Purchases and receiving

Purchases are how goods arrive. Open Purchases from the home screen (anyone with the Stock permission can see it). Suppliers live under Customers.

The workflow

1. New purchase. Pick a supplier if you have one, the supplier’s invoice number, and the invoice date printed on their bill. Type a few letters of the supplier’s name rather than scrolling the list — see Every dropdown is a search box. The VAT report and stock activity follow the invoice date, not the day you typed the purchase in.
2. Add lines. Search by name, SKU or barcode. Quantity is in the base unit. Cost is what you paid per base unit (it starts from the product’s current cost so you can overwrite it). Disc % takes off a trade discount the way the supplier bills it.
3. Save draft if the delivery is still being checked. Drafts do not change stock, and Delete draft throws one away.
4. Receive stock when the goods are accepted. The till posts a purchase stock move for each line and numbers the document P000001, P000002, …

You can start from a purchase order (O000001) if the goods were ordered first. Issue order does not add stock. When the delivery arrives, New goods receipt → Pick from purchase orders opens a picker like a goods-receive screen: orders on the left (tick the ones you want), filters on the right, and an item list below showing only lines from the ticked orders. Tick the items you are taking now, set Receive qty (partial is fine), then Add to receipt. You can still type products that were never ordered on the same receipt.

Received purchases also appear under Documents, filtered as Purchases. Purchase orders and payment vouchers (K000001) are listed there too.

Find an old one with the search box above the list — it matches the document number, the supplier and their invoice number — and narrow it with the two date boxes. The list shows net, VAT, total, paid and due per purchase, and what you still owe suppliers across everything on screen.

VAT on the supplier invoice

Each line carries a VAT %. It starts from the tax rate set on the product, and you can change it per line when a supplier bills something at a different rate or zero-rates it.

Tick Costs include VAT when the supplier invoice shows prices with VAT already added. The till then works the VAT back out of the cost you typed, so the gross on screen matches the gross on the paper invoice to the fils. Leave it unticked when the invoice lists net prices and adds VAT at the bottom.

The footer shows net, VAT and the total to pay, and the purchase list has the same three columns.

Freight and other charges

Freight / other charges is for what the bill adds beyond the goods: delivery, clearance, handling. Enter it net and the till spreads it across the lines by value, so an expensive line carries more of it than a cheap one. Each share is taxed at the rate of the line it lands on.

That means the charge ends up in unit cost, which is the point: the shelf is valued at what the goods really landed for, so margins are honest.

Paying the supplier

When you receive a purchase you can pay it there and then — type an amount and pick a method, or press Pay in full. Leave the amount empty and the bill sits on credit.

Open a received purchase later and Pay supplier records another payment against that goods receipt.

Payment voucher pays several receipts in one go. Pick the supplier, then allocate an amount to each goods receipt (partial is allowed). Supplier return notes already come off what those receipts still owe; the voucher lists them as credit so you can see why the due is lower. The cash posted is the sum of the allocations.

Cost

On receive, unit cost on the product is updated with a simple weighted average: existing on-hand × old cost, plus this receipt, divided by the new on-hand. Opening cost on a new product is the starting point. A fuller costing history can come later; this keeps valuation usable after each delivery.

Stock is always valued at the cost excluding VAT, because input VAT is reclaimed from the authority rather than being part of what the goods cost you. So ticking Costs include VAT does not inflate margins on the Stock screen.

VAT report

Reports → VAT nets what you owe for a date range:

• Output VAT on sales — VAT charged to customers, less credit notes.
• Input VAT on purchases — VAT you paid suppliers on received purchases, less supplier returns.
• Net VAT payable — output less input. If purchases outweigh sales it flips to Net VAT to reclaim.

Underneath, sales and purchases are broken down by rate, so a 15% band and a 0% band are listed separately with taxable amount, VAT and gross. Only completed documents count; drafts and voided bills are left out. Purchases fall in the period of the supplier’s invoice date. Pick the dates at the top and press Print for a copy to file.

Returning goods to the supplier

Open a received purchase and press Return to supplier. Enter what goes back line by line and the till writes a supplier return numbered D000001, D000002, …

The stock leaves at the cost it came in at, the input VAT on it drops out of the VAT report, and the amount comes off what you owe that supplier. You cannot send back more than you received, and the returns are counted, so a second return only offers what is left.

Correcting a purchase

Edit on a received purchase replaces that receipt’s stock lines in place (same document number) — whether you change the invoice date, add or remove items, or edit qty/cost. Stock activity shows one purchase row on the invoice date, not a void plus a same-day re-post. Average cost for each affected product is rebuilt from the full stock ledger in date order after the save. Edit is refused once a supplier return exists against the purchase — cancel the return first.

Printing

A received purchase prints as a goods received note (a supplier return prints as a debit note): your company logo and name, supplier, invoice number and date, every line with cost, discount, VAT rate and VAT, then net, charges, VAT, total, what has been paid and what is due, with sign-off lines for whoever received and checked the delivery. PDF saves the same sheet.

Void

Voiding a received purchase from the document reverses the stock and rebuilds average cost from the remaining ledger. Prefer correcting with Edit when you only need to fix lines or the invoice date.

Stock screen

The Stock list is for levels and valuation. Use Purchases when a delivery has several lines and you want a document number. Stock → Activity shows each receipt as an in-qty line with running balance and average cost. For one-off qty or cost fixes without a supplier bill, open Stock → Stock adjustment.