Supplier selection in PO from Material Request — 3 cases (item-wise, multiple, no supplier)

Hi everyone,

I’m working on the Production Plan → Material Request → Purchase Order flow in ERPNext and I want to understand the correct way to handle supplier selection in three different cases. Please guide me on the standard/vanilla approach for each.

Case 1 — Item-wise supplier filter in PO
When I create a Purchase Order from a Material Request, I want each item to go to its specific supplier automatically (supplier-wise filtering). I have set a supplier in the Item Supplier table (Purchasing tab). What is the correct way to make the PO pick the right supplier per item — should I rely on the Item Supplier table, or is there a Default Supplier field I must set?

Case 2 — One item with multiple suppliers
For some items I have multiple suppliers available. When purchasing, I want to decide which supplier to buy from (e.g., based on price). What is the recommended flow — RFQ → Supplier Quotation → comparison → PO? Or is there a simpler standard method?

Case 3 — Item is in BOM but supplier not defined
Some items exist in the BOM but have no supplier defined on the item / PO. In this case the supplier field stays blank. What is the best practice — set a Default Supplier on the item master, or handle it manually at PO time?

My environment:

  • ERPNext version: v16

  • Vanilla setup, no customization

Any guidance on the correct standard workflow for these three cases would be very helpful. Thanks in advance!

@Meet-Tank4

Scenario Recommended Setup
One item → One supplier Maintain supplier in Item Supplier table with item supplier code
One item → Multiple suppliers Maintain all suppliers and use RFQ/Supplier Quotation
Material Request contains mixed suppliers Create supplier-wise dedicatd RFQs and supplier-wise POs
BOM item purchased occasionally Select supplier manually when creating PO

Hope it helps.

Thank you for the clarification.

I have verified the standard ERPNext behavior. As shown in the attached screenshot, suppliers can be configured under:

Item → Supplier Details → Item Supplier

This matches the recommended setup mentioned above. For items with a dedicated supplier, we can maintain the supplier mapping in the Item Supplier table. For items with multiple suppliers, all suppliers can be configured here and selected through the RFQ/Supplier Quotation process.

The attached screenshot confirms that the Item Supplier section is available for maintaining supplier-wise item mappings.