Purchasing is where you record what you buy from your suppliers and bring that stock into your inventory. A purchase order (PO) captures the products and costs you have committed to buy, then carries that order through receiving the goods, recording the supplier’s bill, and paying it. Supplier returns and refunds, deposits, tags, notes, attachments, and an activity log all live alongside the same order.
After reading this page you will know what the Purchasing module does, where it sits in the navigation, the stages a purchase order moves through, and which detailed articles to read for each step.
Where Purchasing lives
Open the module from the main menu under Stock Control, then Purchases. This opens the Purchases list, where every purchase order for your company is shown.
From the list you can:
- Open an existing purchase order by clicking its order number.
- Start a new order from the Create menu, choosing Regular Order or Freight Order.
- Import purchase orders from a CSV file with the Import… button.
- Search by order number, supplier name, or reference, and open the filter panel to narrow by status, billing status, order type, supplier, assignee, location, creation date, tag, or product.
Access to Purchasing is controlled by your user permissions. If you cannot see Purchases under Stock Control, ask an administrator to grant you purchasing access.
The purchase order workspace
Opening or creating a purchase order takes you to a single workspace built around the order. The left side is the working area for the current step, and the right side is a set of summary cards that appear as the order progresses:
- Received Goods: the goods receipt notes (GRNs) that bring stock into inventory.
- Returns: supplier returns raised against received goods.
- Bills: the supplier bills recorded against the order.
- Refunds: supplier refunds raised against billed items.
- Payments: payments and deposits recorded against the bills.
- Related Orders: links to other purchase, sale, or production orders.
- Tags, Attachments, and Activity: labels, uploaded files, and a running history of who changed the order and when.
Each card only appears once there is something to show (for example, the Bills card appears after you create the first bill), so a brand-new draft order shows very little on the right until you start working through it.
The purchase order lifecycle
A regular purchase order moves through these stages. The status shown on the order and in the Status column of the list reflects where it is:
- Draft: you build the order by adding the supplier, products, quantities, prices, and any additional (landed) costs. A draft can be edited freely or deleted.
- Approved: the order is confirmed and ready to send to the supplier. Depending on your setup this happens by approving the order directly or by requesting approval first.
- Partially Received / Received: as goods arrive you record them with goods receipt notes. Authorizing a GRN brings the stock into inventory and updates the received status of the order.
- Closed: once the order is fully received and billed, you close it to mark the purchase complete.
Alongside the order status, the workspace and list also track:
- Received: whether goods are Not received, Partially-Received, or Received.
- Billing: whether the order is not billed, partially billed, or fully billed.
- Paid: whether the bills are Unpaid, Partially Paid, or Fully Paid.
These four indicators are independent, so an order can be fully received but only partially billed, or fully billed but not yet paid. Together they drive which actions are available on the order at any moment.
When you close a purchase order, Qoblex runs a three-way check that the ordered, received, and billed quantities and totals all match. If they do not, closing is blocked and the mismatches are listed so you can resolve them before the order can be closed.
Beyond the core flow
The same workspace also handles the money and exceptions around a purchase:
- Supplier bills: record the supplier’s invoice for some or all of the order, then authorize it.
- Payments and deposits: pay against a bill, and record supplier deposits (prepayments) that can be allocated to bills.
- Supplier returns: send received goods back to the supplier.
- Supplier refunds: record money the supplier owes you back against a billed item.
- Freight orders: a Freight Order captures freight or transportation costs that can later be spread across one or more regular purchase orders for more accurate landed cost.
Before you start
To get the most out of Purchasing, make sure you have:
- Suppliers set up, so you can select who you are buying from on an order.
- Products in your inventory for the items you buy, so receiving updates the right stock.
- Taxes and Currency configured if you buy in a foreign currency or need purchase tax, since new orders pick up your company’s default purchase tax and currency settings.
- The right user permissions to access Purchasing.