Creating a Purchase Invoice

A purchase invoice lets you record your purchases from suppliers, add the purchased quantities to the warehouse, and record payments to the supplier. This guide explains the steps to add a purchase invoice, how to set the warehouse the quantities are added to, and how to make purchase invoices go to a specific warehouse automatically (such as the raw materials warehouse).

Adding a purchase invoice

1. From the main menu, click Purchases.
2. Click Manage Purchase Invoices.
3. Click New Purchase Invoice.
4. Choose the Supplier from the list, or click New to add a supplier quickly. A suspended supplier can’t be chosen.
5. To change the invoice currency, click Edit Currency next to the supplier.
6. Enter the invoice details:
   • P.I. Number: added automatically according to the Auto Number Settings. It’s best not to edit it manually (see Auto-numbering rules).
   • Date: the purchase invoice date, today’s date by default.
   • Payment Terms: the number of days allowed to pay a deferred invoice.
   • Cost Center: appears if the accounting app is enabled and you’ve added cost centers.
   • Add Extra Custom Field: to add fields that appear in the purchase invoice template.
7. Add the invoice items in the table:
   • Items: search for the product or service by name or code, or add a new product.
   • Description: an additional description for the item.
   • Unit Price and Qty.
   • Discount: a discount on the item (appears if the discount isn’t set to the invoice total only).
   • Tax1 and Tax2.
   • Store: appears only if you turn on Select warehouse per item (see the warehouse section).
8. To add many items at once, click Paste from Sheet and paste the items from Excel.
9. Add Tags to the invoice if you want.

The purchase invoice number and auto-numbering rules

The system generates the P.I. Number automatically, with a sequence of its own for purchase invoices (separate from purchase refunds and debit and credit notes). The number is reserved when you save, not when you open the form.

Editing the purchase invoice numbering settings

1. Open the purchase invoice numbering settings directly, or from the main menu click Settings, then Auto Number Settings, and choose Purchase Invoice from the side menu. You can also open them from the gear button next to Next Auto-Generated purchase invoice Number in Purchase Invoice Settings.
2. Edit the settings you need:
   • Next Number: the number the next purchase invoice will get.
   • Sequence Format: digits, letters, or letters and digits.
   • Number of digits: the number of digits, with zeros added on the left (for example, 5 digits show the number 3 as 00003).
   • Unique: prevents the same number from being used on more than one purchase invoice.
   • Prefix: fixed or variable text before the number (such as PI or the year), with the Variables Guide.
   • Prefix change options (for a variable prefix only): Continue from The Last Number, Create a Separate Serial for Each Prefix, or Start from Beginning.
3. Click Save. The message Numbering format has been saved appears.

Auto-numbering rules

Case	What happens to the number
Saving the invoice without editing the number	The invoice gets the next number at the time of saving. If another user saves an invoice before you, you get the number after it, not the number that appeared in the form.
Save as Draft	The draft doesn’t take a number from the sequence; it gets the next number when it’s issued later. So an old invoice may get a newer number than invoices created after it.
Entering a larger number manually	The sequence jumps, and the next invoice gets the entered number + 1.
Entering a smaller or used number manually	The sequence doesn’t change. If Unique is on, the message Serial number already exists appears; otherwise the duplicate number is accepted.
Deleting a purchase invoice	Its number isn’t reused, so a gap appears in the sequence.
Clone an invoice	The copy gets a new number from the sequence.
Editing the Next Number in the settings	New invoices start from the new number.
A prefix with a variable (such as the year or branch)	Depending on the prefix change option: the sequence continues, a separate sequence starts for each prefix, or it starts again when the prefix changes.

Why do purchase invoices appear out of order?

• List order: purchase invoices are shown by default by creation time (newest first), not by invoice number or date. So an invoice you recorded today with an old date appears at the top of the list. Use Sort By to sort them by date.
• Issuing old drafts, entering numbers manually, deleting invoices, or editing the next number all lead to non-consecutive numbers, as in the table above.
• Branches share one purchase invoice sequence; if the prefix contains the branch code with the Continue from The Last Number option, gaps appear in each branch’s numbers.

The tabs below the items

Tab	What it contains
Discount & Adjustment	The Discount on the invoice (Percentage or Amount), and the Adjustment if you turned on purchase adjustment in the settings.
Deposit	The Next Payment as an amount or percentage, or Already Paid with the payment method, reference number and treasury.
Shipping	The Warehouse the quantities are added to, Select warehouse per item, and the Shipping Fees and their tax.
Attach Documents	Attach an image of the supplier’s invoice or any other documents.

Then add the Notes / Terms if needed.

