Direct GRN: bill the receipt and check the price nobody checked
Step 5 of the direct GRN workflow: bill the receipt on a purchase invoice and check the supplier’s price against the one that was agreed — the first time anybody checks it — then see who keeps direct receipts exceptional. It follows Steps 2 to 4, where the receipt was typed, explained and finalised.
The running example: the 20 pairs of earbuds received at GS-KV-01 on 26 November were agreed at RM 150.00 a pair. The distributor’s invoice arrives on 3 December, dated 3 December, at RM 155.00 a pair, RM 3,100.00, with no tax line on it. Before the delivery, the branch held 40 pairs at a moving average of RM 140.00.
If your company’s Knock Off Configuration generates the invoice when the GRN goes FINAL, open that one instead of creating another: a second invoice bills the goods twice. Unless the configuration asks for DRAFT, that invoice is created already FINAL, as a copy of the GRN — its lines, its price and its date — so check it against the supplier’s invoice, and if they differ, correct it as the end of Step 5 sets out.
- Step 5: bill it.
- Who checks a receipt nobody ordered.
Step 5: Bill it
Finance > Purchase Invoice (Internal) > Internal Purchase Invoice > Create > KO For > Purchase GRN
When the supplier’s invoice arrives, book it exactly as you would any other: create the purchase invoice, pick the supplier, and knock off the GRN from the KO For tab. Only finalised, not-yet-invoiced receipts appear there — provided the company’s Knock Off Configuration has the GRN → Purchase Invoice row. If your GRN is FINAL and still not in the list, that row is the cause, and it produces no error anywhere.
Then set the transaction date to the date on the supplier’s invoice — 3 December. The knock-off stamps today’s date over whatever the draft held, and an invoice left on today’s date posts, input tax included, in the month you keyed it instead of the month it was issued.
If the configuration auto-generated an invoice at Step 4, open that one and complete it. Typing a second invoice against the same GRN bills the earbuds twice.
Now compare the price. The knock-off brings in RM 150.00; the distributor billed RM 155.00. Nothing on this screen compares the two or warns you — the difference shows up later as a moving average that moved, not as a message. On a direct receipt this is the first moment anybody checks the price, and it is the invoice clerk’s job:
- Read the agreed price in the GRN’s remarks (Step 3) and the price on the supplier’s invoice side by side.
- If they differ, stop and ask whoever agreed the purchase. Either the RM 155.00 is right and RM 150.00 was misheard, or the distributor has billed above the agreement and the buyer takes it up with them.
- Key the invoice at what you have agreed to owe. Here, the buyer accepts RM 155.00, so you type it over the RM 150.00 on the line.
You are negotiating after delivery, which is a weaker position — but it is far better done now than after FINAL.
FINAL on the invoice posts:
Dr Purchase (or the item's GL code) RM 3,100.00
Cr Creditor — the distributor RM 3,100.00If the supplier’s invoice carries tax, the invoice also debits Input Tax for it and the creditor line grows by the same amount.
And the stock side moves at last, dated 3 December:
| Before the invoice | After FINAL at RM 155.00 | Had you left RM 150.00 | |
|---|---|---|---|
Stock balance at GS-KV-01 | 40 | 60 | 60 |
| Moving average | RM 140.00 | (5,600.00 + 3,100.00) ÷ 60 = RM 145.00 | (5,600.00 + 3,000.00) ÷ 60 = RM 143.33 |
| Last purchase cost | whatever the last invoice set | RM 155.00 | RM 150.00 |
| What you owe the distributor | nothing | RM 3,100.00 | RM 3,000.00 — RM 100.00 short of their statement |
The moving average takes the invoice line’s amount; the last purchase cost takes its net unit price, and only a purchase invoice writes it. Both are stored figures, recomputed when the invoice posts rather than when you open a report, and the costing job writes the new average back onto the invoice line. The GRN’s price leaves no trace on either. Which amount the average takes when the line carries tax, and why the two figures can disagree, is on the purchase invoice page.
If the invoice went through at the wrong price, the RM 100.00 surfaces when somebody reconciles the distributor’s statement. Void the invoice and key it again where VOID is open to you. Where it is not — once e-Invoice is enabled, for example — a Purchase Credit Note for RM 100.00 raises what you owe (a Purchase Debit Note would lower it). The credit note moves no stock, so the average stays at RM 143.33; agree with whoever keeps the books whether that is worth a Reset MA.
