Purchasing Overview
Use the Purchasing application to keep electronic records of both internal and project-related procurement and receiving of services, materials, supplies, and capital items.
Your firm can use Purchasing whether you have a central purchasing office or perform purchasing work in many different offices.
Configuration and Security Considerations
Before you can use the Purchasing application, a system administrator must specify the configuration options in Configuration > Purchasing & Inventory.
Purchasing security is at the menu level only.
- To enable security for Purchasing, make the purchasing application active in Configuration > Module Activation.
- To specify the Purchasing menu items for a security role, use the Purchasing menu check boxes on the General Tab of Configuration > Security > Roles.
To create vouchers from purchase orders, the employee's security role must have security access to Accounting > Accounts Payable > Create Voucher from PO on the General tab of Configuration > Security > Roles.
Approval Process in Purchasing
You decide whether or not to use an approval process for purchase requisitions, request for price quotes, purchase orders, change orders, release orders, and inventory item requests. You create approval workflows that specify the steps, approvers, and notification alerts for an approval process in Configuration > Approvals > Approvals Configuration. In Configuration > Purchasing & Inventory > Company Settings, you enable approvals individually for each Purchasing application, and you assign an approval workflow.
Status Codes
The status of the following items are tracked to tell you where a purchasing transaction is in its processing cycle:
- Purchase Orders
- Requisitions and Requests for Price Quote
- Line Item Orders
- Line Item Receiving
Multicurrency
If you use the Multicurrency feature:
- You can create a purchase order from more than one purchase requisition and request for price quote. They must all be in the same transaction currency.
- Vision uses the functional currency of the active company to compare and apply buyers' purchasing limits and approvers' approval limits. Vision also uses the functional currency to keep the limits in the database.
Multicompany
If you use the Multicompany feature:
- Each purchasing record is owned by a specific company. The list of available purchasing records displays the ones that belong to the active company.
- Vendor Info Center records are available to all companies.
- Purchase requisitions and requests for price quote are available if the vendor's Info Center record has accounting set up for the active company.
Related Topics
- Common Dialog Boxes for Purchasing and Inventory
Dialog boxes that you use to add new items, FOB codes, and ship-via codes are available for many procedures in the Purchasing and Inventory applications. - Transaction Document Management
The Transaction Document Management (TDM) feature allows you to upload and associate supporting documents with transaction line items that you enter in Vision, such as line items for accounts payable vouchers, expense reports, and transactions entered in the Purchasing application. - Supporting Documents in Purchasing
You can upload and associate supporting documents with transaction line items that you enter in the Purchasing application. - Approval Process for Purchasing Applications
You can choose whether or not purchase requisitions, request for price quotes, and purchase orders (including change orders and release orders) must go through an approval process. - When You Do Not Use an Approval Workflow for a Purchasing Application
When you do not use an approval workflow for a Purchasing application, the Purchasing records (purchase requisitions, request for price quotes, and purchase orders) do not go through an approval process. - Purchasing and Inventory and Web Services
In addition to alerts, you can use Vision's Web Services feature to help replicate your firm's purchasing and inventory business processes as they are used in reporting, receiving, and voucher posting. - Request for Price Quote Overview
Use the Request for Price Quote feature to select the best price and terms for an order. - Purchase Requisitions Overview
The purchase requisitions feature is optional in Purchasing. You can create purchase orders without using it. - Purchase Orders Overview
Use the Purchase Orders application to keep track of what you are buying and the vendors from whom you purchase items. - Receiving Overview
Use Receiving to record the receipt of delivery for items in purchase orders. The purchase order must be final printed. For blanket orders, you can record receipt of an item for a release order, but not for the blanket order itself. - Purchase Template Editor Overview
Use the Purchase Template Editor to specify fields to print on purchase orders or request for price quote forms, or to specify the dimensions of the signature area on purchase orders. - Item Review Overview
You can review an item's quantities and status in Purchasing. - Purchasing and Inventory and Alerts
Use alerts to notify people of the required actions that they must take or the actions already taken that are related to purchasing or inventory records. - Purchasing and Inventory and Web Services
In addition to alerts, you can use Vision's Web Services feature to help replicate your firm's purchasing and inventory business processes as they are used in reporting, receiving, and voucher posting. - Purchasing Reports
Use the purchasing reports in Vision to present and monitor purchasing data.