Managing Lab Stocks and Orders
It is possible to use openBIS to manage stocks of products and create orders of products to buy for the lab.
Every lab member can register products and place requests of products to buy. The requests can be converted into orders by the lab manager or the person responsible for purchases in the lab. The orders created with openBIS contain the information that can be sent to the suppliers.
In the Stock Catalog folder, a lab can create one collection of all products purchased in the lab and one collection of all suppliers used for purchasing. Each product must be linked to 1 supplier.
Every lab member by default has Space User access rights to the Stock Catalog folder and is able to register products, suppliers and place requests for products to buy.
The Stock Orders folder is visible to all lab members, who have by default Space Observer rights to it. The lab manager, or person responsible for purchases, has Space Admin rights to this Space. Orders can be created based on the requests placed in the Stock Catalog.
STOCK CATALOG
Building the catalog of products and suppliers
Catalog of suppliers
To build the catalog of all suppliers used for purchasing products by the lab:
Go to the Supplier Collection folder under Stock -> Stock Catalog -> Suppliers in the main menu.
Click on the + New Supplier button in the Collection page.
Follow the steps explained in the Register Entries documentation page.
To register several suppliers at once, follow the steps described in Batch register entries in a Collection.
Catalog of products
To build the catalog of all products purchased in the lab:
Go to the Product Collection folder under Stock -> Stock Catalog -> Products in the main menu.
Click the + New Product button in the Collection page.
For each product it is necessary to register one supplier as parent. Select the correct supplier from the list of suppliers registered in the Supplier Collection. The process for adding parents is the same as described for Experimental Steps: Add parents.
To register several suppliers at once, follow the steps described in Batch register entries in a Collection.
Creating requests for products to order
Every lab member can create requests for products that need to be ordered:
Go to the Request Collection folder under Stock -> Stock Catalog -> Requests in the main menu.
Click the + New Request button in the Collection page.
When you fill in the form the following information needs to be provided:
Order Status. Options are Delivered, Paid, Ordered, Not yet ordered. When you create a request set this field to Not yet ordered. Only requests with this Order Status can be processed to orders.
Add the product you for which you want to place a request for order. This can be done in two ways:
add a product that is already present in the catalog. This process is the same as described for adding parents in Experimental steps: Add parents. The quantity, i.e. how many units of the product are requested, needs to be specified.
add a product that is not yet registered in the Catalog. In this case the information shown in the picture below needs to be provided. After creating the request, the product entered here is automatically registered in the Product Catalog. Please note that only 1 product can be added to 1 request.
Click Save on top of the form.
STOCK ORDERS
This section is accessible by default by every lab member. However, by default, only the person in charge of lab purchases can process orders based on the requests created in the Stock Catalog by every lab member.
Processing product orders from requests
To create orders of products from requests created in the Stock Catalog:
Go to the Order Collection folder under Stock -> Stock Orders -> Orders in the main menu.
Click the + New Order button in the Collection page.
If you do not see the Code in the form, select Show Identification Info from the More.. dropdown
Enter a Code for the order
If an order template form is available (see Create Templates for Objects), this template can be used and most fields will be automatically filled (see Use templates for Experimental Steps). If no template is available, the relevant fields in the form need to be filled in with the relevant information.
Enter the Order Status. This field is mandatory. Available options are Delivered, Paid, Ordered, Not yet ordered. When you first create the order, you should set the status to Not yet ordered.
Add one or more requests to the Order. Only requests with Order Status set to Not yet ordered will be displayed and can be selected.
Click Save on top of the form.
If the price information is available in the products, the total cost of the order is calculated by openBIS and displayed in the order form, as shown above.
By using the Print Order button in the order form, the order can be printed as text file that can be sent to the suppliers for purchasing the products.
To simplify the process of ordering multiple products from the same supplier, all information related to the same supplier is grouped in one single text file.
In the example presented in the picture above, there are 2 products to buy from fluka and 1 product to buy from Sigma-Aldrich. In this case the two attached files have been printed from the Order form in openBIS, using the Print Order button: order_ORD1_p0; order_ORD1_p1
Once the order is processed, you should change the Order Status to Ordered. This will automatically change the Order Status in all connected requests. Requests with this oder status cannot be added to additional orders.
Updated on April 25, 2023