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Managing purchases involves more than just placing an order with a vendor. Depending on your organization’s processes, you may need to approve purchases, make vendor prepayments, receive inventory, account for freight or customs charges, enter AP bills, and connect all of those transactions.
Acumatica brings these steps together within a connected purchasing workflow, allowing information to carry from one transaction to the next.
Acumatica Full Purchase Order Process: Beginning to End
Here’s a look at how the purchase order process can work from beginning to end.
Step 1: Create the Purchase Order
The purchasing process begins with a purchase order (PO). Within Acumatica, you can select the vendor, add the inventory items you’re purchasing, enter quantities and costs, and save the order.
Depending on your company’s approval requirements, the purchase order can also be routed through an approval map before processing continues. Acumatica approval maps can be configured based on rules established by your organization, such as purchase amounts, departments, or other criteria.
If approval is required, users can see who the purchase order has been routed to and whether it has been approved.
Once the PO is ready, it can also be printed or emailed directly to the vendor. Email templates can be customized, and the purchase order document can automatically be attached to the message.
Step 2: Create a Vendor Prepayment if Needed
Some vendors require payment before goods are shipped. When that happens, Acumatica allows you to create a vendor prepayment directly from the purchase order.
By default, the system can create the prepayment based on the full purchase order, but users can adjust the transaction if only part of the order will be prepaid.
Once the prepayment has been created and released, you can create the corresponding payment. Acumatica can use the vendor’s preferred payment method, such as a check, while still allowing users to select another method when appropriate.
Payments can be processed individually or as part of a scheduled payment process. After the payment is released, the prepayment remains connected to the original purchase order, making it easier to follow the transaction through the purchasing cycle.
Step 3: Receive the Goods
When the products arrive, the next step is creating a purchase receipt. A receipt can be created directly from the purchase order, allowing Acumatica to automatically bring the associated PO lines into the receipt. Users can also create a receipt separately and select open purchase orders or individual PO lines for the vendor.
The system can accommodate both full and partial receipts. If only part of an order arrives, the received quantity can be recorded while the purchase order remains open for the remaining items.
Once the receipt is released, Acumatica creates the related inventory transaction and updates the general ledger.
This connection between the purchase order and receipt gives users a clear record of what was ordered compared with what was actually received.
Step 4: Account for Landed Costs
For some purchases, the product price doesn’t represent the full cost of bringing inventory into the business.
Additional expenses may include:
- Freight and transportation
- Customs charges
- Duties
- Other shipping-related fees
Acumatica allows these expenses to be recorded as landed costs and allocated across the inventory received.
Landed cost codes determine how the expense should be distributed. For example, a company might allocate a customs charge based on the cost of each item. Other allocation methods can be configured depending on how the organization wants those expenses assigned.
Once the landed cost transaction is released, Acumatica creates an inventory adjustment that updates the cost of the affected inventory.
Not every company will use landed costs, but for businesses that regularly incur freight, customs, or similar expenses, this provides a more complete view of inventory costs.
Step 5: Enter and Release the AP Bill
The final stage is entering the vendor’s AP bill. The bill can be created from the purchasing workflow, entered separately, or generated automatically depending on how Acumatica has been configured.
If a vendor prepayment was associated with the original purchase order, Acumatica can automatically apply that prepayment when the AP bill is created. This allows the previously paid amount to be connected with the final vendor invoice without requiring users to manually track the relationship between transactions.
After the AP bill is released, the accounting impact is recorded and the purchasing cycle can be completed.
Connecting the Purchase Order, Receipt, and AP Bill
One of the benefits of completing these transactions within the same system is the ability to connect each stage of the purchase.
Acumatica maintains references among the purchase order, purchase receipt, prepayment, landed cost transaction, and AP bill. Users can move between related documents and review the history of the purchase without piecing information together from separate systems.
Once the purchase order, receipt, and AP bill have been recorded, Acumatica can also support three-way matching. This allows businesses to compare what was ordered, what was received, and what was invoiced.
Having those records connected gives accounting and purchasing teams greater visibility into discrepancies and provides a clearer audit trail for each transaction.
Build a Purchasing Workflow That Fits Your Business
Not every organization will follow every step in this process. Some companies may never use vendor prepayments, while others may regularly account for landed costs. Approval requirements and payment processes can also vary considerably.
Acumatica allows organizations to configure the purchasing workflow around their own processes while still keeping transactions connected from the initial purchase order through the final AP bill.
For businesses looking to gain more visibility into purchasing, inventory, and accounts payable, a connected workflow can make it easier to follow transactions, automate repetitive steps, and understand where each purchase stands throughout the process.
