Record purchases and receive stock

Recording a purchase in the back office

Purchases live in the web back office under Purchases, then Add Purchase. Pick the supplier, choose the business location receiving the goods and the date. The reference number fills itself from your purchase prefix, so you can leave it blank. Add the pay term if the supplier gives you time to pay, and attach the supplier's invoice or delivery note so the paperwork stays with the record.

Search products by name or SKU and add a line for each item. Type the quantity and the unit cost from the supplier invoice. If you buy in cases but sell singles, choose the sub-unit on the line and SeroPOS converts the quantity for you. Save, and the received quantity is added to stock at that location.

Costs, tax and margins on every line

Each purchase line carries a unit cost before discount, a discount percentage, the tax rate and the unit cost after tax. SeroPOS works out the line total and the profit margin against the selling price, so you can see straight away when a supplier's new price eats into your margin.

Below the lines you can add an order discount, order tax and any additional shipping charges. The purchase total then reflects what you really owe. These costs flow into stock value and profit reports, which means your margin figures are based on what you paid rather than an old cost you typed in months ago.

• Unit cost before and after discount
• Tax per line, or inline tax when enabled in Business Settings
• Line total and profit margin %
• Order discount, order tax and shipping charges

Updating selling prices as you receive stock

When costs change, prices often need to follow. Turn on the setting to edit product prices from the purchase screen, and each line shows a unit selling price you can change. Save the purchase and the product's selling price updates with it. That saves a second trip through the product list after every price rise from a supplier.

Because the margin is shown beside the selling price, you can type the price that gives the margin you want. Your default profit percentage from Business Settings is the starting point for new products, so the numbers start sensible even before you adjust them. Check the margin column before you save, especially after a supplier price change.

Lots, expiry and purchase status

For food, health and other dated goods, turn on lot numbers and product expiry in Business Settings. Each purchase line then asks for the lot number and the manufacturing and expiry dates. That information drives the stock expiry and lot reports, so you can see which batch is about to go out of date and sell or remove it first.

Purchase status is optional. When it is turned on, a purchase can be saved before the goods arrive and changed to received when they do. Only received stock is added. The purchases list filters by status, supplier, location, payment status and date, so open orders are easy to chase. That keeps half-finished orders out of your stock counts.

Paying for the purchase

You can record a payment on the same screen as the purchase, in full or in part, or leave it unpaid and settle it later. If you have paid the supplier in advance, the advance balance can be used against the new purchase. Anything still owed shows on the dashboard under Purchase Payment Due when it falls due.

From the purchases list you can print the purchase, add payments, update the status, view it, or start a purchase return against it if something was damaged or wrong. The full history stays on the supplier's page with their ledger, purchases and payments. Nothing about a delivery has to be looked up in a second place.