Payment, receiving and saving

1. If you paid the invoice amount to the supplier, turn on Already Paid to The Supplier, and choose the payment method and treasury. To split the amount over more than one payment method or treasury, choose Multiple and add a row for each payment, as long as their total equals the invoice total.
2. If you received the goods, turn on Received and set the Received Date, so the quantities are added to the warehouse on that date.
3. Click Preview to review the invoice before saving (optional).
4. Click Save, or choose from the save options: Save as Draft, Save & Print, Save & Email, or save and add new.

Invoice status	Effect on inventory
Draft	The quantities aren’t added to the warehouse.
Not received	The quantities aren’t added until receipt is confirmed.
Received	The quantities are added to the warehouse on the received date.
With requisitions turned on	The quantities are added when the requisition is approved.

The warehouse the purchase invoice is added to

The purchase invoice quantities are added to the warehouse selected in the Warehouse field in the Shipping tab. This field only appears if you have more than one warehouse you have permission on; otherwise the quantities are added automatically to the only warehouse available to you.

• One warehouse for the invoice: choose the warehouse from the Warehouse field.
• A different warehouse for each item: turn on Select warehouse per item, and the Store column appears in the items table so you can set each item’s warehouse. For example, add raw materials to the raw materials warehouse and finished products to another warehouse in the same invoice.

Making purchase invoices go to a specific warehouse automatically

There’s no setting just for purchase invoices to set their warehouse, but the Warehouse field is filled in automatically with the user’s default warehouse. So if you want purchase invoices to go automatically to the raw materials warehouse, for example, make it the default warehouse in one of the following ways. The system chooses the default warehouse in this order:

Priority	Method	When to use it
1	A default warehouse for each employee: from Inventory Settings or directly from Employee Default Warehouses, set the raw materials warehouse for the employee responsible for purchases.	Best if a specific employee records purchase invoices, and the others work on other warehouses.
2	The branch’s Default Warehouse: from Inventory Settings, in the Default System Values section.	If you want one default warehouse for all employees of the current branch.
3	The primary warehouse: from Warehouses, edit the raw materials warehouse and turn on Primary.	If you want it to be the default warehouse for all operations in the account.

If none of the above is set, the first warehouse the user has permission on is chosen.

Example: adding all purchases automatically to the raw materials warehouse

1. Open Employee Default Warehouses.
2. Set the raw materials warehouse for the employee responsible for purchases, then save.
3. Open Purchase Invoice Settings and turn on Mark Purchase Invoices as Received by Default, so the quantities are added to the warehouse as soon as you save.
4. Create a new purchase invoice as this employee, and you’ll find the Warehouse in the shipping tab set to the raw materials warehouse.

Related purchase invoice settings

From Purchase Invoice Settings:

Setting	Its effect
Mark Purchase Invoices as Received by Default	The Received option is selected automatically on every new purchase invoice, so the quantities are added to the warehouse when you save (or when the requisition is approved).
Requisitions for Purchase Invoices	Creates a requisition with every purchase invoice, and the inventory isn’t added until it’s approved.
Mark Purchase Invoices as Already Paid by Default	The Already Paid to The Supplier option is selected automatically on new invoices.
Purchase Invoice Adjustment	Shows the Adjustment field in the discount and adjustment tab.
Default taxes and numbering	Set the default purchase taxes and the next purchase invoice number.

After saving the purchase invoice

After saving, the message Purchase Invoice has been saved appears, an automatic journal entry is created, and the quantities are added to the warehouse depending on the receipt status. From the invoice page, you can:

• Mark as received or Mark as Unreceived (when requisitions aren’t turned on).
• Issue Purchase Invoice if it’s a draft.
• Add Payment to the supplier.
• Print the invoice or download it as PDF, or Email to Supplier.
• Refund: to create a purchase refund or a debit note.
• More Options: such as Clone the invoice.

FAQs

Why doesn’t the warehouse field appear in the purchase invoice?

Because you have permission on only one warehouse, so the quantities are added to it automatically. To show the field, add another warehouse or give the user permission on more than one warehouse.

Why doesn’t the Received option appear?

Because Requisitions for Purchase Invoices is turned on, and receiving is done by approving the requisition.

I recorded a purchase invoice but the quantity in inventory didn’t increase. Why?

Make sure the invoice isn’t a draft, that it’s Received, or that its requisition has been approved, and that the item is a product whose inventory is tracked. Then check the warehouse selected in the invoice.

I added the invoice to the wrong warehouse. What do I do?

Edit the invoice, change the Warehouse in the shipping tab, then save. The quantities move to the correct warehouse.