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Purchase orders

A purchase order is what you asked a supplier for, at what cost, and what has arrived against it since: receipts into a location, the supplier's invoice, freight spread across the lines, and the payments that settled it.

A delivery arrives: every line received into the warehouse, and the stock lands on the SKU.

Purchase orders are under Purchase orders in the sidebar. The list shows each order's number, your reference, supplier, status, units received and total. Search by reference or supplier, filter by status, and save the filters you use as a view.

Raising an order

  1. Press New purchase order.
  2. Choose the Supplier. Suppliers are companies with the supplier role, kept under Companies.
  3. Add Your reference if you have one: your own PO number. Use each reference once. Raising an order with a reference already used opens the order it made, not a new one.
  4. Pick the Currency the supplier bills in. It starts at your home currency.
  5. Add a line for each SKU: the Quantity and the Unit cost you expect to pay. Add line adds another.
  6. Press Raise purchase order.

The order is numbered at once (PO-00042) and opens as a Draft. Nothing shows as Incoming yet. Press Edit to change the supplier or lines, and Save changes when done.

Authorising

Press Authorise when the order is final. Each SKU now shows the quantities as Incoming, and the SKU page lists the order under Incoming, before a box arrives. Manifold does not send the order to the supplier. Send it yourself.

The order page no longer offers Edit. To change lines nothing has been received on, ask an AI agent, for example: "On PO-00042, change WIDGET-BLUE to 60 units and add 20 of WIDGET-RED at $4.10." The Incoming figures follow. A line with units received cannot be changed.

Set the Expected date in the order's details. It is what the dashboard's arriving and overdue deliveries are measured against, and you can change it until the goods are in.

Cancelling an order

Cancel order withdraws a draft. The order stays on the list as Cancelled and its reference stays taken.

The button only shows on drafts. An authorised order that has received nothing can be cancelled by an AI agent: "Cancel PO-00042; the supplier can't supply it." Its quantities then no longer show as Incoming. Once anything has been received, an order cannot be cancelled. Close it short instead. See Closing.

Receiving

An authorised order with stock still to come shows a Receive goods card.

  1. Type what came in against each line under Receiving. The card shows what was ordered, what has been received so far and what is outstanding.
  2. For a batch-tracked SKU, type the Batch and, if it has one, its expiry date. For a serial-tracked SKU, type the serials, comma-separated, one per unit.
  3. Choose the Location the goods went into, or leave it at Default location.
  4. Press Record receipt.

Stock lands on the SKU at that location at once, and the incoming quantity drops by the same amount. When the delivery matches the docket, Receive all fills every line with what is outstanding and records the receipt in one press. A tracked line still needs its batch or serials typed first.

A receipt is checked whole before anything moves. It is refused, and nothing is received, when:

  • a line receives more than is outstanding on it;
  • a serial has been received before, on this order or any other;
  • a tracked line is missing its batch or serials, or has the wrong kind;
  • a SKU on the line no longer exists in inventory.

If the connection drops while a receipt is recording and the page still shows your figures, press Record receipt again without changing the rows. The same receipt is sent, and it is recorded once. Changing any row starts a new receipt. After a reload, check the order's Received figures first, so you do not book the delivery twice.

Damaged or wrong goods on arrival

Receive only what you will keep. For units that arrived damaged, receive them, then record them as damaged on the SKU's page (see Stock and locations). For goods that never came or were sent back, leave them unreceived and close the order short. Manifold does not yet record returns to a supplier.

The supplier's invoice

Until the supplier's invoice is authorised, received stock is valued at the order's unit cost. The invoice confirms what each unit really cost.

  1. On the Supplier invoice card, type the Invoiced unit cost for any line the supplier billed differently. A blank line keeps the order's unit cost.
  2. Check the Invoice total against the supplier's invoice.
  3. Press Authorise invoice.

The confirmed costs appear in the Confirmed column, and stock already received is revalued at them. An invoice is authorised once. It can be authorised before every line has arrived; the order then stays Authorised or Partially received until the rest comes in.

To skip this step for suppliers who always bill at the order's prices, turn on Invoice automatically when fully received under Settings › Purchasing. The invoice is then recorded at the order's prices the moment the last line lands.

Freight, duty and other landed costs

Freight, customs and duty belong in what the stock cost. Add them on the Landed costs card, before or after the invoice.

