Purchase orders

What this does

Money Out → Purchase Orders is a formal order to a vendor: what you want, at what price, delivered when. It commits nothing in the books; it's a document you send, receive against, and then bill. It's separate from the parts-ordering tools on the shop floor, which order parts for a specific job, and receiving a purchase order here does not change stock on hand.

Before you start

accounting.manage and the vendor in the list.

Steps

New purchase order. Vendor (the address fills from the vendor record and can be edited for this order), Order Date, Expected Date, and lines with Part #, Description, Qty, unit price, and an Account. Vendor Notes print on the PO; Internal Notes don't. Save as a draft to keep editing, or save and send.

Send marks the PO Sent. The app doesn't email it; use the PDF button on the PO page to download it and send it yourself. A draft can be edited; a sent one can't.

Receive Items on a sent PO: enter the quantity that arrived on each line. Partial receipts are fine; the PO becomes Partially received until every line is filled, then Received. Each receipt is recorded with who received it and when.

Create Bill on a received or partially received PO makes a draft bill for the PO's total with one line per PO line, due on receipt, and marks the PO Billed. Approve and pay the bill from Accounts Payable like any other. Correct the bill's amount first if the vendor's invoice differs from the PO.

Void cancels a PO that won't be filled.

What happens in the books

Nothing until the bill. Creating, sending, receiving, and voiding a purchase order post no entry. The bill created from it is a draft; approving it posts Dr the line accounts / Cr Accounts Payable.

Common problems

Received a partial shipment and the vendor billed for it. Create the bill from the PO, then edit its amount and lines down to what was billed. The PO stays open for the balance only as a record; a second bill has to be entered by hand.

I need to change a sent PO. Void it and create a new one.

The vendor's invoice number. Put it in Vendor Invoice # (Ref) on the bill; the PO number is the shop's.