New Purchases Order

A Purchase Order is your formal instruction to a supplier to supply goods or services at agreed prices. It commits nothing financially and moves no stock — it records what you have asked for, and becomes the source document for the goods receipt and invoice that follow.

Where to find it

Go to Purchases > Orders > New Purchase Order. The form opens in a popup, so you can raise an order without leaving the list you were working in.

Before you start

• The supplier must exist in your supplier list.
• The items you are ordering must exist in Items and Services.
• The location you will receive into must be set up.
• You need the SA_PURCHASEORDER permission.

Header field reference

Current Debit

The Current Debit field shows the live balance between your business and the selected supplier — the net amount you owe them, or, after overpayment or returns, the amount they owe you.

The figure is a clickable link. Click it to see the full history of transactions, payments and outstanding balances for that supplier before you commit to another order.

Workorder

Use a Workorder when you are buying materials or services for a manufacturing process or internal production task. Selecting one links the purchase directly to a production entry, so the system can track the exact cost of raw materials for that job. This keeps production costs accurate and allocates inventory correctly to the manufacturing floor.

Select a Project

Assign the purchase to a long-term project or client contract, and the cost of the items is tracked against that project's budget. This is what lets you monitor project-wise spend, judge profitability, and account for all procurement cost in the final project analysis.

Branches & Departments

• Branches represent separate business locations or units of the same company, giving transactions and stock movements per branch. Enable under Setup > Preferences > Use Branches Only.
• Departments are internal divisions responsible for a specific function, letting you attribute the spend to the part of the business that incurred it.

Barcode

The barcode field speeds up item entry. Scan a product code and the system identifies the item and adds it to the order lines automatically, which is both faster and less error-prone than typing.

Line Items (Order Items)

Total Details

Memo

Internal notes or instructions for the supplier, stored with the transaction.

Attachments

Attach supporting documents — the supplier's quotation, an approval email, a specification sheet.

Custom Fields

Custom fields let you add your own inputs where the standard form does not capture something you need. Enable under Setup > Preferences > Show Add Custom Field on Forms, and manage them from Setup > Custom Fields.

Action Buttons

What happens in the background

A Purchase Order is a commitment document only. When you place it, TamilAccounting:

• Posts nothing to the General Ledger. No liability, no expense, no tax.
• Moves no stock. Quantity on hand is unchanged until goods are received.
• Stores the order so it can be received against later, tracking how much of each line is still outstanding.

Value and stock start moving at the goods receipt, and the liability becomes firm at the invoice.

Editing a Purchase Order

An order can be edited while it is open and nothing has been received against it. Once a GRN exists, the received quantity is fixed by that receipt — change the order and you will create a mismatch between what you ordered and what the supplier has already delivered.

Related Transactions & Actions

Purchase Orders Report

For a consolidated view of what is on order, go to Reports > Purchases. Filter by date range and supplier, and export as PDF or Excel. The Purchase Orders List covers the same ground interactively.

Related pages

• Purchase Orders List — find and action orders
• Purchase Order View — read one order in detail
• Order To GRN — receive against the order
• Direct GRN — receive without an order
• Requisition in Purchase — the step before an order