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The DEAR purchase module covers all processes involving buying stock from your suppliers. DEAR offers the following features to help make your purchase process smooth and efficient. All purchase documents and email templates can be customised to suit your business requirements. 


Is there a feature you would like to see or an improvement that would help your business? Please make feature requests on our forum, requests are reviewed based on popularity and importance for inclusion in future development releases.


Before using the purchase module, you will need to:


We recommend checking out the Getting Started Guide, if you haven't already!


Table of Contents


Purchase User Permissions

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DEAR offers fine-grained control over user permissions. Grant users full or read-only permission to the different features of the purchases module, and create roles with pre-defined permissions to assign to users.


DEAR allows you to set the following permissions for the purchase module (Settings → Users and Roles):

  • Purchases List & Tasks: (Read-only) View the list of purchases and purchase status. View purchase tasks assigned to you. View order lines and document header. View manual journals, attachments and logs & Attributes tabs of purchases. (Full Access) Create and save new orders, cannot add items. Make changes to document header. Clone existing orders. Add attachments to orders. Mark purchase order as received.
  • Purchase Task – Order view: Purchases List & Tasks permission is required. (Read-only) View the Order tab. (Full Access) Add and edit purchase order lines of non-authorized orders. Print and email order documents (Purchase Order, Purchase Order Matrix). 
  • Purchase Task – Order authorisation: Authorise purchase orders. 
  • Purchase Task – Stock Received view: Purchases List & Tasks permission is required. (Read-only) View the Stock Received tab. (Full Access) Add and edit stock received lines if not yet authorized. Print and email stock documents (Receiving Note, Product Label). 
  • Purchase Task – Stock Received authorisation: Authorise stock received actions. 
  • Purchase Task – Invoice & Credit Note view: Purchases List & Tasks permission is required. (Read-only) View the Invoice tab and Credit Note tab. (Full Access) Add and edit invoice/credit note lines. Create credit note purchases. Print and email invoice/credit note documents (Purchase Invoice, Purchase Return). Add payments/refunds to authorised invoices/credit notes. 
  • Purchase Task – Invoice & Credit Note authorisation: Authorise invoices and credit notes. 
  • Purchase Task – Price and total info: View price, order line and total information on purchase tasks and purchase documents. 
  • Purchase Task – Undo: Undo purchase orders.
  • Purchase Task – Void: Void purchase orders.
  • Purchase Task – Order Approve/Reject/Review: Approve or reject POs.


Reorder Stock

Low stock reorder and Backorders trigger reorder of stock. New stock is ordered from your suppliers to complete a sale order or when stock levels are running low. (Read-only) View backorder and reorder items. (Full Access) Create purchase orders for reorder items. 


NOTE: This permission does not affect setting low stock reorder points. 


Suppliers

Suppliers are who you buy services and products from.

  • Suppliers List & Editing: (Read-only) View suppliers list and supplier details. View supplier deposits. (Full Access) Add and edit suppliers. 
  • Supplier Purchase History: Makes visible Purchases by Product and Purchases by Document tabs on the supplier detail screen.
  • Supplier Payment: Access and make bulk supplier payments.


NOTE: This does not affect payments on individual invoices.


Edit Authorised Documents

Allows editing of authorised documents. To use this permission, the user will need the purchase task view permission of the document they want to edit (order, stock received, invoice, credit note).


This position, in the Sales permissions, is also relevant to the purchase module.

  • Purchase/Sale CSV Import: Import purchase and sales tasks via CSV. This is accessed from Purchase → Purchases → Import or Sale → Sales → Import. This permission is not required to import purchase/sale order lines via CSV.


See Managing Users and Roles and User permissions explained.



Processing a Purchase

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Processing purchases is the main purpose of the purchase module in DEAR. Through the purchase module, you can create purchase orders, create purchase invoices, apply payments to bills, and receive stock into your inventory. You can also enter supplier refunds by adding a credit note to the purchase. Purchased stock and services can be quickly copied from purchase order, to invoice, to receiving to save time.


There are three types of purchase currently available in DEAR:

  • Simple Purchases are used for purchases of goods or goods and services, with a single invoice and delivery. Most purchases will fall under a simple purchase. Learn more about Processing a Purchase.
  • Service Purchases are used for orders without stock items (i.e. orders of services or non-inventory items only). In a Service Purchase, the Stock Receiving section is skipped as there is no change in Inventory. Learn more about Service Purchases
  • Advanced Purchase allows partial invoicing and receipt of items while still being considered part of the same purchase. It also allows multiple credit notes to be issued for a single purchase order. You can convert simple purchases into advanced purchases but not vice versa. Learn more about Advanced Purchases.


Purchase Orders

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Purchase orders are raised to send to your suppliers and order goods and/or services. You can also process a purchase without a purchase order by using the Blind Receipt option, which will take you straight to the invoice or stock received tab of the purchase process. 


There are two fields where items can be added. In the upper field, you can add stock items to the order. The lower field is for additional costs – any non-inventory or service items (e.g. shipping, handling) that need to be added to the order. 


