The correlations between open and posted Purchase documents

In Business Central, the purchase documents share a common foundation. Whether you are working with open documents or posted documents, they are all based on the same few tables. If you look at the data structure on the database level, it is the same table with different types applied. This makes the way they work simpler than it first appears: open documents use a type, the posting routines are the same across all document types, and the posted documents are built on the same table structure. What you see on screen is sorted into different document types, and this article explains how they correlate.

Purchase orders and how they connect to quotes and blanket orders

On the open document side, you have the purchase order. A purchase order is where you enter the quantities you want to buy from a vendor along with the prices. The purchase order works together with the purchase quote and the purchase blanket order.

From a purchase quote that you send to the vendor, you can make a purchase order if you actually decide to order. From a purchase blanket order, which is a frame agreement, you can make several orders, each time you want to buy a part of the agreement. You can also enter the purchase order manually, or it can be created from the MRP batch job in the requisition worksheet or the planning worksheet. That is the normal way to create purchase orders.

Posting a purchase order: receipt and invoice in two steps

When posting a purchase order, you can post the receipt and the invoicing in two separate steps.

Normally you post the receipt in the warehouse. When the item hits the ramp, you receive the goods, enter the quantity to receive, and post it. That creates a posted purchase receipt, which is a record of pieces and quantities.

Later, typically in the finance department, you post the invoicing. This creates a posted purchase invoice, which is a separate posted document.

How purchase invoices differ from purchase orders

A purchase invoice is normally created manually when you buy something. The difference between a purchase order and a purchase invoice is in how the list behaves. The purchase order list is typically an open list of documents that still need to be received, where some are received but not yet invoiced. The purchase invoice list is normally empty, because you enter the purchase invoice information and post it right away.

A purchase invoice can be made manually, or it can be created from a posted purchase receipt. This means you can receive on several purchase orders, grab all the posted receipts into one purchase invoice, and post it. That also updates the purchase order document.

When you post a purchase invoice, it creates both transactions in one go, so you cannot separate the receipt and the invoicing. If the invoice is based on a receipt document, the goods are already received when you invoice it. But if the invoice is entered manually and not based on a posted purchase receipt, you post both the purchase receipt and the purchase invoice in one go.

Purchase return orders and purchase credit memos

A purchase return order and a purchase credit memo have the same structure and the same differences as a purchase order and a purchase invoice.

The purchase return order is a document where you can post the shipment separately, because you are shipping the item out of stock back to the vendor, and you can post the invoicing separately. The credit memo, by contrast, is made in one go.

Both the return order and the credit memo can be fetched from a posted document, either a posted receipt or a posted invoice. When you want to return something, you point to the document you have posted that you want to reverse, and that creates the open document. You can also enter it manually.

The postings are separate from the return order. Often the return order is made as an agreement with the vendor and stays in the system until the warehouse staff collects the items, packs them, and posts the return shipment as a separate step. Later, the finance department posts the purchase credit memo when they receive it. The credit memo, by contrast, is posted in one go.

Archiving purchase documents

There is an archiving functionality in the purchase setup table where you can select which documents you want to archive. Normally, all open documents are deleted when you post the remaining quantities and invoices. The archiving functionality makes it possible to save the document history even though the open documents are deleted once they are done.

Printing purchase documents

On all of these different documents you have a print option. You can print all of the purchase documents directly from the purchase document. The details of the print options are covered separately.

Q&A