Purchasing & Inventory - Ordering app

Overview

The Fourth Ordering app, when paired with Purchasing & Inventory – or Fourth Inventory for Hotels - (formerly known as Adaco), easily allows users to manage the process of requesting products and recipes needed in their Outlets. Crucially, it enables the process to be carried out on a mobile device, away from the back office environment. Ordering can be accessed via the main Fourth app on a mobile device, or through supported web browsers on a desktop/laptop computer.

This article contains screenshots taken on a variety of devices but the general look, feel, and functionality remains the same regardless of whether using a mobile device or web browser.

Please Note: This article is for using the Ordering app for Purchasing & Inventory only.

Application Launch and Selecting Location 

To open the Ordering app: 

• Log into the Fourth app on a mobile device or go to https://secure.fourth.com/ (or https://secure.na1.fourth.com/ for the North American Fourth Platform) in a web browser)
• Select Ordering from the list of connected apps

Fig.1 – Selecting the Ordering app

Depending on the user’s Location access (single or multiple outlets within one or more properties), the application will either: 

• Open directly into a single Location 
• Present a choice of Locations to be selected 

To choose a Location: 

• Make a selection from the Location drop-down and then select CONFIRM

Fig.2 – Selecting a Location

Please Note: If a user has access to multiple properties, they may see multiple locations with the same name, e.g. STOREROOM. We recommend appending a property reference at the end of such Outlets in Purchasing & Inventory, e.g. STOREROOM [Tampa], STOREROOM [London], etc. for easier differentiation via Property > Setup > Location > Outlet.  

Placing an Order

There are three methods of placing orders – by individual products, by market lists (templates), and by favourites (user-specified).

Ordering by Product

There are three ways for finding individual products to be ordered:

1. Searching for Products by name
2. Searching for products by category
3. Searching for products by supplier/vendor*

*Please Note: Due to the structure of Purchase vs. Outlet Requisitions within the core Purchasing & Inventory application (further detail follows below in this article), the Supplier/Vendor option will only show ‘Purchasing & Inventory’ and will display all products associated with the Location/Outlet chosen.

Searching for products by name

To quickly find a product by its name, use the search bar. It is displayed on top of every page in the application - see Fig.1

Fig.3 - The Search bar

• Type the name of the product in the search bar and select the magnifying glass (or use the Enter key on the keyboard) to get the results

The page will refresh, and a list of the products which contain the text entered will display.

Fig.4 - Results after searching by name

Searching for Products by Category

• Select the CATEGORIES option from the left side menu

Fig.5 - CATEGORIES option on left side menu

A list of all the Subcategories (set up via Segments > Categories > Subcategories) to which the user has access to will then be displayed in the left side menu.

• These will drill down further when selected, use the Back button to go to the previous level
• Select a Segment/Category/Subcategory from the left side menu to view all products associated with it

Fig.6 - Selected Category

Searching for Products by Supplier/Vendor

Please Note: Due to the structure of Purchase vs. Outlet Requisitions within the core Purchasing & Inventory application (further detail follows below in this article), the Supplier/Vendor option will only show ‘Purchasing & Inventory’, and will display all products associated with the Location/Outlet chosen.

• Select SUPPLIERS/VENDORS (this will be dependent upon user profile language setting) from the left side menu

Fig.7 - Selected Suppliers/Vendors

Ordering via a Market List (Template)

• Select Market Lists from the left side menu

A list of all the Market Lists a user has access to will appear in the side menu.

• Select a Market List to view all products associated with it

Fig.8 - Selected Market List

Ordering via Favourites

• Select Favourites from the left side menu

A list of all the favourites a user has set will appear in the side menu.

Fig.9 - Selected Favourites List

Adding Products to the Basket

Products can be displayed on the page in two different ways, either the Gallery view or the List view.

• These views can be selected by using the toggle buttons, see Fig.10

Fig.10 - Selecting either Gallery or List view

Products are added to the basket in slightly different ways depending on the view used.

Gallery View

The default option is the Gallery view. The products will be displayed with pictures and need to be added individually.

• Specify a quantity, either by typing a number into the field or using the + and – buttons
• Select Buy

Fig.11 - Adding a product to the basket using the Gallery view

List View

The second option is the List view. The product list is much more compact, allowing the user to set quantities for all products and then add them to the basket in one go.

• Specify quantities for each product, either by typing a number into the field or using the + and – buttons
• Select ADD ALL PRODUCTS TO BASKET

Fig.12 - Adding products to the basket using the List view

Once the product(s) are added to the basket, a green message will appear on the top of the page - see Fig.13.

Fig.13 - Confirmation of products added to basket

Completing an Order

• Select the basket icon in the top-right corner and then select VIEW CART

Fig.14 - The basket icon and VIEW CART button

This will open the Cart page (see Fig.15) where products are listed in the sequence in which they were added.

Final modifications can be made before checking out:

• Remove all products
• Remove a product
• Edit the quantity of a product 

Please Note: The Delivery Date is the desired date for the Ordering Outlet to receive the goods. However, this is not tied to specific Vendor/Supplier delivery days, as the Ordering App does not determine which items will be added to a Purchase Requisition vs. an Outlet Requisition

Fig.15 - Cart contents

• When all product details are correct, select the CHECKOUT SUPPLIER/VENDOR button to create the order, and send it back to the core Purchasing & Inventory application for processing into Purchase &/or Outlet Requisitions

Fig.16 - The CHECKOUT SUPPLIER/SUPPLIER button

After checkout, a confirmation page will display, showing details about the order.

Fig.17 - Order confirmation message