Procurement Workflow

Create a PO (going through approval first if your company requires it), receive items (partial or full) to update inventory, optionally create a bill for Accounts Payable, and progress status from Open/Overdue/Partial to Received or Cancelled.

Purchase Order (PO)

Overview

Create a PO to request goods/services and control inbound stock. If your company has approval rules configured, a new PO waits as Pending Approval until an approver accepts or rejects it. Receiving updates inventory; creating a Bill records the payable but does not change the PO status.

Workflow Type

• Approval required (optional) → Pending Approval until accepted or rejected

• Standard receive → Received

• Partial/staged receive → Partial until complete

• Overdue follow-up → Overdue (still actionable; the system flags this automatically once the due date passes)

• Void → Cancel

• Accounting any time → Create Bill (status unchanged)

Flow at a Glance

1. Create PO (User) → Status: Pending Approval (if approval rules apply) or Open → Inventory: none → Accounting: none

1a. Approver reviews (Admin/Approver) → Status: Open (accepted) or Rejected (declined) → Inventory/Accounting: none

2. Receive all (User) → Status: Received → Inventory: on-hand up → Accounting: none
   OR Receive some (User) → Status: Partial → Inventory: partial up → Accounting: none

3. Due date passes (System) → Status: Overdue → Inventory/Accounting: none

4. Cancel (User) → Status: Cancelled → Inventory/Accounting: none. Once anything has already been received against the PO, cancelling is no longer available.

5. Create Bill (User, any status except Cancelled) → Status: unchanged → Inventory: none → Accounting: A/P up

Status & Actions

• Pending Approval: approve / reject (whichever user is assigned as approver for that rule)

• Open: receive / create bill / cancel

• Overdue: receive / create bill / cancel (once something has already been received, cancelling is no longer available)

• Partial: receive more / create bill / cancel

• Received (end): create bill / reopen

• Cancelled (end): reopen

• Rejected (end): no further action is intended — cancel and create a new PO if the purchase still needs to go through

Role & Authorization

• General User: create PO, receive, create bill, cancel, reopen

• Approval routes to whichever user your company has assigned as the approver for that rule — it isn't tied to a fixed admin role.

• Admins/owners : broader visibility into pending approvals across the company, and editing numbering/defaults.

Best Practice

Review Overdue daily; use Partial for staged deliveries; match what you ordered, received, and were billed for (PO–Receipt–Bill) before paying; avoid edits after receiving starts; document exceptions; maintain Vendor-Item catalog.