Purchasing Overview

The Purchasing module in the Buying Group ERP system is where you manage your entire procurement process, from ordering products from vendors to receiving them into your inventory and processing their bills.

This series of articles will guide you through the complete purchasing workflow.

The Purchase Order (PO) Lifecycle

The core of the purchasing module is the Purchase Order (PO). The typical lifecycle of a PO follows these steps:

1. Create: You create a new Purchase Order to send to your vendor, detailing the items, quantities, and prices you want to order.
2. Receive: When the vendor delivers the goods, you record a Receipt against the PO to update your inventory stock levels. You can receive all items at once or perform partial receipts if the order arrives in multiple shipments.
3. Bill: Once you receive an invoice from your vendor, you create a Bill from the received items on the PO. This moves the transaction to your Accounts Payable for future payment.

Understanding Purchase Order Statuses

As a PO moves through the lifecycle, its status updates automatically, giving you a clear view of where every order stands.

• Open: The initial state of a PO after it has been created and saved. In this state, the PO can be edited or voided.
• Open / Prepayment: A prepayment has been applied to an Open PO.
• Partially Received / Pending Billing: Some, but not all, of the items on the PO have been received into inventory, and the received quantity has not yet been billed.
• Partially Received: Some, but not all, of the items on the PO have been received into inventory, and the received quantity has already been billed.
• Received / Pending Billing: All items on the PO have been received, but billing is still pending.
• Billed: A vendor bill has been created for the PO, and it is now part of the accounts payable process.
• Voided: The PO has been voided and is no longer active. Voided POs are retained for audit/history and cannot be edited or reopened.