Current Orders page

Any pending order requests that have been made in an inventory can be viewed from the Current Orders page. Users with Group Administrator or Order Handler privileges have access to additional functionality on this page.

ChemInventory's Order Requests pages are designed to help manage new container orders by acting as a centralized 'shopping list' for your lab. This module exists alongside your current procurement method — it is not designed to replace your purchasing system, nor does it place orders automatically with suppliers. Pending orders are included in search results to help reduce duplicate orders in your lab.

Current orders list

Items which have been requested by members of your inventory will be listed in the Current Orders table. For each entry, ChemInventory will display the container's name and size, along with the member of your team who requested the order and when the request was made. When hovering your mouse over the container name, its chemical structure will be displayed.

Whenever the status of a request that you have made is updated, a notification will be displayed to you in the interface. You can view notifications by clicking on the green notification number on the left navigation bar (see screenshot below), or from the top of the Current Orders list.

If you are viewing this page from an account with User privileges, the interface presented to you will differ from the screenshot above. You will only be able to edit or delete requests you have made, before they are marked as placed by an administrator or order handler.

Administrators & order handlers

Users with Group Administrator or Order Handler privileges are able to access additional functionality on this page, allowing them to update the information saved against a particular request.

From the row of buttons under the Actions header, a request can be edited, deleted, marked as placed (when it has been ordered through your procurement system or from the supplier) and converted into a container record in your inventory (when it is eventually delivered on site). It is only possible to edit or delete requests before they have been marked as placed. You can also view any comments the requester has made to an order by hovering your mouse over the button.

Exporting pending requests

If there are many pending order requests in your inventory then it may be useful to export a copy of items into a PDF or Excel file. Exported files will list all information entered for each request, including comments made by the requesting user. Export tools are available from the Download Pending Orders dropdown menu.

Adding a new container

When an order is eventually delivered on site, you can convert the applicable order request directly into a container record by clicking on the button. When a container is added in this way, its original request will be removed from the Current Orders list and the requesting user will receive a notification. This process can aid with cradle-to-grave tracking of chemicals in your inventory, where there will be a record from when a container was requested, through to when it was delivered on site, through to when it is eventually deleted from your inventory.