Purchasing
What it's for
Purchasing is where parts get ordered and vendors are kept. It holds the purchase orders, the vendor book, the field purchases technicians make, and the hand-off to your accounting system.
Reach it from Materials & Purchasing → Purchasing in the sidebar, at
/purchasing.
Tabs
- Purchase orders — the PO list, described below.
- Field purchases — what technicians bought in the field, and where it was allocated.
- Accounting sync — the state of each vendor bill's hand-off.
- Reconciliation — ordered against received against billed.
Panels and controls
Purchase orders
- Search covers the list — "Search purchase orders…".
- Filters with counts: All, Draft, Sent, Receiving, and Closed.
- Columns: Vendor, Status, Ordered, Expected, Lines, Total, and Actions. Expected is the column that answers "when will it be here", which is the question dispatch is actually asking.
- Bulk actions: Send to vendor, Cancel, and Set expected delivery for the ticked orders.
- Create PO starts one. A PO can ship to a warehouse, to a project, or direct to a service site — "Choose a service site to ship to." when you pick that option.
Vendors
Add vendor records a Vendor name ("e.g. Ferguson HVAC Supply"), Contact name ("e.g. James Rivera"), Phone, Email ("orders@supplier.com"), and Payment terms ("e.g. Net 30"). Vendors can be archived, but not while they have work outstanding — "This vendor has an open purchase order — resolve or cancel it before archiving."
No purchase orders yet and No vendors yet are the empty states.
What it accepts
| Field | Format | Required | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor name | Free text | Yes | "Vendor name is required."; "Name is too long." |
| Contact name | Free text | No | |
| Phone | Free text | No | |
| An email address | No | "That email doesn't look right." | |
| Payment terms | Free text — "e.g. Net 30" | No | |
| Vendor (on a PO) | Pick a vendor | Yes | "Vendor is required."; "Vendor not found." |
| Ship to | Warehouse, project, or service site | Yes | "Choose a service site to ship to."; "Service site not found." |
| Project | Pick a project | Only when shipping to one | "Project not found." |
| Notes | Free text — optional | No |
How to configure it
- Purchasing settings decide the approval thresholds and what happens when a PO is created from a low-stock alert.
- Bill matching settings decide how a vendor bill is matched against what was ordered and received.
- Inventory settings supply the stock locations a PO can be received into.
- Job costing settings decide how received material cost lands on a job.
Who can see it
This screen sits behind the Purchasing area.
Owners and office managers can open it. Dispatchers and technicians cannot — a technician's field purchase reaches this screen through the Field purchases tab rather than by them opening it. The gate is checked on the server, not just hidden in the sidebar, so a direct link does not get around it.
The full role matrix is on Roles & permissions.