Purchasing

Purchasing is where you buy: ask for what the team needs, place orders, receive the goods, enter the supplier’s bill and pay it. Buyers own it; accountants open it too, mostly to enter and pay bills.

The Purchasing home

The home answers “what did we buy, what do we owe, and what is waiting for someone?”.

• Purchasing at a glance covers the period you pick: This month, Last month, This quarter, This financial year, Last financial year or Custom, compared with the same days last year. Customise hides or shows parts of the page; Print dashboard prints it.
• Action buttons: New purchase order, Receive goods (the orders still waiting to arrive), Enter a bill, Read a bill, Pay a supplier, Who you owe and GSTR-2B matching.
• Buying flow: requests to order, orders to receive, goods receipts to bill, bills to pay and payments this month; click a step to open those records.
• Key figures: purchases, paid to suppliers, payable, overdue bills, due in the next 7 days, still to arrive, received but not billed, requests to order, advances not yet set off and GST at risk (GSTR-2B).
• To-do lists: Bills to pay this week (with Pay on each), Orders past their expected date, goods received a week ago but not billed, material requests to order, bills on hold and draft bills.
• Look at these: MSME bills unpaid beyond 45 days, bills by month with next month’s forecast, Unusual bills (several times the supplier’s usual amount) and Bought dearer (an item bought at a higher rate than before).

The everyday menu

Entry	What it is for
Suppliers	The businesses you buy from, with GSTIN, address and payment terms
Material requests	What your team needs bought or moved (purchase, transfer, issue, manufacture)
Requests for quotation	Ask several suppliers for prices on the same items, then compare
Supplier quotations	Prices suppliers quoted you; turn the best into an order
Purchase orders	Orders placed with suppliers, with a required-by date per line
Goods receipts	Goods that arrived from a supplier; stock comes in
Purchase invoices	Supplier bills: what you owe
Payments made	Money paid to suppliers, with advances not yet set off
Read a bill	Turn scans or photos of supplier bills into draft bills
Purchase analytics	What you bought from whom, period by period
Who you owe	Unpaid supplier bills by supplier and how overdue
MSME payables	Bills of micro and small suppliers against the 45-day rule
GSTR-2B matching	The GSTR-2B from the GST portal against your purchase bills

The menu groups them under Buy, Pay and Reports. More in Purchasing holds supplier price rules, supplier scorecards, blanket orders, supplier groups and landed cost vouchers.

Buy, step by step

1. Ask for it. Material requests › New. Set Purpose to Purchase, add the items, quantities and the Required By date, then Save. While it is a draft, its Fulfilment tab can add lines from a sales order or from items below their reorder level. Submit.
2. Order it. Open the submitted request and press Create purchase orders: it makes one draft order per supplier, using each item’s default supplier or the one you pick (or press New purchase order on the home). Check the Supplier, the rates and dates, pick the Purchase Taxes and Charges Template, then Save and Submit. Send it with Print or Share.
3. Receive the goods. When they arrive, open the order and press Receive goods. For each line, enter the quantity accepted now and any quantity rejected (lines left at 0 stay open on the order). Receive it straight into stock, or save a draft and check the warehouse on the full form first. The stock comes in at the order rate, which becomes its value.
4. Enter the bill. When the supplier’s bill comes, press Record bill on the order (or Create › Purchase Invoice on the receipt). Enter the Supplier Invoice No and Supplier Invoice Date from the paper bill, check the tax, then Save and Submit. The bill shows Unpaid with its due date.
5. Pay it. Press Pay this bill on the bill (or Pay a supplier on the home, or Pay on a row of Bills to pay this week). A small window asks for the Amount (the balance is filled in; a part payment is fine), Paid by (the mode, which sets the bank or cash account), the Date and the Reference (UTR, cheque no.). Confirm. The bill turns Paid, or Partly Paid with the rest outstanding.

You can also bill straight from a purchase order without a receipt (services, or goods you do not stock), and turn a supplier quotation into a purchase order with Create.

Enter the supplier’s own bill number

GST returns and GSTR-2B matching use the supplier’s bill number and date to find the bill. Type them on every purchase invoice.

Caution

Receive first, bill second. Do not tick Update Stock on a bill for goods still on the way: that bill would put them in stock before they arrive.

How to check it worked

• The order’s Receipts & bills tab shows how much has arrived and been billed. A late order shows a red line there, with Chase on WhatsApp.
• Who you owe shows the supplier’s balance falling as you pay.

GST on purchases

The GST type follows the supplier’s state: a supplier in your own state gives CGST + SGST; another state, an SEZ or overseas gives IGST. The state comes from the supplier’s GSTIN, else the supplier’s address. On a draft, a template of the wrong kind switches by itself to the matching one, with a short notice (“IGST applied: the supplier is in another state…”). A wrong-type template you pick on purpose is refused when you save. If the state is not known, nothing is changed.

GSTR-2B matching compares your purchase bills with the GSTR-2B file you download from the GST portal and upload here; see Accounting.

Read a bill from a photo

1. Open Read a bill, or press Read a bill on the home.
2. Drop scans or PDFs on the page, or press Choose bills (several at once). On a phone, Snap a bill takes the photo; with no network, the photo waits on the phone and goes up when it is back.
3. The bills wait under To read. Press Review on one, then Read this bill: the supplier, bill number, dates, lines and GST are read and matched to your suppliers, items and open orders. Check them, and the totals check.
4. Press Save draft (or Create from this order when it is for an open order). The scan is attached to the draft bill. Nothing is booked until you submit it, unless an Accounts Manager has switched on automatic posting for bills read with high confidence whose totals agree.

Tick several scans to read them together; each shows whether it is ready, needs a check or failed. Bills mailed to a chosen mailbox, or sent on WhatsApp once WhatsApp is connected, land in the same list. Read a bill needs the AI Assistant add-on (and an AI key on your own server).

Who you owe and MSME suppliers

• Who you owe lists unpaid bills by supplier and by bill, how late they are and any advance you already paid, with Pay on each supplier.
• MSME payables tracks bills of micro and small suppliers against the 45-day rule, the interest they attract and what is not deductible this year (s.43B(h)), so you can pay them in time; it also prepares the MSME-1 return. Mark a supplier Micro, Small or Medium on its record.
• Write, say or snap what you need, on a draft material request’s Fulfilment tab, turns “40 bags cement and 2 tonnes 12mm TMT by Monday”, or a photo of a paper indent, into lines you tick (needs the AI Assistant add-on).

Who sees this

• Purchase User and Purchase Manager own Purchasing: suppliers, requests, orders and receipts.
• Accountants (Accounts User and Accounts Manager) see purchase invoices and payments made, here and under Accounting.
• Storekeepers with the Stock User role receive goods.