Purchase
The Purchase module is the procurement side of ERPX. It covers the whole journey from “we need something” to “it is received and paid for” — raising requests, collecting supplier quotations, placing orders, and tracking what has been received and billed.
Purchase does not move stock itself. It creates the commitments; Inventory records the movement and Financials records the money. That separation is why the same purchase order can be partly received and partly billed without the numbers ever disagreeing.
How Purchase is organized
| Layer | What it is | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Master | Who you buy from | Suppliers |
| 2. Procurement cycle | The documents you raise every day | Purchase Request, Supplier Quotation, Purchase Order |
| 3. Fulfilment | Handled by other modules | GRN in Inventory, Purchase Invoice in Financials |
| 4. Insights | Spend and performance | Dashboard, Order Analysis, Purchase Reports |
Two documents in the purchase cycle live in other modules. The Goods Received Note is under Inventory because it moves stock, and the Purchase Invoice is under Financials because it books the payable. Both are documented here from the purchase point of view, with links to the full reference.
The procurement cycle
Only the Purchase Order is mandatory. Requests and quotations exist to make the order defensible — what was needed, who quoted what, and why this supplier won.
What you can do in Purchase
| Area | Purpose | Typical users |
|---|---|---|
| Suppliers | Maintain the supplier master, addresses, contacts, and tax identifiers | Procurement |
| Purchase Request | Record an internal need for material, with a required-by date | Anyone / Stores |
| Supplier Quotation | Capture supplier prices and validity for comparison | Procurement |
| Purchase Order | Commit to a supplier for quantity, price, and date | Procurement |
| Goods Received Note | Receive against the order (lives in Inventory) | Stores |
| Purchase Invoice | Book the supplier’s bill (lives in Financials) | Finance |
| Reports | Spend by supplier and item, pending orders, procurement tracking | Procurement / Finance |
Which document do I need?
| Situation | Start with |
|---|---|
| A department needs material and no order exists yet | Purchase Request |
| Stock fell below its reorder level | A purchase request may be raised automatically — see Reorder Levels |
| Production needs raw material for a work order | A purchase request generated from the work order |
| You want to compare prices before committing | Supplier Quotation per supplier |
| You already know the supplier and price | Go straight to a Purchase Order |
| You are buying to fulfil a specific customer order | A purchase order pulled from the Sales Order |
| Goods have physically arrived | GRN |
| The supplier’s bill has arrived | Purchase Invoice |
Browse by section
The supplier master: addresses, contacts, currency, tax identifiers, and the linked payable account.
Record what is needed, by when, and into which warehouse — manually, from reorder rules, or from a work order.
Capture supplier prices with validity dates so you can compare before committing.
The commitment to a supplier. Built free-hand or pulled from a request, quotation, or sales order.
Receive goods against the order. Lives in Inventory because it moves stock and sets valuation.
Book the supplier bill against the GRN. Lives in Financials because it creates the payable.
Purchase by supplier and item, pending orders, procurement tracker, dashboard, and order analysis.
Document statuses at a glance
| Document | Statuses |
|---|---|
| Purchase Request | Draft → Pending → Ordered / Cancelled |
| Supplier Quotation | Draft → Approved → Linked |
| Purchase Order | Draft → To Receive And Bill → To Bill / To Receive → Completed / Cancelled |
Purchase order status is derived, not set by hand. It is calculated from the received and billed quantities totalled across all order lines — see Purchase Order statuses. There is no “partially received” status: a partial receipt leaves the order at To Receive And Bill.
Upstream documents are closed in full, not proportionally. Approving a purchase order marks every linked purchase request as Ordered, and raising it marks every linked supplier quotation as Linked — even when you ordered only part of the requested or quoted quantity. These statuses mean “an order came from this”, not “this is fully covered”.
Your work queue
Go to: Purchase → Overview
The overview groups documents by what needs doing, with counts per type — Supplier Quotations, Purchase Requests, and Purchase Orders:
| Column | Contains |
|---|---|
| To Assign | Documents with no owner yet |
| To Do | Documents assigned to you |
| To Approve | Documents waiting on your approval |
The one rule to remember
A purchase order is a commitment, not a movement. Approving it does not change stock or your accounts — it only tells the business what you have promised to buy. Stock changes when the GRN is approved, and the payable appears when the Purchase Invoice is posted.