The Purchasing Queue is the Need it stage of purchasing in Hoops. It collects the items you still need to buy from your Jobs and groups them by Vendor, so you can create a Purchase Order for each Vendor when you're ready. For the full picture, see How Purchasing Works in Hoops.
When a Job contains items from a Vendor, Hoops adds those items to the Queue automatically. An item in the Queue hasn't been put on a Purchase Order or ordered. It's a reminder that something still needs buying.
How items get into the Queue
You don't add items to the Queue yourself. An item appears in the Queue when all of these are true:
It's a product, a decoration, or an additional cost on a Job.
It has a Vendor.
It isn't on a Purchase Order yet.
Its Job is still active. Jobs that are deleted, archived, completed, or voided don't appear.
Its Job matches your Queue filters, including Updated At within. See Set Up and Filter the Purchasing Queue.
Items without a Vendor don't appear in the Queue. If you expect to see an item and don't, check that it has a Vendor.
Find the Queue
Go to Purchasing.
Select PURCHASING QUEUE.
Each row is one Vendor. It shows the Total Units and Value you still need to buy from that Vendor, across all of the Jobs in the Queue. The Value is the cost before tax.
One Vendor, many Jobs
If several Jobs need items from the same Vendor, they're combined in that Vendor's row. You don't need to build a merged Purchase Order yourself.
To see what's inside a Vendor row, select the arrow at the left of the row. You'll see:
the items you need, with the Job # shown on each line;
a Jobs panel that lists every Job contributing to this Vendor, each with a check box;
CREATE & EDIT PO and CREATE PO buttons.
Once expanded, the totals at the bottom include tax, so they can be higher than the Value on the collapsed row.
In this example, one Vendor has requirements from five Jobs for five different customers. All five Jobs are checked, so one Purchase Order can cover them all. To choose only some of them, see Choose Which Jobs and Items to Include on a Purchase Order.
A single Job can appear under more than one Vendor. For example, a Job might need blank garments from one Vendor and decoration from another, and each shows up in its own Vendor row.
Buying for one Job
The Queue is the place to buy for several Jobs at once. If you only need to buy for one Job, open the Job and go to its Purchasing tab. Under Needs to be added to a PO, you'll see that Job's own requirements, grouped by Vendor, and you can create Purchase Orders for just that Job.
Creating a Purchase Order is not ordering
Creating a Purchase Order and ordering are separate steps. Items stay in the Queue until you place them on a Purchase Order, and creating a Purchase Order doesn't send anything to your Vendor. To create one, see Create a Purchase Order from the Purchasing Queue.
Once a Purchase Order exists, its items leave the Queue and you manage it on the Purchasing Board, where you mark items as ordered and then received. See Understanding the Purchasing Board.
When there's nothing left to buy, the Queue shows No Items in the Queue. You're all done!
If an item is missing
Check that the item has a Vendor.
Check Updated At within and choose a longer period.
Check your status filters, or select Reset to Defaults.
If you changed a Job while the Queue was open, reload the Queue to see the latest items.
Check whether the item is already on a Purchase Order.