Purchase orders (purchases) are commercial documents issued by your company (as a buyer) of goods or services to a supplier (as a seller).
In most cases, purchases indicate the type, quantity, and agreed price for products or services that the supplier will provide to your company. Additionally, a purchase will have a unique PO number which the supplier is expected to add to the eventual invoice that you receive.
Types of purchases
In the Payhawk system, employees who can create purchases are called requesters. As a requester, you can create:
One-time purchases - Purchases for a specific set of deliveries that are needed for the time being. When the goods or services are delivered, the purchase will be closed.
Recurring purchases - Purchases for goods or services your company needs periodically, for example, each month.
Notes on purchases
Payhawk administrators at your company may have defined settings for purchases that affect your process as a requester:
Not all employees at your company can submit purchases.
Some of the deliveries may be set to require a receipt note.
Discrepancy rules are defined to address situations where the supplier's invoice exceeds the purchase amount or the received quantity of items differs from what was ordered. In such cases, authorized people within your company may request additional information to resolve the issue.
Lifecycle of purchases for employees
Each purchase in Payhawk goes through different stages. To create a purchase, employees submit a purchase request first which has to be approved according to the pre-defined approval workflows at the company. When the purchase request has been approved, the purchase is automatically created and can be sent to the supplier, requesting the delivery of goods or services.
Payhawk administrators can additionally configure each step in the purchase lifecycle at your company and the different people in your company may be assigned various roles. For example, purchases may not need to go through an approval process.
To learn more about the specifics of the purchase lifecycle and what actions are available under each tab, see the overview article on purchases for accountants.
Matching purchase line items with different invoices or invoice lines
When you create purchases, you add the goods or services you request as purchase line items and specify their net unit prices. Then, you create the expenses related to that purchase and add the expense documents.
If you have a purchase with a single line item, Payhawk will automatically match the linked invoice to it.
If you have a purchase with a single line item and an invoice with 2 or more lines, Payhawk will automatically match the invoice to the purchase.
If you have a purchase with 2 or more line items and an invoice with a single line, you will need to select which purchase item to match.
If you have a purchase and an invoice with an equal number of line items, you need to split the invoice into items. You can use the quick Split into [number] line items action to automatically match the corresponding items from the purchase and the invoice, and add the invoice items' amounts and categorizations.
If you have a purchase and an invoice with a different number of line items, you will need to manually match the purchase items to the respective invoice lines.
Useful resources