  1. Type the Amount, a Description such as sea freight, and the Document: the freight invoice number. The document is what stops the same bill landing twice.
  2. Press Allocate….
  3. Choose Whole order to spread the amount over every unit, or Chosen lines and set the units per line in the Allocate units column. The Landed preview column shows each line's share and the cost per unit.
  4. Press Apply.

A document number can be used once across all your orders. Used again, even on another order, it is taken as a repeat and nothing is added. To split one freight bill over two orders, give each share its own document, such as FRT-88213/1 and FRT-88213/2.

The amount is split equally per unit, to the cent. Each line's share shows in the Landed column, and the units received so far are revalued. A closed order takes no more landed costs, so if freight bills arrive after the supplier's invoice, leave Close automatically once invoiced off.

Paying the supplier

Once an order has an authorised invoice or landed costs, its Bills and payments card shows what was billed, paid and owed in each currency.

One order

  1. On the order's Bills and payments card, type the Amount paid.
  2. Choose the Method: bank transfer, card, cheque, cash, direct debit or other.
  3. Add the Remittance reference if you have one.
  4. Press Record payment.

Several orders

To pay several of one supplier's orders with one payment, press Supplier payments at the top of Purchase orders.

  1. Under Record a payment, choose the Supplier and, if it bills in more than one, the Currency.
  2. Set Paid on to the day the money left, the Method and the Bank reference.
  3. For a payment in a foreign currency, type what the bank charged in your home currency under Cost in. Left blank, the day's reference rate is used.
  4. Against each order, type what you are Paying, or press Full to pay what it owes.
  5. Press Record payment.

A payment above what an order owes is refused. One payment covers one supplier's orders only. Payments made either way appear in the Payments list on Supplier payments, latest first. See these payments on an order's card opens the list at that order.

Closing

A closed order is finished and read only. With Close automatically once invoiced on, an order closes itself when its invoice is authorised and every line has arrived.

An order that will never be delivered in full is closed short. What happens to the quantity that never came is set under When closing short in Settings › Purchasing:

Cancel the remainder
It no longer shows as Incoming, and the order records it as cancelled.
Keep the shortfall
The order closes, but the shortfall stays on its lines for follow-up with the supplier, and it still shows as Incoming on each SKU. A closed order takes no receipts. When the rest will not come, ask an AI agent to stop expecting it: "Stop expecting the 12 WIDGET-RED still open on PO-00042." If it does come, receive it as a new order.

The order page has no Close button yet. To close an order by hand, or short, ask an AI agent: "Close PO-00042 short; the rest is not coming."

What each status means

Draft
Being written. Edit, authorise or cancel it. Nothing shows as Incoming yet.
Authorised
Final. The quantities show as Incoming. Send the order to your supplier yourself. Nothing has arrived yet.
Partially received
Some stock has arrived. The order stays open for the rest, which still shows as Incoming.
Received
Every line has arrived. The supplier's invoice is next.
Invoiced
Everything arrived and the supplier's invoice is authorised. Landed costs and payments can still be added.
Closed
Finished. No more receipts, invoice changes or landed costs. Payments can still be recorded against what it owes.
Cancelled
Withdrawn before anything arrived. Kept on the list; its reference stays taken.

The figures in Details

Goods
The lines at the order's unit costs.
Landed
Freight, duty and other costs added to the order.
Projected AP
AP is accounts payable: what you owe suppliers. This is what the supplier is expected to bill for the goods, until the invoice is authorised. A forecast; you do not owe it yet.
Accrued
Received, not yet billed: stock that has arrived but is not on an authorised invoice, at the order's unit costs.

Order numbers

Every order is numbered when it is raised: a prefix, then a serial that counts up and is never reused. Change the Prefix and the Next number under Settings › Purchasing. The number can only move forward.

Before you go live

If your organization is read-only and following another system, you can read purchase orders in Manifold but not raise, receive or pay them, and you cannot record supplier payments, until you go live. Keep buying in your old system until then. See Read-only mode and going live.

Who can do it

Receiving needs permission to receive stock: the Receiving role has it. Raising, authorising, invoicing, landing costs and closing need permission to change purchasing: the Purchasing role. Paying needs permission to record payments: the Finance role. Settings › Purchasing is for owners and admins. Owners and admins can do everything. See Team.

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