Five documents, two that touch the ledger
A purchase can touch up to five documents: Vendor, Purchase Order, Goods Receipt, Bill, and Vendor Payment. Only two of them post real accounting - the Goods Receipt (when stock is physically accepted) and the Bill (when you issue it). A Purchase Order, no matter its status, never posts anything: it is a commitment to buy, not yet a financial event.
The full path
- 1
1. Vendor
Who you’re buying from - set up once, reused everywhere.
- 2
2. Purchase Order (optional)
A commitment to buy. Never posts to the ledger.
- 3
3. Goods Receipt
Stock physically arrives - Dr Inventory / Cr GRNI posts here.
- 4
4. Bill
The vendor’s invoice - relieves GRNI, recognizes AP, posts on Issue.
- 5
5. Vendor Payment
Cash actually leaving, allocated against what it settles.
Stage 1 — Vendors
A Vendor record holds contact details, billing address, remittance details for payment files, and tax treatment. Unlike a Customer, a Vendor has no credit-limit field - there is no AP equivalent of a soft spending ceiling. It does have the same "opening balance" mechanic though: set one and AccountDesq posts a real entry once, Dr Opening Balance Equity / Cr Accounts Payable, then locks the field - later corrections need a Journal Entry, not an edit.
On the list vs. the detail screen
Vendors list
- Every vendor: name, email, type, status - search by name, email, or phone
- Bulk activate/deactivate/delete, and a CSV import for onboarding many vendors at once
One vendor, opened
- Recent purchase orders, bills, and payments (last five of each), plus the full Activity timeline
- Outstanding-balance and available-credit banners, and one-click New PO / New bill / Pay vendor / Apply credit
Stage 2 — Purchase Order (optional)
Use a Purchase Order when you want a formal, trackable commitment before goods or a bill arrive. It never posts to the ledger at any status - the same role a Quote plays on the sales side. Editing is only possible while it’s still a draft; once issued, it’s locked, and any change from there on is driven by what actually gets received, not by hand.
On the list vs. the detail screen
Purchase Orders list
- Every PO: number, vendor, title, status, expected delivery date, and total
- A commitments pipeline - what’s on order and when it’s due
One purchase order, opened
- Ordered-vs-received progress per line, the goods receipts and bills created from it, and a readiness checklist gating Issue
- Record receipt, Create bill, and Close short all happen here, not on the list
| Status | Meaning | How it gets there |
|---|---|---|
| draft | Editable, not yet sent to the vendor | Manual - Issue or Void |
| issued | Sent, awaiting delivery | Manual Issue action |
| partially_received | Some lines have goods receipts against them | Automatic, from receiving |
| received | Every line fully received | Automatic, from receiving |
| closed | Deliberately ended short of full receipt | Manual "Close short" action |
| void | Cancelled - terminal | Manual, only from draft or issued |
Purchase Order status - most transitions are automatic, not manual
Void only works before anything has been received
Once a single Goods Receipt exists against a Purchase Order, Void is no longer available - the only way to end it early is "Close short," which leaves whatever already arrived exactly as received. A large enough Purchase Order can also require a second person to approve before it issues, based on a per-member spending limit set in Settings → Team.
Stage 3 — Goods Receipt: inventory becomes real
Receiving happens inline on the Purchase Order it belongs to, not on a separate creation screen - the Goods Receipts page itself is a read-only audit trail across every receipt you’ve ever recorded, useful for finding one later, not for creating one. The moment you record a receipt, AccountDesq posts Dr Inventory / Cr Goods Received Not Invoiced (GRNI) at the Purchase Order’s own price - recognizing the asset the instant stock is physically accepted, well before the vendor’s bill shows up.
GRNI is a placeholder, not a debt yet
GRNI represents "we have the goods but haven’t been billed for them yet." When the Bill later arrives, it relieves this GRNI balance and books the real Accounts Payable - any difference between the Purchase Order price and the Bill price posts as Purchase Price Variance, not silently absorbed into inventory.
A receipt can be voided, and it reverses all three effects together - the Purchase Order’s received quantity, the GRNI entry, and the stock movement - but only for items that use average or standard costing. Items on FIFO costing or with lot/serial tracking can’t be un-received this way once other movements have happened on top of them; correct those through an Inventory Adjustment instead.
