Purchasing · Daily operations · 9 min read

Create, approve and amend a purchase order

Raise an RFQ, get the approvals the order needs, confirm it, and change or cancel it afterwards.

Before you begin

• The supplier exists and is active. A supplier on hold for all transactions cannot be ordered from.
• You need document.draft to create and edit, document.confirm to press Approve order, and purchase.order.approve to give a tier approval.
• Approval tiers (if any) are set in Purchase settings.

Steps

Create the RFQ

1. Open Purchase > Orders > Requests for quotation and press New request.
2. Choose the Supplier. Request date defaults to today.
3. Fill the header as needed: Payment terms, Purchase price list, Receive into (warehouse; empty means the company default), Incoterm, Supplier reference.
4. Add lines. For each: Product, Quantity, Unit price (left empty it takes the supplier's price for that quantity, else the product cost), Discount (0 to 100) and Tax.
5. On the Other information tab, optionally name a Purchase agreement, set Retention % with Retention due after (days), or tick Consignment.
6. Press Save. The RFQ is a draft with a number.
7. Press Print and choose Request for quotation to download a PDF to attach to your own email. The system does not send email.

Get the approvals

1. If the order total (with tax) reaches a tier, other people must approve first. Each approver opens the order, goes to the Procurement tab and presses Approve this version.
2. The badge shows Approvals x of y.

Confirm

1. Press Approve order. The order becomes a purchase order, moves to Purchase orders, and a draft goods receipt is raised.

Amend, cancel or correct

1. To change a confirmed order that has no receipt or bill, open Procurement and press Amend, type Why it changes, and confirm. The order returns to draft as the next version.
2. Press Cancel to cancel. Duplicate copies an order into a new draft.

Other procurement actions

1. Record acknowledgement: enter the supplier's reference and date.
2. Delivery schedule: split a line into drops. The drops of one line must add up exactly to the line quantity.

What happens next

• State Confirmed. The receipt appears under the Receipts smart button, in the warehouse chosen in Receive into.
• An approved requisition line shows as ordered, and its budget commitment is released.
• A call-off against a purchase agreement counts toward the agreement ceiling.

Worked example

Ten office chairs at AED 450, 5% discount, VAT 5%:

If a tier starts at 10,000 with two approvals, this order needs none; a 12,000 order needs two approvals from people other than the author.

Good to know

• Approvals belong to a version. Change a price and save, and the earlier approval shows 'No - the order changed'; approve again.
• Nobody approves twice: 'You have already approved this version of the order.'
• With the setting A buyer may not approve their own purchase order on, the author cannot press Approve order: 'Somebody other than whoever raised this purchase order must approve it.' The tier approval has the same rule.
• Missing approvals: '<PO> needs 1 approval at 12000.00; it has 0 for this version.'
• A purchase agreement is checked only at Approve order: it must exist, be in force, be with the same supplier, cover the date, leave enough ceiling, and list every product.
• With Enforce the supplier's terms on, a quantity below the supplier minimum is refused, and a price above the supplier's list needs a Reason for a higher price.
• With Commit only to approved suppliers on, the supplier needs a valid qualification. See Tolerances, matching and qualification.
• Amend is refused once goods were received or a bill raised. Use a return, a debit note or a new order.
• Reset to draft needs any open receipt cancelled first.
• Cancel asks for no reason and does not cancel an open receipt or return received goods. Check the receipt yourself.
• A fully received order stays Confirmed; the screen does not move it to a Received stage.
• An RFQ has only Draft, Confirmed and Cancelled; there is no Sent or Locked status.
• To receive and bill an order with no receipt in one step, press Receive & bill in one step.