Central purchasing

Central purchasing mode changes who orders. Instead of each outlet ordering for itself, outlets raise requests and a central purchasing unit consolidates them.

How it runs

1. Outlets raise purchase requests as normal.
2. The buyer opens Consolidate, selects approved requests, and Servora groups the lines by supplier — merging the same ingredient across outlets into one line.
3. One purchase order per supplier goes out.
4. Goods are received centrally.
5. Stock is transferred out to the outlets that asked for it.

Why bother

Volume. Four outlets each ordering 20 kg of onions get four small-order prices; one order for 80 kg gets one better price. It also means one relationship per supplier instead of four, and one place where a price rise is noticed.

Turning it on

It is a company-level setting under Settings → Procurement — ordering mode, outlet or CPU. Switch it deliberately: it changes who raises orders, and outlet managers need to know that their request now goes to a buyer rather than a supplier.

Keeping the outlets honest

Consolidated buying only works if outlets request what they actually need. Par levels help — a request generated from par is a calculation, and a request typed from memory on a Friday afternoon is not.