Procurement: requests, approvals, quotes and the three-way match

#What it is

Procurement adds the steps around a purchase order: who may ask for goods and who approves, quotes from several suppliers, the delivery note at the door, and the supplier's invoice checked against the order and the delivery before it is booked. It builds on what you already have: products, suppliers, their price lists, purchase orders, receiving and lots, the invoice reader and Books.

Procurement is part of Online Restaurant and Chain, and an add-on for Online Retail (AED 49 a month before VAT: the owner buys it in Billing → Plan → Add-on modules, or asks us on WhatsApp). It needs Stock and Purchasing. This chapter describes CreekPOS Online; the buy-once desktop program has procurement of its own from version 5.7.0: see On the desktop program.

#Switching it on

Settings → Procurement (managers) has:

• the switch (off until a manager turns it on);
• per branch, or for every branch, two amounts: up to the first, a request is approved as it is raised; above the second, it needs two approvals by two different people; in between, one;
• who approves (the owner chooses): the first approvers and the second approvers. With nobody ticked, managers and people with the approve right give the first approval, and the owner or a manager the second;
• the tolerances of the match: price (1 % by default) and quantity (0 by default);
• the monthly budgets per product category;
• payment terms;
• how many hours a request may wait before the owner is alerted (24) and after how many days an order counts as late (1).

#Rights

Team → the person → Rights has three procurement rights: raise purchase requests, approve purchase requests (and accept an invoice's differences), and record supplier invoices (dispute, return, post). Managers and the owner have all three. Delivery notes, orders and quotes use the existing stock right.

#Purchase requests

Procurement → New request: add products and quantities, a reason, the date you need them by and, per line, a preferred supplier. Each line is priced at that supplier's latest price list, or at the product's cost.

When the request is saved, CreekPOS works out how many approvals it needs from the amounts in Settings and the budgets. The request then waits in the approvals inbox.

#Approvals

Procurement → Approvals lists the requests you may approve now, the oldest first.

• The person who raised a request never approves it (the owner may approve their own request only when it needs one approval).
• Nobody gives both approvals of a two-step request.
• Approving or rejecting takes a note; a rejection always needs one.
• The person who asked, or a manager, can withdraw a request that is still waiting.

#Monthly budgets

In Settings → Procurement → Monthly budgets, give a category a monthly amount, soft or firm. What a request adds is compared with what approved requests of the same month already committed. Passing a soft budget shows a warning on the request; passing a firm budget makes the request need two approvals, whatever its amount.

#From a request to orders

On an approved request, Make the order: one order to one supplier, or one order per supplier of the lines. Each line is priced at that supplier's latest price list. The orders are ordinary purchase orders: send them to the supplier, receive them and close them as always.

#Quotes from several suppliers

Before ordering, Ask for quotes: choose up to eight suppliers and, if you like, a date by which they should answer.

1. Each supplier gets its own link. Press Send on WhatsApp (your own WhatsApp sends it, with the text in the supplier's language) or copy the link into any message. We do not e-mail the links.
2. The supplier opens the link on the phone and sees your shop's name and the lines with the quantities only, never your costs. Per line it types its price and the quantity it can deliver, then a delivery date, its name and a message. It can change its quote while the request is open.
3. On the request, the quotes show side by side: the cheapest price per line marked, each supplier's total and how many lines it covers, and the best quote suggested (all lines covered first, then the lowest total).
4. Pick a quote: the order is made to that supplier at its quoted prices and quantities, with its delivery date, and its quoted prices become that supplier's next price list.

Withdraw stops one link; Cancel stops them all and takes the request back to approved.

#Receiving with a delivery note

On a purchase order, Receive with a delivery note. For each line type what was delivered and what was damaged (refused at the door: it never enters stock), with the batch and expiry where you keep lots. CreekPOS works out what was accepted, and anything over or short against the order.

A delivery can come in parts: each delivery has its own note, and the order stays partly received until everything came or you close it. The note also records how many days late the delivery was.

#The supplier invoice and the three-way match

On the order, Supplier invoice: type the supplier's invoice number, date and lines (they start from the newest delivery note not billed yet), or fill them from a photo with the AI invoice reader. The photo only fills the invoice; the goods were received with the delivery note.

