Consigned Inventory replenishment in Ply is fully automatic. When materials are used from Consigned Inventory, Ply tracks the usage and ensures those items are replenished, no manual steps required.
Step | Description |
1️⃣ Materials Used | Your team uses consigned materials on jobs throughout the day, exactly like any other inventory. |
2️⃣ Usage Tracked | Ply logs every unit used from the Consigned Inventory location as it happens. |
3️⃣ Daily Batch Sent | Once per day, Ply compiles all usage and sends a single Billing Order to Ferguson reflecting everything consumed. |
4️⃣ Ferguson Restocks | Ferguson processes the Billing Order and restocks your consigned location based on their own fulfillment timeline. |
➡️ What Is a Billing Order?
A Billing Order is the document automatically generated by Ply and sent to Ferguson once per day, listing all consigned materials used since the last batch. This is what triggers Ferguson to invoice you for what was consumed and to restock your location. You don't create Billing Orders manually, they're generated and sent automatically.
➡️ Where to See Replenishment Activity
Go to Purchasing → Purchase Orders. Auto-generated Consignment Replenishment Orders appear alongside your regular POs, marked with a 🔵 Consignment badge so you can tell them apart from manually created POs at a glance.
➡️Consume Consigned Inventory
When your team uses materials from Consigned Inventory, Ply automatically records the consumption.
You do not need to create or submit a replenishment request.
Replenishment isn't instant, it follows a daily cycle:
Usage throughout the day is compiled into a single batch
The batch is sent to Ferguson once per day (typically in the evening)
Physical restocking depends on Ferguson's own fulfillment and delivery timeline from that point forward
If your team uses a large amount of a consigned item early in the day, don't expect it back in stock the same day; it follows Ferguson's normal delivery timeline after the batch goes out that evening.
➡️ Automatic Replenishment
Consumed items are automatically added to the replenishment list.
Ply creates and sends a consigned replenishment purchase order to Ferguson behind the scenes.
This purchase order has a “Consigned” sign and can be tracked on the purchase order tracker.
Ferguson then sends the materials to you.
⏰Replenishment is batched once per day; not instant.
Materials used in the morning won't trigger an immediate order. All usage throughout the day is compiled into a single daily batch sent to Ferguson that evening. Physical restocking then depends on Ferguson's delivery timeline.
➡️ Supplier Visibility (Ferguson)
Ferguson does not view the replenishment list inside Ply.
Instead, Ferguson sees the replenishment as an automatically generated consigned replenishment purchase order in their Trilogie system.
No action is required from your team to notify Ferguson.
➡️ Billing & Payments
Billing is handled directly by Ferguson.
Your business pays Ferguson according to your existing billing agreement.
Ply does not process or display payments related to consigned inventory.
Ply is used for inventory tracking and replenishment visibility only, not invoicing or payment approval.
✅ What Ply Handles | ✅ What Ferguson Handles |
✅ Inventory tracking in the Ghost Warehouse | ✅ Billing according to your Ferguson agreement |
✅ Usage recording when materials go to jobs | ✅ Invoicing for consumed consigned items |
✅ Daily replenishment order generation & sending | ✅ Payment processing through your account |
✅ Replenishment visibility in PO Tracker | ✅ Physical delivery of replenishment stock |
🚫 Ply does NOT process invoices or payments | ✅ Any billing disputes or invoice questions |
➡️ Best practices
✅ Check the PO Tracker's Consignment badge, not your memory, when reconciling usage against orders.
With both manual and automatic POs showing in the same list, the badge is the fastest way to confirm whether an order was auto-generated from usage or manually created.
✅ Plan around the once-a-day batch timing for anything urgent.
If you need consigned-type materials faster than the daily cycle + Ferguson's delivery timeline allows, place a manual PO instead; see Purchase Order (PO) vs. Consignment Automatic Replenishment Order.
✅ If you're troubleshooting a missing or delayed Billing Order, check for a Ferguson API error first.
Since billing orders are submitted to Ferguson the same way other Ferguson-integrated orders are, the same API-side issues that can affect manual Ferguson POs (temporary connectivity issues or item-count limits on larger batches) can, in principle, also affect a billing order. See common issues & fixes below.
➡️Common issues & fixes
"A Billing Order didn't go out, or usage from yesterday doesn't seem to have generated one."
First, confirm there actually was consigned usage that day; no usage means no billing order is expected. If there was usage and nothing was generated, this is worth flagging to support directly, since order submission to Ferguson happens through the same integration used for manual Ferguson POs and can occasionally hit a temporary connectivity issue on Ferguson's side. See the "Failed to send request to Ferguson API" note under Ferguson Integration: What it is + What you can do for more on this error family.
"I can't tell which POs in my list were auto-generated from consigned usage versus ones my team created manually."
Look for the 🔵 Consignment badge; it's the fastest way to distinguish the two without opening each PO individually.
"Materials were used first thing this morning, but I don't see a replenishment order yet."
That's expected; usage is compiled into a single batch sent once per day (typically in the evening), not submitted in real time as items are used. Check back the next business day.
Replenishment orders not appearing or warehouse quantities out of sync? Contact us with the order details and we'll investigate.