Related Applets
“What is the difference between a goods received note and a purchase invoice?” Most of the answer happens outside Purchasing. A plain GRN moves no stock and posts nothing. The purchase invoice moves stock in Inventory, posts a journal in the general ledger, opens a balance in the creditor reports and, if it is self-billed, goes to MyInvois. Which of those happens, and which account it lands on, is decided by records that other modules own.
This page is for the accounts person and the purchasing lead who set up a company and then answer for its numbers. It covers what Purchasing needs from its neighbours, what each purchase document writes into them, where those figures come from, and how to catch a purchase that went to the wrong place. The module’s own applets are on the module page. Stock direction, document by document, is on Inventory’s related applets, and this page does not repeat it.
Before the first purchase posts
Each of these is kept in another applet. Apart from the period lock in the last row, a missing one does not stop the purchase document finalising, because the stock, journal and cashbook postings run as jobs after FINAL. The problem shows up later, in another module.
| What must exist | Kept in | What you see if it does not |
|---|---|---|
| The supplier’s AR/AP Type, and on its Company Linking row for each company | Supplier | The bill posts to whichever account that type points at. AP_TRADE posts to your trade creditors. A supplier saved with a receivable type such as AR_TRADE posts the bill to your debtors account. The posting reads the company’s Company Linking row first, so the two can differ |
A company default GL code for every supplier type you use (CREDITOR, CREDITOR_NON_TRADE, EMPLOYEE_OTHER_PAYABLE, MERCHANT_PAYABLE), and CREDITOR_NOT_INVOICED and INVENTORY_NOT_INVOICED if you receive on GRN Stock In | Chart of Account | The invoice is FINAL and has no journal. The reason, MISSING_DEFAULT_GL_CODE, appears only when you press Resolve in Trace Document |
A PURCHASE default, or a purchase GL code on every item. An INPUT_TAX default, which nothing else can replace | Chart of Account, Doc Item Maintenance | The goods or tax line is left out with no error, and the supplier line shrinks to match. The ledger then owes the supplier less than the bill says |
| The document item is a basic item, or an alias linked to an inventory item (a basic item with no link is linked for you the first time it posts) | Doc Item Maintenance | A service item, or an alias with no inventory item: the invoice posts, and no stock arrives |
| Each settlement method you pay with is linked to a cashbook that has a GL code | Cashbook | The payment voucher is FINAL with no cashbook line and no journal (MISSING_CASHBOOK or MISSING_GL_CODE). Bank Reconciliation has nothing to match against the bank statement |
| A Knock Off Configuration row for each pair you use (order to receipt, receipt to invoice) | Organization, the company | The KO For picker on the next document is empty, although the source is FINAL |
| The month is open for transactions | Organization, fiscal periods | FINAL is refused for a date in a month locked at LOCK_TXN or LOCK_ALL |
How a purchase document chooses its account
Every purchase document posts through the same rules. The rules are not on any screen, and they answer most “why did it post there?” questions.
- The goods line uses the first account it finds: a GL code on the line, then one on the document
header, then the item’s company GL link, then the company default (
PURCHASE, orPURCHASE_RETURNon a Purchase Return). A GRN Stock In ignores the line’s code. If none of the four is found, the line is left out of the journal. - The tax line always posts to the company default
INPUT_TAX. - The supplier line is whatever balances the journal. Its account comes from the supplier’s AR/AP type, checked on the company link first and then on the supplier record, and read when the journal is built, not when the document was raised. The document keeps a snapshot of the supplier’s name, address and terms, but not of this type.
The third rule has a consequence. If you correct a supplier’s type, journals that are already posted do not move. A journal built later for an older document does follow the new type. That includes one rebuilt with Repost or Resolve in Financial Report Error Checking › Trace Document. Voiding is different: the reversal copies the journal as it was posted, so it reverses the old account.
