A day in the life of a buyer in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Enterprise

The option of adding pre-filtered tiles to standard or custom workspaces is making it very easy to create the perfect workspace for a buyer in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations Enterprise (D365FOE) edition.

When discussing our experience with designing and building these workspaces, a few assumptions about the business process and the use of D365FOE are in order.

• Companies use different job titles. Sometimes the "buyer" role is a more strategic role and the actual placement of Purchase orders is done by a "Purchase coordinator". In our article, we assume the "buyer" is actually placing the purchase orders.
• We are not using the Purchase order workflow. This means that every Purchase order is always in workflow status "approved". We have seen the majority of our customers choose not to use this workflow. Keep in mind that planned purchase orders that are firmed are by design not able to go through the workflow. (But we had to customize this for two customers who insisted that every Purchase order, coming from MRP, be manager-approved)
• We are not using the Purchase inquiry. This is a good feature but we have not met a customer using it yet. Prices are typically set, we just want the vendor to confirm delivery date. We send the vendor a Purchase order right away.

Let the workspace design begin!

What are the daily responsibilities of the average buyer? My buyer is called "Whitney". What are her daily responsibilities? It is quite a list.

1. Making sure planned Purchase orders are firmed (on time)

Create a filtered tile: All planned POs for buyer group Whitney that have an order date today or earlier.

After ...