Business+

Purchase & Suppliers

Request, compare, order, receive and pay — without ever paying for more than arrived.

Every purchase follows the same path, from the moment someone asks for something to the moment the supplier is paid. At each step you know what is committed, what turned up and what is still owed.

  • Side-by-side supplier offers
  • Supplier price filled in, with its source
  • The bill is checked before it is paid

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The same path whether it goes through a supplier consultation or straight to an order.

What badly run buying costs you

The price you pay is almost never the price you negotiated, and the gap shows up too late.

  • You have bought from the same supplier for ten years

    They are probably fine. Nobody actually knows, because nobody has time to go out to the market on every order.

  • The bill arrives and nobody checks what was delivered

    The order is in one folder, the delivery note in another, the invoice in somebody’s inbox. The three rarely meet.

  • The price looks good until freight is added

    Add carriage, duty and handling, and the margin you thought you had is not the margin you have.

From the request to the payment

Five stages, and each document carries the previous one forward.

  1. 01

    Request

    A department asks for something. The request goes for approval before any commitment is made outside the business.

  2. 02

    Ask the market

    You send the same list of items to several suppliers, record their answers as they come back, and put them beside each other.

  3. 03

    Order

    The order carries the winning offer forward, with nothing retyped. Each line is priced at what you negotiated with that supplier, and the line shows where the price came from.

  4. 04

    Receive

    You record what arrives, in one delivery or several, keeping what you accept separate from what you reject. Receiving more than you ordered is refused.

  5. 05

    Check and pay

    The supplier’s bill is set against the order and the receipt. What agrees carries on; what doesn’t waits for someone to decide.

What you run from purchasing

Four families: know your suppliers, put them in competition, receive what you ordered, and pay for that only.

Suppliers

  • A full supplier record Contact details, payment terms, currency and the people you deal with.
  • Negotiated price per supplier and per product Filled in as soon as you pick the supplier.
  • The line shows where its price came from Negotiated price, usual supplier or reference cost — you can see which one was used.
  • Purchase history per supplier What you bought from them, when, and at what price.
  • A supplier score on four measures Punctuality, the quality of what arrives, price stability and responsiveness.

Requests and quotes

  • Purchase requests approved internally The need is settled before it leaves the business.
  • Ask several suppliers at once The same list goes to all of them, which is what makes the answers comparable.
  • Supplier answers recorded Price, lead time and terms, entered as they arrive.
  • Offers compared side by side Item by item, with the differences visible without arithmetic.
  • Award the lot, or award line by line Nothing forces the whole order to go to one supplier.

Ordering and receiving

  • Purchase order from the winning offer Lines, prices and lead times carry over, with nothing retyped.
  • Full or partial receipt An order delivered in three drops gives you three receipts against it.
  • Inspection on receipt, line by line What you accept and what you reject are two separate quantities.
  • Over-receipt refused Taking in more than was ordered takes a decision, not a click.
  • Backorders on what did not arrive Switch on What is short stays expected instead of quietly leaving the order.
  • Landed costs spread across the goods Enterprise+ Freight, duty, insurance and handling fall on what actually carried them.

Billing and control

  • The bill is set against the order and the receipt Switch on Three-way matching, done line by line rather than on the total.
  • Anything outside your tolerance is flagged Switch on You set the acceptable gap; beyond it the bill waits for a decision.
  • Purchase returns Switch on What you send back leaves the received quantities and stays on the record.
  • Claim debit note Switch on The document that asks the supplier for what they owe you after a return.
  • Supplier credit note Switch on The credit you receive goes against a later bill instead of sitting unresolved.

Four things the folder does not do

These decide whether you buy well, or merely whether you buy.

Compare before you commit

Going out to three suppliers takes half a day when every offer comes back in a different shape. That is why most orders go back to the same name, without anyone having decided it was the best one.

You send the same list of items to several suppliers, enter their answers as they arrive, and VIA ERP puts them side by side, item by item. Award the whole lot to the winner, or split it line by line when each is better on part of it.

The order carries the winning offer forward as it stands: what you compared is what you order.

Never pay for what did not arrive

Switch on

Three documents describe the same purchase: what you ordered, what turned up, what you were billed. While they live in three different places, the gap between them is money.

