Article Contents
Introduction
After submitting an inventory count is the best time to place orders to your distributors.
Using WISK, you can quickly generate orders to your suppliers and send them via email, SMS, or export a spreadsheet and place however you prefer (phone, in person, the supplier's web portal, etc).
WISK also analyzes your consumption and data to suggest what to order and how much, and what to avoid.
To generate an order in the WISK Web Portal, click "Orders", then "Prepare Orders" on the side menu bar. This takes you to the "Cart Builder".
Cart Builder
On the Cart Builder page, you add items to Your Cart before finalizing / generating the order.
Note: If you're viewing the Cart Builder while an inventory count is in progress, you'll see a message about not being able to suggest amounts to order. Submit the inventory count before putting the order together. This way you'll have an accurate "Stock" value for your items.
Viewing Your Items
On this page, the default view shows all of your distributors and the items you've assigned to them.
Note: If you haven't already created your distributors and assigned them to your items, you'll need to do that before generating an order. To learn more, see:
To see a distributor's items, click the arrow beside the distributor's name or the "..." button that appears when you place your cursor over them.
For each item, you’ll see the following by default:
Distributor Code
Current stock (from your latest inventory count)
Real time stock (based on sales since latest inventory count
Pending Purchase Orders (the number of units on other open purchase orders. These orders have been generated, but not received)
WISK Par (the suggested amount to order based on your consumption and sales data)
Your Par
Case size
Order format (whether it is individual units or cases) and more
You can scroll down to view the items and or use the search bar, to quickly find products.
This is just the default view, and there are a number of pre-sets you can use. You can also create your own to customize the ordering page.See the section below to learn how to re-arrange and toggle on different columns.
Note: If you have added any notes for the distributor, they appear beside the distributor name as a tooltip. When you hover over the tooltip it displays the notes.
Customizing the Display
There are a number of pre-set views for grouping and filtering your items. You can select them by clicking the current view:
The following views are available:
Main - this is the default view that shows items grouped by their assigned distributor
By Family > Category - Items are grouped by family > category. As you add items to the cart they will appear under their corresponding distributor
By Distributor > Family > Category - Items are grouped by distributor, but then by family > category. This is similar to the "Main" view
By Category - Items are just grouped by category. As you add items to the cart they will appear under their corresponding distributor
Real-time stock - This shows fewer columns to make it easier to order based on your real-time stock
In Order Guide - This filters to show which items are currently part of your order guide, and which are not. See "Order Guide Items"
To create views of your own, please see:
Order Guide Items
If there are items that you order regularly, or have preferred variations / formats to order, you can add them to your order guide.
You can then filter the Cart Builder to display only the order guide items. This speeds up ordering and ensures staff are ordering your preferred products.
To learn more, see:
Cart Builder Tour
If you'd like to see the Cart Builder in action, you can take a tour of the Cart Builder page here. (You must be logged in to web.wisk.ai to access the tour)
Adding Items to the Cart
Check Order Format
When adding items to your cart, make sure the order format is correct for each item. You can add items to order as individual units or cases.
Your distributor may only sell certain items as cases, so make sure the order format is set that way. The current order format displays to the left of the “Quantity to order” column. You can change the format by clicking the “Order format” column.
Adding an Item Individually
You can add items to your cart by typing an amount in the "Quantity to Order" column for each item. You’ll see an animation showing the item has been added to your cart.
Adding New Items
If you need to order an item that isn't on your venue's list, place your cursor over a distributor and click the “Add item to…” button and fill in the item details.
For more information about adding a new item, see:
Note: For users in Canada that order from the SAQ or LCBO, you'll see an option to search their product list to add new items.
Adding an Item Using Par Levels
While you can add items manually, you can also make use of par levels to speed up the process.
Beside the quantity to order, if you have populated your par levels, you’ll see a recommended amount to order in the “Based on your par” column.
