--- description: "Purchasing lives at Purchasing (/purchasing). A purchase order is the paper trail from \"we need this\" to \"it is on the shelf and the bill is posted\"…" --- # How to buy: vendors, purchase orders, receiving, bills > **Audience:** both — office staff raise and receive orders; admins own > vendor records and portal links. Purchasing lives at **Purchasing** (`/purchasing`). A purchase order is the paper trail from "we need this" to "it is on the shelf and the bill is posted": vendor, lines, a receipt into stock, and the bill that lands the cost in the project rollup. ## Prerequisites - Vendors exist (**Purchasing → Vendors**), because every order names one. - At least one stock location, because receiving must post the goods somewhere. ## 1. Set up vendors Press **New vendor** on the Vendors page. Beyond the contact block, two fields matter to the order flow: - **Default currency** — new orders to this vendor start in it. - **Portal links** — the vendor's order portal and any tracking pages. The links feed the one-click buttons on an order, so the jump to the vendor's site is one press and not a search. Add contacts as a list: name, role, email, phone, and one primary contact. Saving replaces the list in one write, so edit freely. ## 2. Raise a purchase order On **Purchasing**, press **New order**. Pick the vendor, confirm the currency, and add lines. A line carries a description, a quantity at milli precision, and a unit cost in minor units. Link a line to a stock item when the goods will be received into stock — that link is what lets the receipt post ledger movements instead of a loose cost record. Link a project when the spend belongs to one. You can send the order once the lines are right: **Send order** moves it from draft to ordered, and the lines become read-only from then on. ## 3. Receive against the order Open the order and press **Receive goods**. The dialog asks which stock location received the goods, and how much of each line arrived. Partial receipts are normal: enter what actually showed up, and the line records `partial` until the rest arrives. For a serialized stock line, type one serial per unit. Each serial becomes its own ledger row and its own tracked unit, so the order and the shelf agree unit for unit. Add the carrier and tracking number while the box is still open. The tracking number is the value the deeplink panel uses, and it is what the client-side "where is my order" question resolves to later. If more arrived than was ordered, the receipt is refused with the line named. Tick **Allow over-receipt** to acknowledge the overage explicitly; the line records `over` instead of silently inflating the order. The dialog also takes scans. Scan a unit's label and its line stages one unit, or scan a bin code and the put-away location follows. The receipt waits for you to confirm, so a scan never posts on its own. A recorded receipt keeps a short strip on the order. Every received stock line gets a **Dispatch** button. That opens the movement dialog with the item staged and the ticket picker ready, so goods that arrived for a specific job reach that ticket in the same sitting. ## 4. Close or cancel an order - **Close** an order once its receipts are done. Closing with quantity still outstanding records a short close, so the gap is a fact on the order rather than a missing receipt. - **Cancel** works while nothing has arrived. After goods arrive, cancel is refused — return or adjust the stock instead, so the ledger keeps the truth. ## 5. Bills and project costs The order's **Bill** card records the vendor's invoice: amount, number, currency. Amounts default to the received total. **Post** the bill to lock the exchange-rate snapshot (ADR 0002) and make it count. Posted bills roll up to the project the order is linked to. Open the project and the cost strip shows purchase cost against budget, with each posted bill listed and linked back to its order.