VIA ERP sets them against each other line by line. You decide the gap you will accept, as a percentage; under it the bill carries on. Over it, the bill is flagged and waits for a decision — before payment, not when the supplier chases you.

The three documents meet line by line. Two out of three is not enough to release a payment.

Your margin includes the freight

Enterprise+

An ex-works price does not tell you what the goods cost you. Carriage, duty, insurance and handling arrive afterwards, often on an invoice that names none of the items concerned.

You attach those costs to the receipt that caused them, and VIA ERP spreads them across the goods received. Stock value and resale margin then reflect what the goods actually cost, rather than what the purchase order said.

Without that spread, the margin you report is the purchase order’s, not the transaction’s.

Choose suppliers on evidence

Everyone has a view on which supplier delivers late. Few businesses can show it, and it is the view that decides when the order is raised.

VIA ERP scores each supplier from your own history: delivery punctuality, the quality of what arrives, price stability, responsiveness. The score sits on the supplier’s own record — which is where you are standing when you compare offers or raise an order.

Four measures computed on your own orders. A new supplier has no score until they have a history.

What holds up under audit

A purchase is judged on what it can explain: who committed the money, and on what basis.

  • Approval above an amount Professional+

    On the purchase request, on the order and on the supplier bill.

  • Escalation by amount tier Professional+

    The heavier the commitment, the higher it goes before it is granted.

  • Over-receipt refused on the line

    The control sits in the system, not in how alert the storeman is.

  • Return, claim and credit form one chain Switch on

    A return closes out financially, not just physically.

  • Every document points back to the one before it

    Bill to receipt, receipt to order, order to request.

  • Manager and user roles

    Who can commit, who can receive, who can approve.

What the purchasing manager watches

The dashboard answers the questions asked at the buying review. These are your recorded documents, never a projection.

On the dashboard

  • Purchase spend over the period
  • Open orders
  • Receipts recorded
  • Average order value
  • Supplier balance still owed
  • Supplier bills overdue

Reports ready to run

  • Purchase order journal
  • Goods receipt journal
  • Supplier bill journal
  • Supplier aged balance

A purchase starts somewhere else and ends somewhere else.

What you set once

Start with the direct order if that is how you work, and add the earlier stages when they start earning their keep.

  • The buying path that matches how you work

    Five possible chains, from the full request cycle to the direct order.

  • The gap you accept between order, receipt and bill Switch on

    The percentage under which a bill goes through untouched.

  • Numbering series and formats

    One format per document type, with the reset cycle you use.

  • Supplier payment terms

    The terms your suppliers give you, applied by default.

  • What happens to what was not delivered Switch on

    Keep it on order, deliver short, or refuse.

  • Approval thresholds and escalation tiers Professional+

    The amount above which a commitment waits for a decision.

  • A preview of what the exchange rate does before you order Business+

    What an order in another currency would cost today, before you place it.

Frequently asked questions

Can we ask several suppliers and award line by line?

Yes. The same list of items goes to several suppliers, their answers appear side by side item by item, and you award either the whole lot or each line to whichever supplier is best on that line.

What happens if a supplier bills more than they delivered?

The bill is set against the order and the receipt, line by line. You decide the gap you will accept; under it the bill carries on, over it the bill is flagged and waits for a decision before anything is paid.

How do freight and duty get into the cost?

You attach those costs to the receipt concerned and they spread across the goods received, so stock value and resale margin reflect what the transaction really cost. That spread is part of the Enterprise plan.

Can an order be received in several deliveries?

Yes. Each delivery gives a receipt against the same order, with what you accept and what you reject entered separately. What has not arrived stays expected, and receiving more than you ordered is refused.

How do we handle a return and the credit that follows it?

The return takes the sent-back quantities out, the claim asks the supplier for what they owe you, and the credit received goes against a later bill. The three documents are linked, so a return closes out financially as well as physically.

Is the Purchase module included in my plan?

It is included from the Business plan. Approvals by amount belong to the Professional plan, and spreading landed costs to the Enterprise plan. The pricing page sets out what each plan covers.

Take back control of what you buy

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