This number is either in individual units or cases, and is based on your current stock, and what you need to get your stock equal to or above the par level. Learn more:
In the example below, there are 4.1 units of Grey Goose, and the par level is 6 units. It recommends that you should order 2 units.
Note: If you have anything in the "Pending Purchase Orders" column, this modifies the suggested amount to order. If we already had 1 unit of Grey Goose on a pending purchase order, it would suggest ordering only 1 unit. You can mouse over the pending purchase orders to see the orders they are from.
If you click the “shopping cart” icon, it adds the recommended amount to your cart. If your order format is in cases, it converts it to the correct amount of cases to meet or exceed the par.
Pre-fill Using Par Levels
To speed up ordering, there is a prefill button beside each distributor to create your order in just one click. This automatically adds items to a distributor's cart based on your par levels.
You can choose to pre-fill your order based on the par levels you've set or the recommended WISK Pars. The WISK Par values are based on your last 6 weeks of consumption and sales data.
Based on your par
Stock - Takes the value in the “Stock” column and adds to the cart what is needed to match your set par. This is best used if you have just completed an inventory count
Real Time Stock - Takes the value in the “Real Time Stock” column and adds to the cart what is needed to match your set par. This is helpful if you’re generating an order and haven’t taken an inventory recently.
Based on WISK par (Consumption)
Stock - Takes the value in the “Stock” column and adds to the cart what is needed to match your WISK par (Consumption). This is best used if you have just completed an inventory count
Real Time Stock - Takes the value in the “Real Time Stock” column and adds to the cart what is needed to match your WISK par (Consumption). This is helpful if you’re generating an order and haven’t taken an inventory recently
Based on WISK par (Sales)
Stock - Takes the value in the “Stock” column and adds to the cart what is needed to match your WISK par (Sales). This is best used if you have just completed an inventory count
Real Time Stock - Takes the value in the “Real Time Stock” column and adds to the cart what is needed to match your WISK par (Sales). This is helpful if you’re generating an order and haven’t taken an inventory recently
To learn more about WISK Pars and Stock vs Real Time Stock, please see:
Note: The “Real Time Stock” is based on your sales since your last completed inventory and your POS Item mapping. It doesn’t account for any over pouring, spillage, or theft. Make sure your mapping is up-to-date before using the Real Time Stock pre-fill options.
After selecting a pre-fill option, a message displays saying it will replace the current quantity to order for each item with the amount based on the par. Click “OK”.
You’ll then see the amounts populate in the “Quantity” to order column for that distributor, and that the items have been added to your cart.
About Item Variations
If your venue uses Item Variations, you'll see each variation under its respective distributor.
You can add any item variation to a distributor cart, but the suggested amount to order based on pars is in units of the default item variation.
If you use the pre-fill for a distributor that carries variations of the same item, it'll add the default item variation.
To learn more about item variations, see:
Finished Adding Items
After adding all the items to order for each distributor, click "Step 2 - Your Cart".
Your Cart
On the "Your Cart" page, you can review and make changes before generating the purchase order.
For each distributor, you’ll see the amount you’re ordering, and a total dollar value based on the cost/unit of each item. Consider this number an estimate, because their prices change over time.
Note: If there are any pricing changes, you’ll update the cost when adding the invoice after the order comes in. If the item's current cost per unit includes any discounts, the value in the shopping cart excludes the discount.
Updating Items in Your Cart
You can update the amount to order or remove items by clicking on the quantity to order field or the X beside it.
For example, this Heineken, the current stock count is 42, and the par is 72. To match or get above the par, it added two cases. You can adjust the quantity to order just 1 case.
If you need to add additional items, you can return to the “Cart Builder” page.
Excluding Item Costs (Optional)
As mentioned above, the costs of your items are based on the value from the most recent invoice, and may not reflect the distributor's current cost.
