Create purchase orders and transfer orders from Materials Planning

Note: This article replaces earlier guidance that described Materials Planning as read-only. Plan Mode lets you act on shortages without leaving the planning view.

Who this is for

Buyers and planners who need to cover raw-material shortages across open production runs from one screen.

Before you begin

  • At least one Draft, Planned or In Progress work order has material demand.
  • Supplier info on each raw material (vendor, price, MOQ, case pack, preferred vendor) is up to date.

Step 1 — Open Materials Planning

Go to Inventory → Work Orders, then click the Materials Planning tab.

Use the filters at the top (Search, Run Status, Include/Exclude Run Tag, Warehouse, WO Status, Shortages only) to narrow the list. The strip under the filters shows runs in scope, materials, open shortage, % allocated and transferable units.

The grid lists each material with On Hand, Incoming, Pending, Available, Demand, Shortage and a Coverage & Plan bar. Materials that are short appear first.

Step 2 — Expand a material row

Click the arrow on a row. The panel shows:

  1. Cover the shortage (left): the supply sources for this material.
  • On hand at [production warehouse]
  • Incoming available · [PO #]: open POs you can allocate
  • One row per other warehouse with free stock (this creates a transfer order)
  • Purchase — [vendor]: one row per vendor, with lead time, MOQ, case pack and unit price
  • Still open: what's still uncovered
  1. Demand by run (right): required quantity per production run.
  2. If submitted now (right): a live total of allocated from incoming, transfer orders, units transferred, units purchased and purchase cost.

Step 3 — Build your plan

Type a quantity next to any source, or click max to fill as much as that source can cover. Then:

  • Click Stage transfers to stage the transfer quantities.
  • Click Stage purchase to stage the purchase quantities.

Or click Automatically allocate. It fills the shortage in this order:

  1. Incoming stock on open POs
  2. Free stock at other warehouses (transfers)
  3. A purchase from the preferred vendor (or the first vendor listed)

You can change any quantity before staging. Transfers are capped at what each warehouse has free, and purchases round up to the case pack and respect MOQ.

Clear resets the inputs and removes everything staged for this material.

Step 4 — Review staged plan

Staged items appear in the Staged tab at the bottom of the panel, one card per transfer order and per purchase order.

When it looks right, click Submit N document(s). Luminous creates the transfer orders (grouped by source → destination warehouse) and purchase orders (grouped by vendor) for this material. To remove the staged items without submitting, click Clear this SKU.

You submit one material at a time. There's no single "submit all" button.

Step 5 — See what was created

The Submitted tab lists the transfer and purchase orders already created for this material. Click one to open it.

Still stuck?

Contact support if shortage totals don't match the individual runs, or if submitted documents don't show in the Submitted tab.