Part 4 · Finance

Purchase

Request a price, place a purchase order, follow the receipt and create the vendor bill without retyping a single line.

Symbifox 18.0 (September 2026 catalogue) · Base applications: Purchase · Revised 2026-09-12

The Purchase application keeps track of what you order from vendors, from the request for quotation to the bill. It is for the person who orders equipment, licences or subcontracting, and for the person who approves the expense before it commits the organization. What you get: a single document that goes through approval, receipt and billing, without the amount being retyped three times. No Symbifox module is added to it: it is the Odoo application, as is.

Overview#

A purchase always follows the same document. It is called a request for quotation (RFQ) until it is accepted, then a purchase order once confirmed: it is the same document, changing state. It carries a vendor, a deadline, lines (product, quantity, unit, price) and a total.

Three states set the pace of the work. RFQ: the document is being prepared or has been sent to the vendor. Purchase Order: the agreement is made and the expense is committed. Locked or Cancelled: the file is closed. Along the way, the billing status says what remains to be billed: nothing to bill, waiting bills, or fully billed.

The application is not accounting. It prepares the vendor bill, which lives in Invoicing, and that is where the money is recorded. Nor does it manage inventory in Symbifox: Bill Control decides whether you bill the ordered quantities or the received quantities, and the second option assumes someone confirms the receipt.

The entry screen is the list of requests for quotation, topped with tiles that count what is to send, waiting and late, with the average order value and the purchase lead time.

Configuration#

Access and permissions#

You grant access in Settings › Users & Companies › Users, Purchase section. There are two levels: User creates, sends and confirms requests for quotation; Administrator adds the Configuration menu, products, units of measure and settings. When purchase order approval is turned on, only the designated managers can confirm an order above the set amount.

Settings#

The Purchase › Configuration › Settings menu opens the application's section. On the Boréal demo, only Receipt Reminder is checked, and bill control is set to received quantities.

Base data#

Before the first order, three things must exist. The vendors, in Contacts: a record with an email address, otherwise the request for quotation does not go out. The purchasable products, with their expense account and purchase taxes: that is what saves you from retyping the same lines. The product categories, three on the demo, which carry the default accounts for a whole group of products.

If you buy by the kilogram or by the day, also check the units of measure categories: seven on the demo, including Working Time, Weight and Volume.

Getting started#

This walkthrough orders a subcontracting service on the Boréal demo, from the request for quotation to the bill.

1. Open Purchase › Orders › Requests for Quotation, then select New.
2. In Vendor, choose the record you want.
3. Check the Order Deadline, that is, the date by which you expect the answer.
4. In the Products tab, select Add a product, choose the product, then adjust the Quantity and the Unit Price.
5. Select Send by Email, review the message, then confirm the sending.
6. When the vendor agrees, select Confirm Order.
7. Select Create Bill to prepare the vendor bill.

Result: the document has changed from a request for quotation to a purchase order, it carries a final reference, and a draft vendor bill waits in Invoicing with the same lines and the same taxes.

Common tasks#

Compare several offers#

For a purchase that matters, you ask several vendors for the same price and compare the answers.

1. Open Purchase › Orders › Requests for Quotation.
2. Create one request for quotation per vendor, with the same lines.
3. Send each one by email.
4. Enter the prices received on each request's lines.
5. Group the list by Vendor to compare the totals.
6. Confirm the one you choose, then cancel the others.

Result: the chosen request becomes a purchase order; the others remain viewable in the cancelled state, which documents the decision.

Confirm an order#

Confirmation commits the organization: it sets the reference, the date and the amount.

1. Open the request for quotation in Purchase › Orders › Requests for Quotation.
2. Check the lines, the taxes and the Expected Arrival.
3. Select Confirm Order.

Result: the document now appears in Purchase Orders, with a Billing Status of “Nothing to Bill” until a bill is created.

Get a large order approved#

When approval is turned on, an order above the set amount waits for approval.

Before you start: Purchase Order Approval is checked in the settings, with its amount.

1. Create the request for quotation as usual.
2. Select Confirm Order: the document moves to “To Approve”.
3. Let the manager know, or let the activity created notify them.
4. The manager opens the document and selects Approve Order.