Supplier Deposits

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DEAR allows you to record prepayments/supplier deposits made to the supplier at the order stage. There is also an option to make a supplier deposit that is not related to any particular purchase. If you have an unused supplier deposit with a supplier, you will be prompted to use it against future invoices with that supplier. 


Learn more about Supplier Deposits


Purchase Invoices

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Purchase Invoices are itemised documents indicating the quantity and price of goods and/or services provided by the supplier. This process allows users to register and maintain Supplier Invoices. This is part of Processing a Purchase


Payments and Bulk Supplier Payments

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Payments can be applied in DEAR to authorised invoices. If an invoiced supplier has an unused supplier deposit, you will be able to use it as payment towards the invoice balance.


NOTE: If using Xero as your accounting system, ensure Xero payment settings are set to Synced both ways or Pushed to Xero. QuickBooks Online payments are set by default to sync both ways. Some users prefer to entirely manage their payments through their accounting system. If this is the case, you can leave this section blank, the payment details will be imported from your accounting system and applied to the order once a payment is made.


The Bulk Supplier Payments feature allows you to apply payments to multiple invoices from a supplier in one go to make your purchase process more efficient. 


Learn more about Payments and Bulk Supplier Payments.


Applying Landed Costs

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DEAR allows you to distribute landed costs among related invoices. A landed cost is the total price of a product once it has arrived at the buyer's door. This includes the original price of the product but can also include transportation fees, customs, duties, tax, insurance, currency conversion and any other costs outside of the direct inventory purchase cost. These costs are typically applied by handling or fulfilment services under their own invoice and then need to be allocated to the correct purchase invoices in DEAR. 


Learn more about managing the Landed Cost Expense Distribution.


Receiving Stocks

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Allows the user to input purchased Stock into your inventory. In this tab of a purchase order, you can select where each stock item is received. The stock received quantity must match the quantity invoiced, but can be different from the purchase order quantity. This is part of Processing a Purchase


Credit notes and Refunds

A credit note is considered a negative invoice. It is a way to amend the details of a purchase order or invoice after it has already been authorised, for example, if a unit price has been overcharged, if a shipment is partially or completely incorrect or damaged, or for a discount applied to an order once the order is completed. It is also possible to create a standalone credit note that is not linked to any particular purchase. When authorising a credit note associated with a purchase, you will be given the option to unstock the items from the order.


Learn more about Credit Notes and Refunds


Unstock incorrectly received shipments

Allows the user to remove item(s) from your inventory in the event of short-shipped goods, damaged or faulty goods, or shipped goods that need to be returned to the supplier.


Learn more about Unstock


Attachments and Activity Logs

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Any documents printed or emails sent through the Purchase Order are saved in the Attachments tab. All of the activities done by the user from the start of making a new Purchase Order are logged in the Activity Logs tab.


Purchase Bulk Actions

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DEAR allows executing actions in bulk for selected purchase tasks in the View All Purchases screen, which is accessed from the Purchase menu. These actions are available for both simple and advanced purchases. Void, Undo, and generating purchase documents and emails can all be performed in bulk to save time. 


Learn more about Purchase Bulk Actions


Managing Suppliers

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Suppliers, supplier details, supplier addresses and supplier contacts are managed from the purchase module. You may also want to configure supplier details such as lead time for your products. 


Learn more about Suppliers and Adding suppliers to a product


Low Stock Reorder

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This function allows automatic reordering of stock that is running low from your suppliers, ensuring no sales are lost due to an item being out of stock. You can set low stock reorder points for each product over your entire inventory or for specific locations. Purchase orders for reordered stock are generated automatically. 


Learn more about Low Stock Reorder.


Backorders

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Backorders involve processing sales that do not have enough stock on hand to be fulfilled. When a sale is authorised for an item with insufficient stock, you will be given the option of backordering that item. New stock is ordered from your suppliers to complete the order. To use the backorder function, the products to be backordered must have suppliers attached. When the item comes back into stock, the sale order can be completed.


Learn more about Backorders


Enable Inventory Accrual/Stock in Transit setting 

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DEAR allows you to track costs for Inventory Accrual (Goods Received, Not Invoiced) and Stock in Transit (Goods Invoiced, Not Received). To use this function, you must enable Accrued Inventory Transactions in Settings → General Settings → Purchase Process Customisation. You must also provide relevant accounts and ensure they are mapped to the correct DEAR account.


If Inventory Accrual is disabled, or mapping for the relevant account is not provided, the functionality of the Purchase won't change from no accrual implementation, and only real costs will be accounted for.


Learn more about Inventory Accrual/Stock in Transit settings.


Purchase Reports

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View information about your purchasing via the Reports module. Available reports include Purchase Order/Invoice Details, Stock Received vs Invoiced, and Purchase Cost Analysis. 


Most reports can be automatically generated and sent out to authorised users using the Report Scheduling feature available to DEAR customers with Automation module subscriptions. 


Learn more about Purchase Reports

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