Purchasing

Purchasing is deliberately one screen doing the whole job: supplier, lines, charges, payment — save, and both stock and the supplier's account are up to date.

The purchase entry#

A purchase records the supplier, the receiving location, date and time, and its lines. Each line carries the ingredient, quantity, the purchase unit (buy in cartons, stock in kilograms — sub-units convert automatically), price, line discount, and tax; lines can also carry a lot number, manufacturing and expiry dates where you track them. Above the lines sit invoice-level discount and tax, shipping charges, and up to four named additional expenses (unloading, tips — whatever the invoice really had). Freight and extra charges are recorded and expensed with the purchase; item cost comes from the line price.

Useful extras: a reference number is generated automatically (with room for the supplier's own invoice number), a document can be attached — and attachment can be made mandatory in settings for businesses that want no purchase without paper — and long invoices can be imported from a spreadsheet straight into the entry form instead of typed line by line.

Status is what moves stock#

A purchase is received, pending, or ordered — and only received moves stock and posts to the ledger. Entering tomorrow's delivery today as pending records the paperwork without pretending the goods arrived; flipping it to received on arrival is the receiving act. (A separate purchase order flow exists for businesses that order formally.)

Businesses with dedicated purchasing staff can restrict a purchaser role: which statuses they may set, and whether they can still edit a purchase after it's received.

Paying — now, later, or from advance#

The entry form takes zero or more payment lines (method, account, amount). Enter nothing and it's a credit purchase — the supplier's due grows and the purchase sits as due/partial/paid as money follows. Payments can also draw on the supplier's advance balance. Clearing dues later happens per invoice, as a lump sum against the supplier (overpayment becomes advance), or through the invoice-wise payment screen that allocates one payment across open invoices oldest-first. The full supplier side — dues, statements, advances — is on Suppliers.

Direct issuance#

Branches running department stock can push a received purchase straight into a kitchen department — the delivery goes from the truck to the bakery's stock in one document, per-line if different lines go different places.

The guardrails you'll meet#

• A received line cannot be reduced below what has already been consumed by sales, adjustments or production — and a purchase whose stock is already used, or which has a return against it, cannot be deleted. History that reality depends on stays put.
• Purchases cannot be entered into a closed financial year, or dated into a day whose closing stock has already been recorded.