If you don't want the purchase order sent to the distributor to display your item costs, you can toggle this off:
Click "Actions" > "Manage Distributors"
Click the "Details" button beside the distributor
Click the "Exclude price from purchase orders" checkbox
Purchase orders sent to that distributor through WISK won't include the item costs
Your Cart Tour
To see the "Your Cart" page in action, you can take a tour here. (You must be logged in to web.wisk.ai to access the tour)
Generating the Purchase Order
When everything is ready, click the "Generate order" button.
Note: You’ll need to generate orders for each distributor separately.
A pop-up appears saying that the purchase order is being generated. Click OK.
With the order generated, you have the following options:
View order - You can still make revisions to the order before placing it
Send order (Email/SMS) - You can add recipients and notes to the order which is then emailed and texted (if a mobile number is provided) to the distributor contact
Download Spreadsheet - If you wish to place your order outside of WISK, via phone, in-store, etc, you can download a spreadsheet of the order.
Note: No matter how you end up placing the order, it’s a good practice to generate it in WISK. You’ll be able to add your invoice from the purchase order when it arrives. You won’t have to add each item to the invoice manually, which saves a lot of time.
Learn about adding invoices from Purchase Orders here:
Sending an Email / SMS
Adding Contacts / Notes & Sending
To send the order to the distributor, click “Email Order”.
Before it sends you’ll be able to edit the subject, add additional recipients, and include any notes.
If you've added notes for the distributor they display in a tooltip beside the distributor name.
If you’ve added your distributor contacts, the email and mobile / cell number fields populate automatically. To learn more about adding contacts, see:
You can add more recipients by clicking into the Email and Mobile / Cell Number fields.
Note: In addition to the recipients that you enter in the "Email" field, any user set up to receive "Purchase Order" email notifications is cc-ed. To learn more, see:
You can also include any notes or instructions for the distributor in the notes section.
Note: If you don’t want to send an SMS message, you can leave the Phone Number field blank, or remove the number.
When ready, click “Send”.
Confirmation
You’ll then receive a message saying that the email has been sent to the distributor.
You should also receive a copy of the email to your account. If you didn’t receive it, check your spam folder.
❗Important: If it’s your first time emailing/texting that distributor through WISK, please follow up with them to make sure it was received. If the phone number entered is invalid, it will show an error message. Nothing will send until you correct or remove the invalid phone number.
Invalid Phone Number Error
As mentioned above, if you enter an invalid phone number for the distributor, it shows an error message after clicking "Send".
When this error message displays, no emails or texts are sent.
At this point the order window remains open. You can either:
Check and correct the invalid number and click "Send" again
Remove the invalid number and click "Send" again
Email / Text Tracking
To provide assurance that your order was received by the distributor, WISK tracks when an order email/text has been opened by the recipient.
To check this:
Click the details button beside a purchase order
Click "Timeline"
The timeline displays who the message was sent to, along with a timestamp
As recipients open the message, the timeline updates to reflect this
Note: If the email address the order was sent to isn't a user in WISK, the action is attributed to a system update. In the example below we see that the email of the distributor opened the email, along with a user in the venue.
Email Not Delivered
If the order email doesn't make it to the recipient, you'll receive an email notification.
This could happen for a number of reasons, but some possibilities include:
a typo in the email address
bounced email
the recipient unsubscribed from WISK emails
The email notification will also include the reason if it was able to obtain that information.
If this happens, the best thing is to follow up with the distributor directly to make sure the order gets placed and verify their email.
Note: If the recipient unsubscribed and wishes to receive WISK emails after your communicate with them, contact [email protected] and our team can re-subscribe them.
Example Email / SMS
Here are some examples of what the order email and SMS message look like. The items display in alphabetical order.
Email (with Costs)
Email (Without Costs)
This is what the email looks like if you toggled on the "Exclude prices from purchase orders" checkbox.
SMS
The SMS message includes a link to a webpage where the order can be viewed:
Receiving the Order / Invoice
Since you generated the order through WISK, you can quickly add the invoice when the order arrives. To learn more, see: