Purchase Orders

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MainBoss can automatically generate purchase orders for you. To accommodate organizations that require approvals before making a purchase, the process of creating a purchase order can have many stages:

The draft stage: This is the stage where you first enter the information about the purchase order. Normally, this stage only lasts until the first time you save the purchase order.
The open stage: A purchase order is opened when you save the initial draft. It can still be edited if you wish. The purchase order remains open until you issue it (see below).
Once a purchase order has been opened, the items on that purchase order are considered to be on order. For example, when you look at the records for those items in the Inventory Items table, MainBoss will show that a quantity of those items are on order. These items will not appear on any re-order lists, since MainBoss thinks they've already been ordered.
The issued stage: When a purchase order has been opened, many organizations require the purchase order to be approved by someone with appropriate authority. Once the purchase order has been approved, it can be issued to the vendor who will supply the goods. An issued purchase order has actually been submitted to the vendor.
If you have issued a purchase order but find that you have to make changes before sending it to the vendor, MainBoss lets you withdraw the purchase order. This moves the purchase order back from the issued stage to the open stage.
The receiving stage: The receiving stage comes after issuing the purchase order, when you begin receiving items specified by the purchase order. A single shipment might include all the items specified by the order; on the other hand, it may take several shipments before all the items have been received.
Note that there is no definite dividing line between the issued stage and the receiving stage. As soon as you issue a purchase order, you can begin recording receipts of items on that purchase order.
The closed stage: Once you have received all the items specified in the purchase order, the purchase order may be closed. The purchase order may also be closed if some items have been received and orders for outstanding items have been cancelled.

Purchase orders may be created in a number of different ways. The simplest is creating one directly by selecting Inventory —> New Purchase Order from the menu. You can also create a new purchase order from the Purchase Order browser—see Browsing Purchase Orders.

Purchase orders may also be created as part of the process of creating a work order. When a work order requires hiring outside contractors or the purchase of non-inventory materials, MainBoss lets you create a purchase order to cover those labor or material costs. For more on this way to create purchase orders, see Creating and Editing Work Orders.