Purchasing Overview

Last reviewed: June 9, 2026

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The Purchasing section is used to manage vendors, create and edit purchase orders, generate outside-service POs, receive vendor shipments through the shared receiving workflow, and review purchasing reports.

What Purchasing is for

Use Purchasing when the business needs to buy inventory, non-inventory goods, outside services, or vendor services tracked through PAX.

Purchasing connects vendor setup, Purchase Orders, outside-service work order cost, vendor invoices, vendor payments, receiving, accrued payables, and purchasing reports.

Who can see Purchasing

The Purchasing dashboard section is visible to users with one of these roles:

  • admin
  • executive
  • manufacturing

Some shared screens opened from Purchasing are also visible through other modules for users with other operational roles.

Dashboard options

Button What it opens
Purchase Orders Opens the Purchase Orders menu with New Purchase Order, Open Purchase Orders, Outside Service PO, Vendor Invoices, and PO Dashboard.
Vendors Opens Vendor Management for vendor search, setup, details, addresses, contacts, and payment history.
Vendor Invoices Opens the shared Vendor Invoices screen. The canonical docs live under Finance Payables.
Vendor Payments Opens the shared Vendor Payments screen. The canonical docs live under Finance Payables.
Receiving Opens the shared receiving workflow for issued Purchase Orders. The canonical docs live under Shipping & Receiving.
Reports Opens Purchasing Reports.

Operating discipline

Use the workflow that matches the business event:

  • Use New Purchase Order or Outside Service PO before goods or outside services are ordered.
  • Use Receiving when goods or services arrive against a PO.
  • Use Vendor Invoices when the vendor invoice arrives and needs to move received value from accrued payables to AP.
  • Use Vendor Payments when a vendor has actually been paid or vendor credit should be applied.
  • Use Cancel PO only for eligible POs that should be removed from open purchasing workflows.

Do not bypass PO receiving or AP invoice entry with manual accounting entries when the PO and vendor invoice workflows are available. Those workflows keep inventory, accrued payables, AP, vendor history, and work order cost aligned.

What happens behind the scenes

Purchase Orders created in PAX are issued and assigned a PO number. Inventory PO lines increase quantity on order until they are received, closed, or cancelled.

Receiving a PO updates received quantities, inventory detail or lot records, quantity on order, accrued payables, and inspection notice behavior when applicable.

Vendor invoices move received PO value from accrued payables to AP. Vendor payments then clear AP or record vendor credit depending on the payment workflow.

Outside-service POs can link received outside-service cost to work orders. PAX recalculates the work order's outside-service cost from received PO quantities and active work order links.

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