What each purchase document writes into its neighbours
The stock column repeats Inventory’s table. The accounts are the company defaults, so a line, header or item GL code replaces the purchase side as described above. The creditor reports and the e-Invoice portal pick up FINAL documents only.
| Document | Inventory | General ledger | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase Requisition, Purchase Order | Nothing. A purchase order is not in the main Stock Availability figure | Nothing | Approval, if you set it up. The order is the source of an intercompany sales order |
| Purchase GRN | No balance change. Until an invoice knocks it off, it adds to available in Stock Availability | Nothing | AP Automation matches supplier e-Invoices to it |
| Purchase GRN Stock In | Stock in | Inventory Not Invoiced against Creditor Not Invoiced, whatever the supplier’s type | Listed in the Creditor Outstanding Document Report until its invoice knocks it off |
| Purchase Invoice | Stock in. The only document that writes an item’s last purchase cost | Purchases and input tax, against the supplier’s account | A creditor balance. A self-billed e-Invoice if flagged |
| Purchase Invoice No Stock In | Nothing | Purchases against the supplier’s account. When it is linked to an earlier document, normally the GRN Stock In it knocks off, it also moves its whole total out of Creditor Not Invoiced and Inventory Not Invoiced. Linked only to a purchase order, it moves them too, with no accrual to clear | A creditor balance |
| Purchase Return | Stock out | Your Purchase Returns account, and the supplier’s account is reduced | A self-billed credit note if flagged |
| Purchase Refund Note | Stock out | Your Purchases account, not Purchase Returns | A self-billed refund note if flagged |
| Purchase Debit Note | Nothing | Lowers what you owe: the supplier’s account against Purchases | A self-billed credit note if flagged |
| Purchase Credit Note | Nothing | Raises what you owe, on the same side as an invoice | A self-billed debit note if flagged |
| Payment Voucher | Nothing | The supplier’s account against the settlement method’s account, normally its cashbook’s GL code | One cashbook line per payment line, for Bank Reconciliation. The source of an intercompany receipt voucher |
| Consignment GRN | Stock in, that you do not own yet | Consignment Stock against Consignment Liability | — |
Three purchasing documents are filed under other modules. The Purchase Invoice and Payment Voucher sit under Financial Accounting, and Consignment Billing sits in the sales folder. Consignment Billing is where you enter the consignor’s bill once consigned stock has sold, so it is a purchase document, not a sales one.
Choose these before the first purchase
- Who receives the stock. Either the purchase invoice books the stock and a plain GRN only records the delivery, or a GRN Stock In books it and a Purchase Invoice No Stock In books the money. This is decided once per company. The Inventory page covers the double count, and Configuration covers the setup.
- Which account each supplier owes from.
AP_TRADEis for stock suppliers.AP_OTHERis for rent, utilities and services, so that they post to non-trade creditors.AP_EMPLOYEEis for staff you reimburse. A receivable type belongs only on a party you deliberately settle through your debtors account. Across BigLedger nearly every supplier isAP_TRADE, and a supplier with a receivable type is uncommon but not rare. Narrowing the list withALLOWED_AR_AP_TYPESon the Supplier applet stops the wrong type being picked for a new supplier. It does not change a type a record already has, so check existing suppliers once. - Who pays for whom in the group. If one company pays another’s supplier, or buys for it, the mirror documents come from the branch’s intercompany setting, one row per document pair (scenario: one company buys for another). With no row, nothing appears in the other company. With a row, the mirror arrives as a draft, unless Auto Final Target Doc is on.
- Whether orders need approval. In this module only the Purchase Order and the Purchase Requisition can be routed for approval. When the approval completes, it finalises the document, but a pending request does not stop someone finalising by hand. Your control over receipts, invoices and payments is who holds the finalise permission (Configuration, section 7).
A worked month at GadgetSphere
On 6 March, GS buys 20 flagship smartphones at RM 2,800 from a new regional distributor, on one
purchase invoice at GS-KV-01. The total is RM 56,000, with no input tax on this bill. The distributor
was first set up as a customer for a warranty claim. When purchasing added the supplier role, the
record kept AR/AP Type AR_TRADE.
