A purchase order (PO) is a document used in the purchasing process, serving as a buyer's request to a seller (supplier) to order goods or services.
POs not only help estimate expenses but also formalize the intent to purchase, providing a binding agreement between the buyer and the supplier in many countries.
By integrating POs with budgets and expenses, Productive ensures a simplified purchasing process, accurate expense tracking, and compliance with financial procedures.
Extra Context:
In Productive, POs are tied to expenses in budgets.
When you issue and finalize a PO, it is added as an expense to your services in the budget.
This functionality is particularly useful for forecasting expenses and maintaining accurate financial records.
Creating purchase orders is available on the Ultimate subscription plan.
Enabling Purchase Orders for Your Organization
To start using POs in Productive, head over to Settings > Purchase Orders and enable the feature for your organization.
Once enabled, Purchase Orders will appear as an option in the Financials menu and as a new "Purchase orders" tab in all your budgets.
Creating a Purchase Order
Open the Budget: Navigate to the budget where you want to create the PO and select the Purchase orders tab.
Create a New Purchase Order: Click on the "+Purchase order" button.
Select Vendor and Currency: Choose the vendor providing the service (from your client's list) and the currency for the expenses.
Select Services: Choose the services to be included in the PO.
Note: If no services are available in the list, add a new service line item for the expenses to your budget and set the unit for the service to "Piece". Find out more about setting up different tracking options here.
Enter Expenses: For each selected service, enter the expense description, quantity, and price. Save changes to finalize the PO draft. The status of the PO and associated expenses will initially be "Draft".
When you finalize the PO, all expenses linked to it will also be finalized. This action converts the draft expenses into actual expenses, impacting the budget.
Unlinking and Deleting Expenses from Purchase Orders
To edit a PO:
Open the PO and click the three dots next to the expense line item.
Choose to Unlink or Delete the expense.
Unlinking keeps the expense in the budget but removes it from the PO (note that Sent POs cannot be unlinked, to link such POs, first mark them as Unsent).
Deleting removes the expense from both the PO and the budget.
Duplicating and Deleting a Purchase Order
You can duplicate or delete a PO by clicking the three dots in the upper right corner of the PO screen. Deleting a PO will also delete all related items unless they are unlinked first.
Marking a Purchase Order as Sent
Click on the "Mark as Sent" button to set the sent date for the PO. This action updates the status to "Sent" and changes the payment status to "Not received". Note that sent POs cannot be edited.
Sending the PO
Select the "Send to vendor" option in the upper right to send the PO directly from Productive.
Alternatively, download the PO PDF by opening the Purchase order PDF dropdown in the upper left.
The email body can be customized by clicking "Edit", and the PO PDF can be adjusted to your liking in the Document templates.
Managing Bills
Bills indicate the receipt of items ordered through a PO. To create a bill:
Select the Bills menu while viewing your PO and click on "+Bill".
Enter the date, due date, bill number, description, and quantity of items received.
The PO payment status will be updated accordingly.
Purchase Order Numbering Scheme
To customize the PO numbering scheme, go to Settings > General > Numbering Scheme and enter the desired sequence.
This customization helps in maintaining organized and easily trackable records. Find out more about customizing your numbering schemes here.
Viewing Expenses in the Reports
To easily manage all your expenses, navigate to the Reports tab, select "From scratch", and choose the Expenses data source.
Add the "Purchase orders" field to track all expenses that require a PO.
