IQ Link - Automation of Purchase Orders to Production Jobs
Overview
Outsource Purchase Orders to suppliers running printIQ and connected through IQ Link can be ‘pushed’ automatically to your suppliers printIQ system, generating a quote and accepting it, placing it straight into their production workflow.
When these jobs are Finished, Completed or Cancelled by the outsource provider, a relevant update to the Purchase Order status is pushed back to the resellers’ system.
Application Setup
To set this up, configuration is required in both the reseller and their suppliers’ printIQ systems.
Suppliers printIQ
The supplier needs to set up a customer record for the reseller.
This is the account that the jobs created from the Purchase Order automation will be created against and invoiced.
Make note of the Customer Code used when configuring the IQ Link connection from the retailer’s system.
Resellers printIQ
[A setup request is required to configure the IQLink details]
The resellers’ system requires a Supplier record defined for the supplier.
The suppliers’ system requires a Customer record for the reseller
IQ Link
An IQ Link entry is then configured for that Supplier in the Remote printIQ Instances admin page.
Remote Instance Name – what you will refer to the connection as.
Quote process URL – Your Suppliers printIQ base URL
Customer Code - the Account Code created for you by your supplier on their printIQ
The fields listed below need to be setup by printIQ.
- Username : printIQ.API.Integration
- Password : will be configured by printIQ Support
- APP Key : will be configured by printIQ Support
- APP Name :‘IQLink’
Once the above credentials have been configured and saved,
the Supplier record in your system can be linked to the IQLink entry.
Select the supplier in the Supplier selector and click ‘Add’
There are a couple of options to configure here for the supplier
‘Default’ - controls whether the option to ‘Create and Accept a quote in the selected suppliers printIQ’ will be preselected on Outsource Purchase Order creation for that supplier…
‘Pull From Job’ – Determines if the description, instructions, delivery address and delivery contact are to be taken from the PO (leaving those fields editable on the new OPO) or if they are to be populated from the Job (which then locks those fields on the OPO)
‘Purchase Order Job Status’ – this sets the status of the new jobs being created on the Suppliers printIQ.
This drop-down selector is reading from the suppliers printIQ to return this list.
If set to ‘Default’ the standard Job Status workflow rules are applied to the job on the Suppliers site.
To facilitate management of these jobs, Custom job statuses can be added to the drop-down list (setup request) to help identify IQLink orders.
These statuses will require manual intervention to move them to a ‘production’ status to flow any workflow rules.
They can be bulk updated from the All-Jobs Board
When fully populated, the IQ Link entry should look something like
Using OPO IQ Link Automation (Resellers’ printIQ)
When a purchase order is created for a supplier with IQ Link, new options are presented as to how the purchase order is constructed and how it is to behave.
When the PO is automatically created and sent, these options are determined by the settings on the IQ Link configuration.
If a purchase order is created manually, the outsource details will come from the job, as selected on the right below.
The fields on the left have been populated with details from the job and are currently uneditable.
If the PO option is selected, these fields become editable again
If the option Create and accept quote in the selected supplier’s printIQ is enabled, when a Full OS quote is created in the local printIQ, accepted and any other qualifying actions are carried out (artwork uploaded and pre-press operations completed), the user is prompted with a Time Entry Action modal to confirm the Outsource Purchase Order behaviour.
After saving the action, several tasks are performed automatically.
- The Job Status is updated to ‘Outsourced
- An Outsource Purchase order is created against the Job
- The PO is sent to the IQ Linked Suppliers system and a quote is generated
- An email is sent to the supplier contact
- The quote is automatically accepted, and the resulting job is set to the status specified in the IQLink config
This process does take some time. As parts are completed, the job details screen in the retailer’s system will update. The job status changes immediately, but it may take a few seconds for the Outsource tab to update from 
to 
The job details tab can be closed without affecting the automation once it has started.
Outsource Workflow (Suppliers’ printIQ)
The quote that is created on the Suppliers instance of printIQ is based on the ‘Remote Quote’ template.
When the Outsource Purchase Order is received, a quote is automatically generated and accepted.
The artwork from the originating job is transferred to the suppliers printIQ and uploaded to the new job on job creation. This occurs once only. Changes to the artwork on the resellers job will not be transferred to the supplier’s job and will need to be managed externally if there are changes.
The product on the quote has no product calculations. It carries the quoted outsource price, job description and delivery details that were passed from the Outsource Purchase order.
These same details are carried through onto the job that is automatically created at the pre-defined Job Status.
The job is then managed through the required production process.
At various stages through the production lifecycle at the suppliers’ site, the job status can be configured to automatically ‘push back’ to the originators system and update the Outsource Purchase Order status.
There are 2 settings that control this behaviour:
This setting controls the behaviour of the outsource PO status if the suppliers’ production job status is changed to Cancelled.
This setting defaults to Yes / enabled. If the supplier cancels the linked job, the originating outsource PO is also cancelled, removing it from the job details. (Cancelled OPOs do not show on job details in printIQ)
When this setting is disabled, a warning is presented to the supplier user cancelling the production job:
The Outsource PO is not updated on the resellers site and the onus now lies with the supplier to notify the reseller of the cancellation.
The second setting controls Outsource PO updates when the suppliers job hits Finished Production and Complete.
When enabled, this setting updates the outsource PO status depending on the supplier’s production job status.
When the supplier’s job is Finished Production, the outsource PO status on the originators system is updated to Goods Received.
When the supplier’s job is dispatched and set to Complete, the originating PO status updates to Order Complete.
When disabled, no PO updates are pushed back to the resellers system, unless the user manually creates a PO, selects a supplier that has been configured as an IQ Link Supplier and enables the ‘Create and accept quote in suppliers printIQ’ switch.
This will create and accept a quote in the suppliers’ system getting the Outsource into production on their site.
When the supplier updates the job status to Finished Production or Complete, it will update the purchase order status on the resellers site irrespective of the ‘Update Outsource Purchase Order Status From IQ Link Jobs’ setting.
Note: Cancelling the job on the suppliers site will always follow the behaviour as determined by the setting ‘Cancel the remote purchase order when job cancelled’.Job Status in Suppliers printIQ
| Job Status in Suppliers printIQ | OPO Status in Resellers printIQ |
After job is created | Goods Sent |
Status changed to Finished Production | OPO Status updates to Goods Received |
Status changed to Complete (after dispatch) | OPO Status updates to Order Complete |
Status changed to Cancelled | OPO Status updates to Order Cancelled |
Internal Settings
There are a few settings relating to Outsource Purchase Order processing, some of which impact on this feature.
Outsource Purchase Order Auto Creation controls whether the Outsource Purchase Orders are automatically generated and sent to the supplier after all the prepress operations have been completed.
This setting applies to all OPOs, not just those created for IQLink suppliers.
If set to Off, the IQ Link OPO is not automatically created, but once it has been created manually and saved, the purchase order is pushed to the Suppliers’ printIQ workflow.
For IQ Link Orders, this setting determines if OPOs are generated automatically. Restrictions are not applied to outsource jobs linked to an IQ Link Supplier.
This setting determines if an Email is to be sent to the supplier after it the OPO has been auto created.
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