On FINAL, the 20 phones arrive at GS-KV-01, and the journal debits Purchases RM 56,000. It credits
the account the supplier’s type points at, which is the company’s debtors account
DEBTOR-TRADE-RETAIL, not LIAB-SUPPLIER-TRADE. The creditor reports ask only for suppliers with an AP
type, on the record or on a company link, so the bill is not in the Outstanding Document Report or the
aging. It is in the debtor reports instead, as a credit on what looks like a customer’s account. At 31 March the balance
sheet has trade creditors RM 56,000 too low and trade debtors RM 56,000 too low. Total assets and total
liabilities are both understated, so the balance sheet still balances, and nothing on it looks wrong.
The voucher that pays the bill on 20 April debits the same debtors account, and the two cancel. So the mistake is usually found late, when the supplier’s statement lists a bill the creditor report does not. The earlier sign is the debtor report: a customer account carrying a credit nobody can explain.
The fix takes two steps, and the order matters:
- Set AR/AP Type to
AP_TRADEon the supplier’s Main tab and on its Company Linking row forGS. The posting reads the company row first. - Rebuild the journal of each posted document for that supplier with Repost in Trace Document. Repost rebuilds the journal with the current type, in the document’s own month, so agree it first with whoever closed March. The button appears on a posted ringgit document that has no linked base-currency copy. Then open each document’s Journal Txn: Repost deletes the old journal before it builds the new one, and if the build fails it shows no message.
Whose job: whoever approves a new supplier record checks the AR/AP type before the first purchase is keyed. Correcting it afterwards does not move journals that are already posted.
Where each purchasing figure on another screen comes from
| Figure | Seen in | Stored, or worked out when you look | From what |
|---|---|---|---|
| The account a document posted to | Ledger and Journal, the document’s Trace Document | Stored in the journal when the posting job ran | The rules above, with the supplier’s type as it was at that moment |
| What you owe a supplier, and its age | Creditor Report outstanding, aging, statement | Stored on each document as its open balance. Knock-off, payment and contra change it | FINAL supplier documents of suppliers with an AP type. Not the journal |
| The same supplier’s balance in the ledger | The Creditor Report’s Subledger Report tab, and Ledger And Journal | The journal lines | Posted journals only. A document with no journal, or with a short one, is missing here and present in the row above |
| Past month-end balances | Historical Creditor Report, Historical Transaction Aging Analysis | A monthly snapshot taken at 01:00 on the 1st | The outstanding documents at that time (Reports) |
| Goods received, not yet billed | Standard pair: Stock Availability GRN quantity. Stock In pair: the Outstanding Document Report | Availability is worked out each time you load it. The outstanding row is stored | Plain GRNs not yet on an invoice, or GRN Stock Ins not yet knocked off |
| Last purchase cost | Stock Balance, costing details | Stored when a purchase invoice finalises | That invoice’s net unit price. No other document writes it |
| Cashbook line from a payment | Cashbook, Bank Reconciliation | Stored by the cashbook job after FINAL | The voucher’s payment lines and each method’s cashbook |
When a purchase shows up in the wrong place, or not at all
| What you see | The usual cause | Check first | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| The invoice is FINAL and is not in the general ledger | The company has no default GL code for the supplier’s type | Financial Report Trace Document › Missing Journal › Resolve. It shows the reason | Map the default in Chart of Account, then Resolve again |
| A supplier’s bills are missing from the creditor reports, and the ledger has them | The supplier has a receivable AR/AP type | The supplier’s Main tab and Company Linking row | As in the GadgetSphere month: correct the type, then Repost each document |
| A supplier is in the creditor reports, yet its bills in one company post to debtors | The supplier’s own type is an AP type, and its Company Linking row for that company has a receivable type. The reports accept either; the posting reads the company row | The Company Linking row for that company | Correct the row, then Repost that company’s documents |
