The Procurement module manages the end-to-end purchasing process, from internal purchase requests through supplier ordering to goods delivery and stock updates. It provides a structured workflow that ensures proper authorization, tracks spending, and maintains a clear audit trail.
Key Features
- Purchase Requisitions — Create internal requests for goods, submit them for approval, and track their progress through the authorization process.
- Purchase Orders — Convert approved requisitions into formal purchase orders, manage multi-level approval workflows, and track order status from creation through delivery.
- Goods Receipts — Record deliveries against purchase orders, inspect received goods (accept or reject), and automatically update stock levels upon completion.
- Supplier Performance — Watch how each supplier actually performs, quarter by quarter: deliveries on time, orders arriving complete, goods refused at the dock — see Supplier Performance.
A purchase order can be produced as a PDF in English, French or Arabic and sent to the supplier — see Printing and Sharing Documents.
Procurement Workflow
The typical procurement workflow follows these steps:
- A team member creates a purchase requisition listing the items needed, with quantities and estimated costs.
- The requisition is submitted for approval. Depending on your organization’s configuration, one or more approvers review and authorize the request.
- Once approved, the requisition is converted into one or more purchase orders (grouped by supplier).
- The purchase order goes through its own approval workflow, then is sent to the supplier for confirmation.
- When goods arrive, a goods receipt is created against the purchase order. Each item is inspected and marked as accepted or rejected.
- Upon completing the goods receipt, stock levels are automatically updated to reflect the new inventory.
Navigation
Open Procurement in the sidebar. The module opens on what needs doing (below), and the sidebar lists the documents of a purchase in the order a purchase walks them:
- Requisitions — internal requests to buy, and their approval
- Purchase Orders — orders sent to suppliers, with their lines, approvals and delivery tracking
- Goods Receipts — what arrived, put into stock
- Supplier Returns — goods sent back to a supplier
- Supplier Invoices — the suppliers’ bills, matched against orders and receipts
- Supplier Debit Notes — what a supplier owes you back after a return or a billing error
Procurement has no Setup: the lists a buyer works from — partner categories and payment terms — are set up in Business Partners.
See what needs doing
Opening Procurement shows the work waiting for somebody, in five lists. Each row opens the record where the job is done, and the lists are read again every time you open the page.
| List | What it shows | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Requisitions to approve | the requisitions submitted and not yet decided, the one needed soonest first | open one and approve or reject it |
| Approved, not yet ordered | the approved requisitions with lines no purchase order covers yet: approved through an approval workflow, or approved while a line had no supplier or price | open one and press Place orders (Placing the orders of an approved requisition) |
| Late deliveries | the purchase orders whose expected delivery day has passed with goods still owed, the oldest slip first | chase the supplier, or send an order still waiting to go |
| Bills to match | the supplier invoices still in draft, a failed match among them, the oldest first | open one and run the match against its order and receipt |
| Bills due | the approved supplier invoices with something left to pay, due in the next seven days or already past due | pay them from Treasury |
Each list shows five rows and how many there are in all, and View all opens the whole list at the same selection. Above the lists, buttons start the week’s usual documents: New purchase requisition and New purchase order. The headline figures sit above the buttons, and the Late deliveries figure counts exactly the orders its list shows. You see only the lists and the buttons your role lets you open.