Procurement: Vendors, RFQs & Vendor Bills

Procurement: Vendors, RFQs & Vendor Bills

The Inventory module's built-in Purchase Orders cover simple restocking. For a full vendor-management lifecycle — vendor risk/rating, requisitions, competitive quoting, and invoice matching — use the dedicated Procurement module.

Registering a Vendor

1. Go to Procurement → Vendors → Create
2. Enter company name, vendor type, contact details, payment terms, and credit limit
3. Bank details are stored securely — only the last 4 digits of the account number are ever shown
4. Add additional contacts and mark one as primary

Purchase Requisitions

Internal staff raise a Purchase Requisition (Procurement → Purchase Requisitions → Create) listing items, quantities, and preferred vendors. Once approved, a requisition converts directly to a Purchase Order, or first goes out for competitive bidding via an RFQ.

Running an RFQ (Request for Quotation)

1. Procurement → RFQs → Create — attach line items and select which vendors receive it
2. Publish the RFQ; vendor quotations are recorded as they arrive
3. Use RFQ Comparison to score submissions, then Award the winner — this can generate a draft Purchase Order automatically

Purchase Orders & Goods Receipt

Issue the PO from Procurement → Purchase Orders. Once goods arrive, the Goods Receipt is recorded in Inventory, and Procurement automatically updates the PO's receipt status.

Vendor Bills & Matching

Create a Vendor Bill referencing the PO and the supplier's invoice number, then run Match to perform 2-way (PO ↔ bill) or 3-way (PO ↔ goods receipt ↔ bill) matching. Matched bills can be approved and posted to Accounting; mismatches can be disputed instead.

Vendor Evaluations

Score a vendor on quality, delivery, responsiveness, and pricing from Procurement → Evaluations — each new evaluation automatically recalculates that vendor's aggregate rating.