One tab for each subject
Procurement setup has a tab for each subject: How you work, Pricing, Credit & approvals, Invoicing, Locations, Where the money lands and Signing links. Each tab saves only its own settings, so moving between them never saves or loses another tab's changes. Somebody who keeps the books, and does nothing else here, starts on Where the money lands.
How you work
| Setting | What it does | When added |
|---|---|---|
| Keep a copy of every customer LPO | Confirming an order by LPO needs a scan or photo of it attached first. Orders confirmed by email or by phone are not affected | Off |
| Reserve stock when an order is confirmed | What is available is set aside for the order; off, somebody reserves it from the order | On |
| Allow negative stock | Stock can go out — on a delivery, a write-off or a transfer — before what came in is recorded, and the balance shows a minus until it is | Off |
| The default location | Used whenever an order, a supplier LPO or a delivery order does not name a location | Main store |
| What you call the delivery document | Printed at the top of it, and on the page a customer signs | Delivery Order |
| Terms on every new quotation | Each quotation starts with these and can be changed on its own | Empty |
| Notes on every delivery order | Printed under the delivery order's own notes | Empty |
Credit and approvals
| Setting | What it does | When added |
|---|---|---|
| Checking what a customer owes | Off, Warn or Block — see The credit check in Orders and the customer's LPO | Warn |
| When it is checked | When an order is confirmed, When goods leave, or Both | When goods leave |
| Count confirmed orders not yet delivered in what the customer owes | Adds the orders still to deliver to what the books say they owe | Off |
| Days past due before an overdue invoice counts | Empty means overdue invoices are not looked at | Empty |
| Approval limit | A supplier LPO whose total is above it waits for approval; empty means none does | Empty |
| Accept more than was ordered by up to (%) | 0 means goods received can never be more than the LPO | 0 |
| Somebody other than the person who raised an LPO approves it | Only matters for LPOs over the approval limit | On |
| Lowest margin you want on an order (%) | An order whose estimated margin is below it shows a warning — never a refusal. Somebody who cannot see costs is told only that it is below the floor | Empty |
Invoicing
- Customer invoices: Somebody prepares each invoice (when added), A draft invoice is prepared when a delivery is signed, or The invoice is prepared and issued when a delivery is signed — the last only once somebody has given their standing authority.
- Supplier bills: Somebody prepares each bill (when added), or Draft the bill as goods are received — goods received with the supplier's invoice number draft their bill at once.
- Invoice only what the customer has signed for — on when added. Off, a delivery order can be invoiced as soon as it leaves the store.
- Let a delivery be marked delivered without a signature — on when added, always with a reason, recorded as Marked delivered. Off, every delivery needs a signature or a signed copy on file.
Standing authority is what lets invoices issue themselves. Only the person whose approval it stands for can give it, with Give my standing authority (or Give mine instead, to replace somebody else's), while they hold both Approve sales and Choose the accounts and VAT codes Procurement uses; giving it asks for a code from their authenticator, unless they are the Owner. It is checked every time it is used, and never issues into a locked period. Withdraw it stops it, and invoices that were issuing themselves are drafted instead.
Where the money lands
This is the only place in Procurement where an account appears, and the order desk never sees it. Each row is something Procurement needs an account for when an item does not name one; Needs an account marks the rows invoices and bills depend on, and Optional the rest.
| Row | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Sales of goods | Where an invoice line lands when its item names no sales account. Its VAT code is the default for a goods line with none. |
| Sales of services | The same, for service lines. |
| Purchases and cost of goods | Where a supplier bill line lands when its item names no purchase account. Its VAT code is the default for a purchase line with none. |
| Inventory (for reconciliation) | Only read: the stock valuation is compared with this account's balance. Procurement never posts to it. |
| Delivery charges and Default account for money received | Optional. |
A sales row takes an income account, purchases an expense account and inventory an asset account; a control account is refused. When Procurement is added, the standard chart's accounts are chosen where they exist. Every change is recorded in the audit trail with what it was before and after. Somebody without the accounting permission sees only whether this is set up, and who can set it.
Pricing and supplier quotes
- How targets are typed: Margin (profit as a share of the selling price — when added) or Markup (profit as a share of the cost). Both figures are always shown to people who may see costs.
- Default target: the margin (or markup) new lines are priced to from their cost, when neither the order nor the item has a target of its own and the item has no buying and selling price to take a margin from. Empty, those lines take the catalogue price. A margin must be under 100%.
- Supplier quote links last (days): how long a link sent to a supplier to answer a request for quotation works — between 1 and 90, 14 when added.
Locations and signing links
Locations are described in Stock. Under Signing links, How long a signing link works (days) — between 1 and 90, 7 when added — sets how long a link sent to a customer lasts. After that it stops working, and a new one can be sent.