Purchase orders and deliveries

Raise a purchase order to a supplier, issue it by email or another way, record what arrives, and close or void it when you're done.

This article is being updated.

Purchasing holds the purchase orders your business sends to suppliers. It shows by default for businesses that deliver work as jobs. If your business runs members, it's hidden unless someone turns it on in Settings → Modules.

By default, the Owner and Managers can create and issue purchase orders, and Read Only users can view them. If your role has no access, ask an owner or manager.

Some roles can raise purchase orders only on their own jobs. Their orders must name one of those jobs, and someone whose role can issue purchase orders sends them.

The purchase order list

Go to Purchasing → Purchase orders. The All purchase orders tile shows the total and count, leaving out void ones. Each row shows the number, supplier, job, total, Status, Work status, and the Issued and Expected dates. A warning sign beside the expected date means the delivery is overdue.

Search with Search purchase orders…. The Filters button narrows by Status, Type, Issue date and Closed date. Beside it, pick a Supplier or a Job. Overhead lists orders not tied to a job.

Need a number for the supplier and nothing else? Quick purchase order number issues an order with no lines and gives you its number now. Nothing is sent - the supplier's bill brings the lines.

Raise a purchase order

1. Select New purchase order.
2. Pick the Supplier. Only suppliers that can be used are offered. If your role can add contacts, + New supplier creates one.
3. Choose the Purchase order type: Product for goods, Service for work.
4. Under Allocation, choose Job + scope and pick the job and its scope, or choose Overhead for running costs not tied to a job.
5. Add the Expected delivery or Expected completion date, the supplier's quote reference and a Scope summary if you like.

The order saves as a draft as soon as the supplier is picked, and for a Job + scope order its job too, keeping anything you've entered so far, and opens at its own page. Anything you haven't filled in yet, you can set on the draft. It reads Draft (number on issue) until it's issued.

On the draft, select Add purchase order line for each item. Give each line a Description, Qty, Unit cost and Tax. The totals add up below: the Subtotal, a row for each tax rate named after that rate, and the Total. If your prices include tax, you see the Total with a line under it for the tax it includes. You can also change the Payment terms for this order with Override, add Notes, attachments, tags and custom fields, and tick Include standard T&Cs if your business has them.

From a job

A job's Purchases tab lists its purchase orders by scope. Select Add purchase order to start one with the job and scope already filled in. A purchase order opened from there has Back to job at the top.

The same tab has an Expenses section listing the receipts on the job. If your role can add receipts, select Add expense to capture one against the job. Neither button shows on an archived job. See Expenses and receipts.

Issue it

If your business doesn't require approval for the order, the button at the foot of the draft is Send to supplier:

1. Select Send to supplier.
2. Pick the Recipient - the supplier's own address, one of its people with an email address, or Another email address to type one in. Sending to the supplier's own address or another one saves it as a person on the supplier first, so if your role can't add contacts those two are greyed out. An address that has bounced reads email bounced and can't be picked.
3. Check the Subject and add a Message if you like.
4. Select Send.

The purchase order goes as a PDF attached to the email, numbered as it issues. If the order includes your standard terms and they're a PDF, that's attached too, and so are any files attached to the order itself.

Handed it over another way? Use the arrow beside the button and choose Mark as issued. Pick SMS, Mail or Other, then select Mark as issued. Nothing is sent, and the order takes its number.

The order now shows as Issued. Its details and lines can no longer be edited.

If your business requires approval for the order (see Purchase order approval under Settings below), the button reads Submit for approval instead. The order isn't sent. Its status stays Draft, and a banner reads Awaiting approval with the step it's at and who approves it. Withdraw on the banner takes it back. Approvers act on it from the Approvals tab in Purchasing.

Once it's approved, the status reads Approved - not sent, a banner names who approved it, and the button reads Send.

Warnings when you issue

• Supplier compliance expired - one of the supplier's compliance records has expired. Select Acknowledge to issue anyway or, if your role can see contacts, Fix in Contacts to update the record. If your business blocks this, fixing the record is the only way forward. If your role can't see contacts, ask someone who can.
• Supplier compliance expiring soon - a heads-up only.
• Scope estimate exceeded - this order takes the scope's committed cost past its estimate. Select Acknowledge to issue anyway, unless the job's setting blocks it. A job follows your business's Discipline setting (under Settings below) unless someone whose role can change it sets the job's own rule under Going over a scope's estimate at issue on its Purchases tab.

Receive goods

If your role can record delivery receipts, select Receive goods on the purchase order when a delivery arrives. It's offered once the order is issued, including after it's been billed, until it's closed or voided. A role that can only record delivery receipts can't receive on an Overhead order. The lines show what was Ordered, Received so far and what's Outstanding.

1. Under Have a delivery docket?, select Photo docket to keep a photo with it. Prevarro reads the photo and fills in the quantities, reference and date below. Fields it read with low confidence are marked: press Looks right or change them before you record.
2. Enter how many arrived in This delivery for each line. Use Add an item not on the purchase order for anything extra.
3. Set the Received date, and add the Delivery docket / reference and Notes if you like.
4. Select Record delivery receipt, then confirm.

Receiving more than was ordered is allowed. The confirm lists those lines, and they're flagged. The order's receiving pill shows Awaiting delivery, Partly received, Received or Over-received.

Each delivery is listed under Delivery receipts. One marked Not finished can be finished with Finish. Discard removes a delivery receipt. For a finished one, Prevarro asks you to confirm, and its quantities stop counting toward the order.

A delivery that didn't come on a purchase order can be recorded from the list with Record delivery receipt. Pick the supplier and list What arrived.

Change, close or void

If your role can issue purchase orders, use the menu at the top of the order (the three dots), or at the foot beside the main button on a phone.

• Discard draft - permanently removes a draft, except a draft made by Reissue with corrections.
• Reissue with corrections - on an Issued order, voids the original, keeps it, and opens a new draft copying it for you to correct and issue. Once a finished delivery receipt names the order, Prevarro refuses the reissue and points you to Void instead.
• Close purchase order - ends an order that's Issued or Billed (partial). Pick a reason. This can't be undone.
• Void - for an order that shouldn't have existed, offered on Issued, Billed (partial), Billed and Closed orders. A reason is required, and the voided order is kept. This can't be undone.

Work status tracks the supplier's work separately: Pending, In progress, Complete or Cancelled.

Settings

If your role can configure Purchasing, Purchasing → Settings holds:

• Purchase order numbering - the Prefix and Next purchase order number. Drafts don't use a number, and voided orders keep theirs.
• Discipline - whether Supplier compliance at issue is Off, Warn (default) or Gate, and whether Going over a scope's estimate at issue warns or blocks. By default only the Owner can change these.
• Standard terms & conditions - your terms as text, printed in the purchase order PDF, or as a PDF attached to the email. Not both.
• Purchase order approval - whether an order needs approval before it's issued: Off, Always, or Above an amount for orders at or above an amount before tax.