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4. Buying from a supplier

Module

Part of Purchasing & Suppliers. If your plan does not include it, these screens are not in your menus.

The same shape as chapter 3, in the other direction.

Step 1 — Enter the purchase order

Transactions → Purchases → Enter Purchase Orders.

  1. In Vendor, start typing the supplier name and pick it from the matches.
  2. Set Location to the warehouse the goods are coming to.
  3. Under Add items, search for each item and click it to add a line, then correct the Quantity.
  4. Leave Rate blank to use the supplier's standard cost, or type the agreed price.
  5. Click Save.

If you do not know what to order, start at Planning → Replenishment — chapter 9. It works out a suggested quantity from actual demand and the supplier's lead time, and shows you its reasoning.

Step 2 — Getting it approved

As with sales orders, every purchase order goes to the queue and cannot be received or billed until it is approved.

Step 3 — Book the goods in

Transactions → Purchases → Receive Orders.

  1. Click the order to open it.
  2. Click Actions and then Receive.

This books the goods into stock. A part delivery leaves the order on the list until the rest arrives.

At the door, the warehouse works from Warehouse → Expected Arrivals instead, which is sorted by the date the goods are due rather than the date the order was raised. That is chapter 6.

Step 4 — Enter the supplier's bill

Transactions → Purchases → Enter Bills. This lists the orders whose goods have arrived and which the supplier has not been billed for.

  1. Click the order to open it.
  2. Check the received quantities against the supplier's invoice.
  3. Click Actions and then Bill.

The bill is created from the order, so the two stay matched.

Step 5 — Pay the bill

Transactions → Purchases → Pay Bills.

  1. Click the bill to open it.
  2. Click Actions, then the Pay Bill button — the outstanding amount is printed on it.

Note

As with customer payments, this pays the whole outstanding amount.

If you are moving from NetSuite, bills that NetSuite shows as already settled appear separately under Banking → Bill Settlements, because those were not paid from here. See chapter 10.

Freight, duty and other landing costs

Costs that arrive on a separate invoice — freight, duty, handling — belong on the stock they came in with, not in a general expense account. Record them under Planning → Landed Costs, covered in chapter 9.