Send a job step out to a supplier
Hand a step you cannot do in-house to a trade supplier, and keep it on your board.
What this is for
Some steps you do not do yourself — the digital print, the powder coat, the CNC. Outsourcing turns one of those job steps into a purchase order to a trade supplier, while the step stays on your production board so nothing falls into a gap between your shop and theirs.
Before you start
- The job has its steps planned, and the step you want to send out is one of them.
- The supplier exists under Purchasing → Suppliers with a contact email.
Step by step
- 1
Open the job and find the step you cannot do in-house.
- 2
Click Outsource on the step, choose the supplier, and enter what you expect to pay.
- 3
Set the lead time in working days. Sign OS schedules the step backwards from when you need it, so a five-day lead time on a step due Friday means the order needs to leave on the Friday before.
Note: The lead time replaces your own estimated minutes for that step. The step is no longer your labour — it is somebody else's calendar.
- 4
Save it. A draft purchase order is raised against the supplier, linked to that step.
- 5
Open the draft, check the wording the supplier will read, and click Send to supplier.
Tips & gotchas
- The step stays on your production board the whole time. Outsourced does not mean invisible.
- Send the artwork with it — the supplier link carries the job's artwork and final files, so you are not chasing a file-transfer link a fortnight later.
- If the supplier is late, the step shows as overdue on the outsource board before the job it belongs to is in trouble.