Purchase orders and supplier bills
Order it properly, receive it into stock, and match the bill when it turns up.
A verbal order at the trade counter is how a job quietly loses money. Tradescraft turns buying into a record: raise a purchase order against a supplier, send it, then receive the delivery into a stock location so what you ordered, what arrived and what you were billed all line up.
Raise it and send it
- Build a purchase order against a supplier with the lines, quantities and prices you agreed.
- Email the PO to the supplier straight from the record, so there is a copy on both sides.
- Walk it through draft, sent, approved, received or cancelled - and a received or cancelled PO locks, so nobody re-receives the same delivery twice.
Receive it into stock
- When the delivery lands, receive the PO into the stock location it went to - a van or the warehouse.
- Receiving records the date and moves the stock, so on-hand quantities reflect reality instead of a guess.
- Part-delivered orders and short shipments are recorded as what actually arrived.
Suppliers in one list
- Keep every supplier and branch with its category, address, phone and trade-counter hours.
- Each branch carries the location of the counter itself, so a pick-up is easy to plan.
- Supplier bills live alongside the orders, and push across to Xero with the rest of your costs.
Common questions
- Does receiving a purchase order update my stock?
- Yes. You choose the stock location the delivery landed in - a specific van or the warehouse - and receiving moves the quantities there, so on-hand levels come from real receipts rather than manual edits.
- Can I email the order to the supplier?
- Yes, as a PDF straight from the purchase order record, so you and the supplier are working from the same document.
- What stops a delivery being received twice?
- A received or cancelled purchase order is terminal: it locks, so it cannot be edited or re-received.
- Do supplier bills reach my accounting software?
- Yes. Supplier bills and purchase orders push to Xero along with the rest of your costs, so your accountant is not chasing paper.