Processing Purchase Orders
The purchase order is the cornerstone of the purchase management functionality. In principle, a purchase order can be used to register both a physical and financial transaction. Purchase orders can be generated from purchase quotes and blanket purchase orders or they can be created manually.
Generating Purchase Orders from Quotes and Blanket Orders
Purchase quotes are typically created as a draft order, which you can register the vendor's specifying price, terms of sale, and description of items. Similarly, if there is a need to replenish items on stock, inventory managers may send a request to the purchasing department, where a quote is created. If the quote is accepted, it can be converted into an order. For more information, see How to: Create Purchase Quotes and How to: Convert Purchase Quotes to Purchase Orders.
Blanket purchase orders represent a framework for an agreement between you and your vendor. Blanket orders are typically when you have committed to buying large quantities of an item that are to be received in several smaller shipments over a certain period of time. Often blanket orders cover only one item with predetermined delivery dates. On the blanket order, each separate receipt can be set up as an order line, which can then be. For more information, see How to: Create Blanket Purchase Orders and How to: Convert Blanket Purchase Orders to Purchase Orders.
Creating Purchase Orders Manually
You create purchase orders in the Purchase Order window. For more information, see How to: Create Purchase Orders Manually.
Prepayments
A prepayment is a payment made for an order. Usually the payment must be made before the order is processed. This often occurs if the goods are custom made or require cash payment.
After a prepayment has been set up on a purchase order, you can create a prepayments invoice for the amount to be prepaid on the purchase. For more information, see How to: Define Prepayment Percentages and How to: Create Prepayment Invoices.
Drop Shipments
A drop shipment is the shipment of an item or a consignment of items from your vendor to one of your customers.
When you create drop shipments, you must create a purchase order that links to a sales order. The purchase order can be created directly or indirectly. For more information, see How to: Create Purchase Orders for Drop Shipments Directly and How to: Create Purchase Orders for Drop Shipments Indirectly.
Even though the sales and purchase transactions of the drop shipment are registered as regular orders, the drop shipped items do not physically enter your inventory.
Posting Purchase Orders
When you have completed all the lines and entered all the information on the purchase order, you can post it. This means that you create a receipt and an invoice. The Qty. to Receive and the Qty. to Invoice fields on a purchase order represent the quantities that the posting function will process. The values in these fields are filled in automatically when the quantity is entered in the Quantity field on the purchase order line. For more information, see How to: Post Purchase Orders.
Partial Receipts
If necessary, the quantities in the Qty. to Receive field can be reduced before posting, thereby partially receiving the order.
An order can have as many receipts as are necessary to complete the order. Upon partial order posting, the Quantity Received field will specify the completed part of the order. For more information, see How to: Post Partial Receipts.
Receiving
Receiving is the first stage in the inbound warehouse flow, and the released purchase order is a request to the warehouse to expect arrival of items. As soon as the warehouse employee posts the receipt, the items become part of inventory available for sale, but not yet ready for picking. When the warehouse receipt is posted, a put-away document is created, which is an instruction to warehouse personnel to move received items from the receiving area to the storage area. The put-away document can then be registered, and the items are available for picking.
Depending on the warehouse setup of your location, receiving and put-aways occur in basic or advanced activities. For more information, see How to: Put Items Away with Inventory Put-aways and How to: Put Items Away with Warehouse Put-aways.
Batch Posting
If you want to post multiple purchase documents, you may consider batch posting the documents instead of posting the documents one by one. For more information, see How to: Batch Post Purchase Orders, Invoices, and Credit Memos.
See Also
Tasks
How to: Create Purchase Invoices
How to: Process Purchase Returns
Concepts
Date Calculation for Purchases
Pick Items
Other Resources
Combining Receipts
Creating Purchase Credit Memos
About Posting Purchases
Purchase Invoice Discounts and Service Charges
Reserving Items for Purchases
Status Field on Documents
Using Alternative Order Addresses for Vendors