Stage 4 — Bill: the only document that posts on its own
A Bill is where the vendor’s invoice becomes real accounting - and it is the only Purchasing document that posts to the ledger by itself, only when you Issue it (not on save). Issuing relieves the GRNI this Bill’s goods were received under, recognizes the Purchase Price Variance if the Bill’s price differs from the Purchase Order’s, and books the full Accounts Payable liability. A 3-way match check (Purchase Order vs. Goods Receipt vs. Bill quantity/price) has to pass, or at least be acknowledged, before you can Issue.
On the list vs. the detail screen
Bills list
- Every bill: number, vendor, reference, status, due date, total, and balance due - overdue ones flagged
- An accounts-payable worklist - what’s owed and when it’s due
One bill, opened
- The 3-way-match readiness panel, over-billed lines flagged inline, and every payment or credit applied to it
- Issue, Void, Put on hold, and Credit note all happen here, not on the list
| Status | Meaning | Can move to |
|---|---|---|
| draft | Editable, not yet financial | issued, void |
| issued | Posted to the ledger | void, partially_paid, paid |
| partially_paid | Some but not all collected against it | issued, paid |
| paid | Fully settled | issued, partially_paid |
| void | Cancelled - terminal | — |
Bill status - and the one deliberate one-way door
"On hold" doesn’t block payment - it’s advisory
Putting a Bill on hold stops Payables Intelligence from recommending it for payment and flags it across the app - it does not stop anyone from actually recording a payment against it. If you need a hard stop, treat the hold as a signal to act on, not a lock. Void, separately, only works before any payment has landed and before any credit note has been recorded against it - both are one-way doors once crossed.
Stage 5 — Vendor Payments: cash actually leaving
Recording a payment posts immediately in the same step - crediting your bank or cash account and debiting Accounts Payable for whatever was allocated to specific bills, with any unallocated portion booked as an advance to that vendor rather than left unexplained. You can also record a Draft payment first (no ledger effect yet) and confirm it later, at which point the whole amount is treated as an advance until you allocate it to bills.
On the list vs. the detail screen
Vendor Payments list
- Every payment: number, vendor, status, amount, and any advance portion
- A cash-outflow log - what’s gone out and to whom
One payment, opened
- Exactly which bills it settled, remaining advance, and an "apply remaining advance" suggestion tool
- Confirm, Reverse, and the bank-reconciliation state all live here, not on the list
Reversing a payment can be blocked by what it already funded
You can’t void a payment that’s already been bank-reconciled - unreconcile it first. And if a payment’s advance already got spent (applied to bills, or refunded), voiding is blocked outright rather than silently pushing the vendor’s balance negative; the error tells you exactly how much is short.
Vendor Credits: the AP mirror of a customer credit wallet
A vendor can owe you money back in three ways: a Credit Note the vendor issues (say, for returned goods), applying existing credit against an open Bill, or an actual cash Refund from the vendor. All three post immediately when recorded, and none of them are created from this screen - they’re started from the vendor’s own detail page. Vendor Credits itself is where you review what’s been recorded and reverse it if needed; reversing posts the exact opposite entry rather than editing or deleting history.
On the list vs. the detail screen
Vendor Credits list
- Every credit, refund, and application: number, vendor, type, date, reason, amount, and status
- A correction log, filterable by type
One credit, opened
- What it was issued against or applied to, plus a "View journal" button showing the exact posted entry
- Reverse lives here - it posts the opposite entry rather than editing history
Payables Intelligence: what to pay, and when
This is a decision-support dashboard, not another ledger - every number on it (aging buckets, Days Payable Outstanding, cash-outflow forecast, per-vendor health score) is computed live from your real Bills and Payments, the same records the rest of Purchasing already produced. Vendor health here scores your own payment conduct toward each vendor - on-time ratio, average delay, bills left on hold - not the vendor’s reliability toward you; that distinction matters when the score looks worse than you expected.
Does creating a Purchase Order affect my accounts?
No - a Purchase Order is a commitment, not a financial event. It never posts to the ledger at any status. The first document in the purchasing chain that actually touches your books is the Goods Receipt.
When does inventory actually get recorded - the Purchase Order or the Bill?
Neither, exactly - the Goods Receipt does. The moment stock is accepted, it posts Dr Inventory / Cr GRNI (Goods Received Not Invoiced), before any Bill exists. The Bill later clears that GRNI balance.
Does a Bill post to the ledger as soon as I save it?
No - only when you Issue it. A saved draft Bill has no accounting impact; Issue is the step that actually posts the entry.
If a Bill is "on hold," does that block me from paying it?
No - an on-hold Bill is a Payables Intelligence signal meant to flag it for review, not a payment block. You can still record a payment against it if you choose to.
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