| The Creditor Outstanding total is higher than the trade creditors account | A document with no journal, or one posted short because a goods or tax line found no account | Ledger and Journal Error Checking › Missing Journal for each purchase type, then Financial Report Stock Flow Report, Purchases row | Map the missing defaults or item GL codes, then Create on the listed rows |
| A payment is FINAL and is not in Bank Reconciliation | The settlement method has no cashbook, or the cashbook has no GL code | Trace Document › Missing Cashbook | Link the method to a cashbook, then Resolve Missing Cashbook and Missing Journal. Each one repairs only its own half |
| The KO For picker is empty, and the source document is FINAL | No Knock Off Configuration row for that pair | Organization › the company › Knock Off Config | Add the row. Documents finalised before it existed are re-queued from Data Fix › Generic Documents › Missing Open Queue (or by BigLedger support if you do not hold that applet) |
| A purchase invoice has no VOID button | The company’s e-Invoice status is enabled | Organization › the company | Correct it with a debit or credit note |
GSD invoiced GS, and GS has no purchase invoice | No intercompany row for that pair at the selling branch, or the mirror is waiting in the purchase invoice applet’s Intercompany inbound queue | The branch’s intercompany settings | Add the row, or process the queue |
What the neighbours will not do for Purchasing
Each limit below holds whichever applet raised the document, and through the API. After each one, the person who does the job instead.
- A failed posting does not undo FINAL. Stock, journal and cashbook are separate jobs that run after the status changes. A missing account leaves a FINAL document with no journal, and nobody is told. The accountant runs the check below before each close.
- Nothing compares the creditor reports with the ledger for you. They read different things (the table above). The accountant ties them out monthly.
- Correcting a supplier’s type does not move old journals. The person who corrects it reposts that supplier’s documents.
- By default, no purchase document posts to the stock account. Purchases go to Purchases, and stock value reaches the balance sheet at month end (Inventory: what the neighbours will not do).
- Approval does not hold a receipt, an invoice or a payment. Approval covers orders and requisitions only, and a pending request does not stop a manual FINAL. The finance manager decides who holds the finalise permission on each of these documents.
- An e-Invoice your supplier sends you posts nothing. AP Automation matches it to your receipt, and the AP clerk still keys the purchase invoice.
- An intercompany mirror appears only where a branch has a row for that pair. The group accountant keeps those rows in step with how the companies actually trade.
How you know your company is set up right
About fifteen minutes on the last working day of the month, per company.
- Nothing is FINAL without a journal. In Ledger And Journal
Error Checking › Missing Journal, run the month for
INTERNAL_PURCHASE_INVOICE,INTERNAL_PURCHASE_RETURN,INTERNAL_PURCHASE_DEBIT_NOTE,INTERNAL_PURCHASE_CREDIT_NOTEandINTERNAL_PAYMENT_VOUCHER, and forINTERNAL_PURCHASE_GRN_STOCK_INandINTERNAL_PURCHASE_INVOICE_NO_STOCK_INif you use that pair. You are done when each list is empty. - No goods line was left out. In Financial Report Stock Flow Report, the Purchases and Purchase Returns rows compare document lines with journal lines on the default purchase accounts. The document side includes input tax and the journal side does not, so a taxed month always shows a Difference. You are done when the Difference is explained by the input tax on the month’s bills and by lines you posted to a header or item GL code on purpose. A missing tax line does not show here; step 3 catches it.
- The creditor reports agree with the ledger. The Outstanding Document Report shows balances as they are today, so run it on the last day of the month, or use the Historical Creditor Report if the monthly snapshot runs on your tenant. Take its total with GRN Stock In excluded, and compare it with the trial balance’s creditor accounts (trade, non-trade, employee, merchant). You are done when the difference is zero, or you can name every document in it, for example a foreign-currency bill at a different rate.
- Every payment has its cashbook line. In the Data Fix applet’s Cashbook › Missing Cashbook tab (a tenant administrator’s applet), set both dates to the month (they open on today). You are done when it lists no payment voucher, so Bank Reconciliation has every payment to match.