Central Michigan University Chemistry Department Online Electronic Ordering

For years the Chemistry Dept. here at CMU was required the fill out Purchase Requisitions which were then sent to the Purchasing Dept. to be ordered. This process usually lead to a delay of weeks before materials were finally received. Now, with our new electronic ordering this process has been reduced to a next day service. Any faculty in the Chemistry Dept. can easily order from their office computer and usually expect to see their materials the next day. Orders can be tracked from their creation to the order date and finally to the date received. The search capabilities are truly astounding. The first step is to access the Chemistry Stockroom Web Page. The URL is There is also a link found on the Chemistry Dept. web site.

Click on the “ Purchase Requisition ” link in the table under the picture.

Type in your name and password, click log in, and you will have access to the purchase requisition database file.

This electronic form mirrors the original purchase requisition form but now we have gained significant new capabilities. The picture of the house means the home page where links to all of the stockrooms databases can be found.

Clicking on the icon of the house and logging out both take you to the database homepage

This is the database home page

Now, we will view the functions of the seven small icons under the URL at the top of the page.

The first icon is to show all orders. “ Show all records ” will give you access to all records again after a found set has been utilized.

The most used icon will be the second one which will allow any faculty member to create a “ New Record ” The functions of the icons are listed under each icon

After clicking “ new record ” we are presented with a blank form wherein we can add data to any field to create a new order and submit it.

The third icon allows a record to be edited.

The next icon with the red x on it represents a delete record function and is also dimmed out and only available to the database supervisor. Please me if you would like a record deleted.

The “records” icon allows records to be duplicated or omitted.

The “find” icon allows records to be searched.

In Find mode we now see several more buttons on the right side. Also, all fields are blank. We now will be able to search any of these fields.

As an example let us type Dr. Chai ’ s name in the “ Requested by ” field at the bottom of the form and click the “ Perform Find ” button

We now have found 200 records, of the 6579 total records, that are orders placed by Dr. Chai. We are currently viewing record number 1. We can view the other records by clicking on the right side of the icon of a notebook or by typing a number from in the record field.

After we performed a find we see that we are in browse mode viewing the 200 records of the find operation. Now is a great time to switch the layout from “ order ” to “ receipt ” by clicking on the button under the word Layout and changing to “ Receipt ”

Now we see the addition of 3 more fields at the right side of the form that show date the material was received and the amount. In addition, the program will automatically calculate the number back ordered. This BO field allows an easy search function to determine what has not been received yet.

In this case we have typed in the number 42 in the record box and next we press enter/return button just to easily move to record 42 of the found set. These find functions will automatically sort according to the Date field.

Now we are viewing record 42 of the found set. We can now move back through the records by clicking on the left side of the notebook icon.

When searching we have access to several function symbols by clicking on the “ Operators ” button.

Here we are searching for orders that have a Back Order greater than 0 or what has not been received yet of the orders placed by Dr. Chai.

After the search we have found seven records that have items that have not been received yet

In this case if indeed the items in the first record were received directly by Dr. Chai and did not come through the stockroom then Dr. Chai can just click on the date received field and the program will switch to the edit mode

Under edit mode the date received and amount received fields can be modified. Just type in the information and click the submit button. In this way, both the stockroom and the faculty work together to maintain accurate records.

The next icon allows records to be sorted.

After clicking on the sort icon an additional window will appear that will allow you to sort any field by moving it to sort order.

Under the small icons “layout” can switch the layout from “ Order ” to “ Receipt ” and we can also switch to an “ Account Numbers ” layout. Here we have an additional field to indicate which account to charge the materials to. This is primarily for teaching classes. By clicking here you will see a list of numbers.

This shows the account numbers list that appears after clicking in the field.

To the right of the layout button we have a “ view as: ” button that can switch from “ form ” to “ list ” or “ table ” Both the ‘ list ’ and as shown here “ table ” have little use.

Now let us see how this new system can benefit all of us. First when a new record is created by a faculty the stockroom can view the order and determine if the material might already be in stock or if the chemical might require filing out an SOP because of its toxicity. Here is an order that Dr. Howell placed and I had two of the chemicals in stock so I removed them from the order.

Here is the order placed by Dr. Chai that required filing out a Standard Operating Procedure for the Use of Particularly Hazardous Substances because of the toxicity of Osmium.

After the stockroom has checked the order the date checked is added at the bottom of the form. Now, Llara will also get the Chairpersons authorization and then the order will be processed. The date is then added to the Date ordered by Llara field. If there is no need for the stockroom to check an order go ahead and type the date in the checked by stockroom field. Examples include: instrumentation, specialized reagents (dendrimers) and sole source products.