase Orders: Purchase Orders are orders for additional material from either an external or internal vendor. Generally purchase orders are created for Raw Materials or Intermediate Materials. In the case of plastic extrusion, a common Purchase Order would be for additional bulk quantities of resin pellets to be melted down and extruded. In APS, Purchase Orders cannot be created manually but are generally imported values in order to keep the Inventory Plan up to date with both incoming and outgoing quantities.
Sales Orders: Sales Orders are generally customer orders for finished products. Sales Orders in APS are often used in conjunction with MRP functionality as well as for tracking demand in the Inventory Plan. Sales Orders can be created manually in APS. A Sales Order is not to be confused with a Job, as many Jobs can be tied together by the same Sales Order number in APS .
Transfer Orders: Transfer Orders, like Purchase Orders, cannot be created in APS manually. A Transfer Order is an order for materials or products to be transferred from one Warehouse to another. It’s important to track Transfer Orders so that material and other items do not go unaccounted for during and post transfer.
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