Once the invoice is FINAL, you settle it on a Payment Voucher like any other bill, and the GRN plays no further part.
If your company uses the GRN Stock In path instead, the stock was booked at Step 4 and the invoice must be a Purchase Invoice No Stock In. Do not mix the pairs — it either double-counts the stock or never counts it, silently.
Who checks a receipt nobody ordered
A direct receipt moves three checks that a purchase order normally does up front. BigLedger does none of them; this is who does each one instead. A direct GRN is only as good as the two things it is paired with: the remarks that record the agreement, and the invoice check that tests it.
| The check | Who | When | They know it is done when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Was this purchase agreed, and at what price? | Whoever agreed it (here, the branch manager), written into the GRN remarks by the receiver | Before FINAL on the GRN | A stranger could read the remarks and name the arrangement, the date, the role and the price |
| Does the bill match what was agreed? | The person who finalises purchase invoices | Before FINAL on the invoice | The invoice price equals the remarks’ price, or the difference has been agreed with the buyer and noted |
| Are direct receipts staying exceptional? | The finance manager or purchasing head | Monthly | They have a list of last month’s direct receipts by branch, each with a reason, and no branch is a repeat without an explanation |
For the monthly list across 22 branches, the Purchase Report does most of the work once the receipts are invoiced: its PO No column is filled in only when the GRN itself knocked off an order, so invoice rows with a GRN No and an empty PO No are your direct receipts (and any received against something other than a purchase order). Receipts still waiting for an invoice are not in the report at all; they are the open GRNs from the month-end list. Keep the person who checks this list separate from the people who receive: a branch that receives, agrees the price and checks its own exceptions is checking itself.
What success looks like for this part
The invoice knocks off the GRN, carries the supplier’s invoice date, 3 December, and its Posting tab shows Journal and Inventory posted, and its line carries the price you agreed to owe, RM 155.00 a pair. Stock Availability at GS-KV-01 shows Stock Balance 60, with nothing left in Adj Qty for this receipt, and the item’s last purchase cost reads RM 155.00, not the GRN’s RM 150.00. Then run the whole receipt’s success check.
Common mistakes in this part
Finalising the invoice at the GRN’s price without reading the supplier’s. The commonest way a direct receipt goes wrong, because the knocked-off line looks finished. The payable then disagrees with the supplier’s statement, and the average cost is wrong for every sale until it is put right.
The GRN is FINAL but the invoice cannot find it. Not a data problem: the company’s Knock Off Configuration has no Purchase GRN → Purchase Invoice row, so FINAL created no open-queue rows. Have the row added first. FINAL writes the open-queue rows only for pairs enabled at that moment, so a GRN finalised before the row existed stays invisible to the invoice until it is re-queued: in the Data Fix applet, Generic Documents › Missing Open Queue, choose Purchase GRN as Server Doc Type 1 and Purchase Invoice as Server Doc Type 2, search around the GRN’s date, tick the GRN and press CREATE. It writes the missing open-queue rows and posts nothing. The grid lists every FINAL GRN in the range, so tick only the ones you know are missing. Data Fix is an administrator’s applet; if it is not on your menu, ask BigLedger support (see Organisation, Knock Off Configuration). Voiding the GRN and raising it again also works, at the cost of a second document number for one delivery.
Typing an invoice when the configuration already generated one. The same goods are billed twice and the supplier is paid twice. Check the Purchase Invoice listing for an invoice against your GRN before you create anything.
Treating this as the normal way to buy. Each direct receipt is a control you did not run. Pull them out monthly — by custom status, from the Purchase Report rows with no PO No, or by finding GRNs with no linked purchase order on the Doc Link tab — and ask why they happened. The answer is usually a process problem at one branch, not a supplier problem.
Using a direct GRN to bypass a draft purchase order is on the front page.
Related documentation
- Purchase Invoice (Internal) — where the cost on stock comes from, and the invoice a GRN can generate by itself
- Purchase Report — finding invoiced receipts that had no order
- Purchase GRN Stock In (Internal) — the alternative that books stock and the accrual on receipt
- Direct Invoice Workflow — for services and expenses with nothing to receive