CreekPOS then compares three documents line by line, the order, the delivery note and the invoice:

• prices outside the price tolerance, either way;
• quantities billed that differ from what was accepted, outside the quantity tolerance;
• a product that was not on the order, or an invoice with no delivery note.

Within the tolerances the invoice is posted: with Books on, a bill with the right VAT code and the due date from the supplier's payment terms, so the bills list, the aged payables and the cash forecast see it; without Books, the supplier's account takes the difference so its balance is what the invoice says. The same supplier invoice number twice is refused.

The comparison is exact arithmetic. Only reading an invoice photo uses AI.

#Invoices to check

An invoice that did not match waits in Procurement → Invoices to check (also in the approvals inbox for people with the approve right). For each one:

• Accept as it is, with a note: it is posted as billed;
• Dispute, with a note: you asked the supplier; it stays in the list;
• Return to the supplier;
• Match again, after you corrected the invoice or received the rest.

#Supplier ageing and scorecards

Procurement → Ageing shows what you owe each supplier by how late it is: not due, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90 and over 90 days.

A supplier's page has a scorecard over the last six months: orders delivered on time, the fill rate (what was accepted of what was ordered), prices billed against the orders, damaged goods, orders late now and invoices with differences.

#Alerts, the daily summary and Ask your shop

With Procurement on, the owner gets owner alerts for requests waiting longer than the hours you set, for every invoice that did not match, and once a day for orders past their date. The daily summary on Telegram and by e-mail has one line for what is waiting.

Ask your shop answers "what is waiting for my approval?" and "which supplier is late?". The quick search (Ctrl+K) finds Procurement, the approvals, the invoices to check and the ageing.

#On the desktop program (5.7.0, Desktop Gold)

The buy-once desktop program has procurement of its own from version 5.7.0, on the Gold package and up (Desktop Platinum includes everything in Gold). It works on one PC, offline. Get the new version from the download page.

1. Switching on: in Settings → Features, tick Procurement (it switches purchase orders on too). Procurement settings holds the automatic and the two-approval amounts, the price and quantity tolerances, the payment terms, the days after which an order is late, who approves, and the monthly budgets.
2. Rights: Settings → Users has three: Raise purchase requests, Approve purchase requests and invoice differences and Record and match supplier invoices. A cashier has none of them until you tick them; the managers have all three.
3. Requests: Procurement on the top bar → New request. Add products from the product list, or a Free-text line, each with a quantity, an estimated cost, the date needed and a suggested supplier. Requests have their own numbers: PR-1, PR-2…
4. Approvals: a request up to the shop's automatic amount is approved as it is sent; above the two-approval amount, or past a firm budget, it needs two approvals by two different people; in between, one. Budgets are per category or for the whole month. The approver sees the lines, the budgets and the history, and presses Approve, Return for changes or Reject, with a note. A returned request is changed and sent again with Change and send again.
5. The order: on an approved request, Make the purchase order opens the existing purchase-order screen, filled in from the request: one order to one supplier, or one per line's supplier. The orders keep their own numbers (PO-1, PO-2…). A free-text line cannot go on an order: add it to the product list first.
6. Receiving is the receiving you already use on a purchase order.
7. The supplier's invoice: press Supplier invoice, pick the order, type the supplier's number, the date, the VAT, the lines and the total printed, then Match and save. CreekPOS matches it with the order and what was received, within the shop's tolerances. A matched invoice is posted. One that does not match waits in Invoices to check: Accept as it is, Ask for a credit note (noted here, nothing is sent), Return the goods, or Match again after a delivery came.
8. Supplier ageing shows what you owe each supplier: not due, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90 and over 90 days.

The Procurement home has four lists: open requests, waiting for my approval, orders not received (the late ones in red) and invoices to check.

On the desktop there are no quotes from several suppliers by link (they stay in CreekPOS Online), no delivery notes with damaged goods, and no owner alerts or Ask your shop for procurement. A shop that moves to CreekPOS Online takes its purchase orders along; its purchase requests and supplier invoices stay on the PC.