Raising an order

Orders are built from BOQ items. Choose New on the Orders screen, pick the costing, and select the items the order covers.

The process

1. Choose the costing. Orders belong to one priced version of the job.
2. Choose the supplier. Type in the Supplier box to filter, rather than scrolling a long list; it holds every supplier on the chosen Supplier list. Items already carrying that supplier are offered first.
3. Select the items. Each brings its description, quantity, rate and part number with it.
4. Adjust quantities if you are ordering part of an item — a first pour rather than all the concrete, say.
5. Add the order-level details — dates, contact, notes. See Order details.
6. Approve and send.

Raising orders from the BOQ

Select items on the BOQ and choose Order. If the items come from more than one supplier, SmarteBuild raises one order per supplier, each carrying only that supplier’s items, instead of one mixed order you would have to split by hand.

• Whose item is it? The supplier of the product the order will use: the product on the latest accepted variation for that item, otherwise the item’s selected product.
• Items with no supplier product go together on one order of their own, with no supplier set, so you can choose one before sending.
• Names and numbers. Each order is named after what you typed plus the supplier - Slab - Barwon Concrete - and numbered from the number you typed: SMI-01-SLB, SMI-01-SLB.1, SMI-01-SLB.2.
• Choosing a supplier in the dialog keeps everything on one order for that supplier. Leave the supplier blank to split.

When several orders are raised, the page lists them all and opens the first.

Finding items by cost code

In Add an item, the Cost code box narrows the list of items. Type to search the tree — “kitchen tap” finds Fitout › Kitchen › Tapware. Choose a heading (shown in bold) to see every item under it, or a single cost code to see just its items.

Whatever you choose there, the line is filed under the item’s own cost code, so an order line is never costed against a heading. A one-off line with no item behind it takes the cost code you chose, or none if you chose a heading.

Import items from a cost code adds every included item under one cost code in a single step. It needs a cost code rather than a heading: if you pick a heading, it asks you to choose a cost code under it.

Ordering part of an item

You do not have to order the whole quantity at once. Order 12 m³ of the 18.64 m³ of concrete now and the rest later, and both orders count toward the same item’s committed cost.

The Allowance and % Cost figures show how much of the item you have committed, so you can see at a glance whether an item is fully ordered.

Watch the % Cost as you go

An item at 118% is telling you the orders against it exceed what you allowed. Better to see that now, while you are raising the order, than in a cost report next month.

Worked example: ordering the slab

The Hendricks slab was priced with suppliers attached, so it splits into two orders.

Order 1 — Barwon Concrete

Item	Qty	Rate	Value
Concrete N32 supply and place	18.64 m³	$228.00	$4,249.92
Concrete pump	1 item	$850.00	$850.00
			$5,099.92

Order 2 — Surf Coast Steel

Item	Qty	Rate	Value
SL72 mesh	195.72 m²	$9.40	$1,839.77
Vapour barrier	205.04 m²	$3.10	$635.62
			$2,475.39

Both come to $7,575.31 against an allowance of $8,154 — so the slab is committed at 93% of what was allowed, with the bedding sand still to order.

Neither order needed anything typed except the delivery date. The descriptions, quantities, rates and part numbers all came from the bill.

Templates

Create new template saves an order’s shape for reuse.

Useful for orders you raise on every job with the same structure — a standard scaffold hire, a standard site-establishment order, a recurring monthly charge. The template carries the items and layout; you set the quantities and dates each time.

Text templates

Separately from the order template, each block of text on the Notes tab keeps its own set of saved wordings — the order note, the terms, the invoicing requirements, and the covering email.

Write it once, Save as template, and load it on the next order. Set one as the default and every new order starts with it already filled in, which is the point: terms that are on every order by default are terms your suppliers have actually agreed to, rather than ones somebody remembered to paste.

The internal comment has no templates, because it is different every time.

Duplicating

Duplicate copies an existing order. Faster than a template for a one-off repeat — the second concrete pour on the same job, or the same order on the next job in an estate where every house is identical.

Check the dates and quantities after duplicating. A duplicated order carries the original’s delivery date, and an order asking for concrete last month gets noticed by the supplier rather than by you.

Approve

Approve marks the order as authorised. Whether this matters depends on your process — some builders require a second person to approve anything over a threshold; others approve their own as a formality.

Either way, approval is what distinguishes a draft you are still assembling from an order that is ready to go out.

Attaching files

Attach Files adds documents to the order — a drawing extract, an engineer’s detail, a colour schedule, a site access plan.

Attaching the relevant drawing to the order is worth the few seconds. It removes the most common reason a subcontractor rings the office, which is that they have the order but not the detail it refers to.