Purchasing · Getting started · 6 min read

Getting started with Purchasing

The order in which to set up Purchasing before your first purchase order.

Before you begin

You need an administrator account for the company. Purchasing menus appear in the order shown below; a menu you cannot see needs a permission you do not hold (see step 2).

Steps

1. Check the feature switches. Open Administration > Applications > Purchasing > Features. Turn off the optional parts you will not use (purchase requisitions, calls for tenders, purchase agreements, supplier rebates, shipping notices, retentions, supplier portal, reverse auctions, punch-out catalogues, early payment offers, supplier qualification). A switched-off feature loses its menu and refuses new entries; existing data stays readable. Purchase orders, receipts and vendor bills cannot be turned off.
2. Give people the right roles. The standard roles are Purchasing user (raises requisitions, runs tenders, records shipping notices), Purchasing manager (approves requisitions and orders, awards tenders, writes policies, releases retentions) and Accountant (puts policies in force, releases bills held by matching). Warehouse staff need the Warehouse role to receive goods.
3. Add your suppliers. Open Purchase > Suppliers > New. Set the type to Vendor (or Customer + Vendor), payment days (0 to 365) and the tax number. A customer-only contact is not offered as a supplier anywhere.
4. Add products you buy. Open Purchase > Products and make sure each product can be bought, with its unit, purchase tax and cost. The supplier price rows on the product fill the price on an order line.
5. Set the Purchase settings. Open Purchase > Configuration > Purchase settings. Decide whether a supplier invoice number is required on every bill, whether each number may be posted only once (on by default), whether a buyer may approve their own order, and whether receipts post to Goods received not invoiced. See Purchase settings.
6. Set the approval tiers. On the same page, add a tier for each order size that needs more approvals. With no tiers, an order needs no approval.
7. Set receipt tolerances. Open Purchase > Configuration > Receipt tolerances if suppliers may deliver a little over or under. See Tolerances, matching and qualification.
8. Write a bill matching policy. Open Purchase > Configuration > Bill matching policies. One person drafts it and a second person puts it in force. Without an active policy nothing is held by matching.
9. Decide on approved suppliers. If you want to buy only from qualified suppliers, tick Commit only to approved suppliers in Purchase settings and write the qualifications under Purchase > Configuration > Approved suppliers.
10. Open the supplier portal (optional). Create logins under Purchase > Configuration > Supplier portal logins, or tick Accept supplier registrations in Purchase settings so new suppliers can apply. See Supplier onboarding.
11. Make your first record. Open Purchase > Orders > Requests for quotation > New request and raise a small RFQ. Follow RFQs and purchase orders.

What happens next

You can buy, receive and bill. Approved orders raise a draft goods receipt in the order's warehouse; posted bills are checked against the matching policy.

Good to know

• Currency on screen is always AED. A foreign-currency order can exist only if it arrives through an integration.
• If your company uses Goods received not invoiced, a GRNI account must exist under Finance > Configuration > Posting accounts first, or saving the setting is refused.
• The Dashboard needs the dashboard permission; without it you see a "not allowed" panel.