Manage vendor bills

The Purchase application allows you to manage your purchase orders, incoming products, and vendor bills all seamlessly in one place.

If you want to set up a vendor bill control process, the first thing you need to do is to have purchase data in Flectra. Knowing what has been purchased and received is the first step towards understanding your purchase management processes.

Here is the standard work flow in Flectra:

  1. You begin with a Request for Quotation (RFQ) to send out to your vendor(s).

  2. Once the vendor has accepted the RFQ, confirm the RFQ into a Purchase Order (PO).

  3. Confirming the PO generates an Incoming Shipment if you purchased any stockable products.

  4. Upon receiving a Vendor Bill from your Vendor, validate the bill with products received in the previous step to ensure accuracy.

This process may be done by three different people within the company, or only one.

Configuration

Installing the Purchase and Inventory applications

From the Apps application, search for the Purchase module and install it. Due to certain dependencies, installing Purchase will automatically install the Inventory and Accounting applications.

Creating products

Creating products in Flectra is essential for quick and efficient purchasing within Flectra. Simply navigate to the Products submenu under Purchase and click create.

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When creating the product, pay attention to the Product Type field, since it is important:

  • Products that are set as Stockable or Consumable will allow you to keep track of their inventory levels. These options imply stock management and will allow for receiving these kinds of products.

  • Conversely, products that are set as a Service or Digital Product will not imply stock management, simply due to the fact that there is no inventory to manage. You will not be able to receive products under either of these designations.

Tip

It is recommended that you create a Miscellaneous product for all purchases that occur infrequently and do not require inventory valuation or management. If you create such a product, it is recommended to set the product type to Service.

Managing your Vendor Bills

Purchasing products or services

From the purchase application, you can create a purchase order with as many products as you need. If the vendor sends you a confirmation or quotation for an order, you may record the order reference number in the Vendor Reference field. This will enable you to easily match the PO with the the vendor bill later (as the vendor bill will probably include the Vendor Reference)

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Validate the purchase order and receive the products from the Inventory application.

Receiving Products

If you purchased any stockable products that you manage the inventory of, you will need to receive the products from the Inventory application after you confirm a purchase order. From the Inventory dashboard, you should see a button linking you directly to the transfer of products. This button is outlined in red below:

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Navigating this route will take you to a list of all orders waiting to be received.

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If you have a lot of awaiting orders, apply a filter using the search bar in the upper right. With this search bar, you may filter based on the vendor (partner), the product, or the source document (also known as the reference of your purchase order). You can also group the orders by different criteria under Group By. Selecting an item from this list will open the following screen where you then will receive the products.

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Purchasing service products does not trigger a delivery order.