Result: the order becomes a purchase order. Without approval, it stays pending and commits nothing.

Create the vendor bill#

The bill takes over the order, which avoids retyping and ensures both documents say the same thing.

1. Open the purchase order in Purchase › Orders › Purchase Orders.
2. Select Create Bill.
3. On the draft bill, enter the Bill Reference given by the vendor.
4. Check the Bill Date and the amounts against the document you received.
5. Select Confirm.

Result: the bill is posted, and the purchase order's Billing Status changes to “Fully Billed”. Payment then happens in Invoicing.

Add a purchasable product#

A product serves the order as much as the bill: it carries the price, the expense account and the purchase taxes.

1. Open Purchase › Products › Products, then select New.
2. Enter the Product Name and check Purchase.
3. Choose the Product Category.
4. Enter the Cost and check the Purchase Taxes.
5. In the Purchase tab, add the vendor or vendors and their price.
6. Save.

Result: the product is now offered in order lines, with its price and taxes.

Keep a vendor's prices#

A vendor pricelist records the negotiated price, its currency, its minimum quantity and its validity period.

1. Open Purchase › Configuration › Vendor Pricelists, then select New.
2. Choose the Vendor and the Product.
3. Enter the Price, the minimum Quantity and the Delivery Lead Time.
4. Fill in the Validity dates if the price is guaranteed for a period.
5. Save.

Result: the price fills in by itself on the order line as soon as this vendor and this product are chosen.

Analyze purchases#

The purchase report answers “who do we spend with, and how much?”

1. Open Purchase › Reporting › Purchase.
2. Choose the measure in Measures, for example the untaxed total.
3. Group by Vendor, by product or by month.
4. Switch between the graph and the pivot table.
5. Export if needed.

Result: a total per axis, exportable to a spreadsheet. The Purchase Orders filter is applied in advance to leave out unconfirmed requests for quotation.

The menus, one by one#

The main menu has four entries: Orders, Products, Reporting and Configuration. All four are grouping menus.

Purchase › Orders: grouping menu for purchase documents.

Purchase › Orders › Requests for Quotation: requests not yet confirmed, with the Reference, Vendor, Company, Buyer, Order Deadline, Activities, Source Document, Total and Status. The tiles at the top count what is to send, waiting and late. List, kanban, pivot, graph, calendar and activity views.

Purchase › Orders › Purchase Orders: confirmed orders, with the Confirmation Date, the Billing Status and the Expected Arrival in addition. This is the screen for tracking commitments.

Purchase › Orders › Vendors: the vendor directory, one hundred records on the demo, as cards. Same content as Contacts, filtered on vendors.

Purchase › Products: grouping menu for the catalogue.

Purchase › Products › Products: purchasable products, as cards, with their internal reference and price. The Purchase filter is applied in advance, which leaves out products used only for sales.

Purchase › Products › Product Variants: the variations of one product (size, colour, format), one line per variant. Not applicable until variants are turned on.

Purchase › Reporting: grouping menu for reports.

Purchase › Reporting › Purchase: the purchase report as a graph or pivot table. Empty on the demo: the help text reminds you that it tracks vendors' negotiation and delivery performance.

Purchase › Configuration: grouping menu, for administrators only.

Purchase › Configuration › Settings: the settings described under Configuration.

Purchase › Configuration › Vendor Pricelists: prices negotiated by vendor and by product. Empty on the demo.

Purchase › Configuration › Products: grouping menu for the catalogue.

Purchase › Configuration › Products › Attributes: the characteristics that generate variants. Empty on the demo.

Purchase › Configuration › Products › Product Categories: the demo's three categories, which carry the products' default accounts.

Purchase › Configuration › Units of Measures: grouping menu for units.

Purchase › Configuration › Units of Measures › Units of Measure Categories: the demo's seven categories, with the units in each: Unit, Weight, Working Time, Length / Distance, Surface, Volume and Energy. The category's reference unit is highlighted.

Reference#

Fields of the Purchase Order form#

Fields of the Vendor Pricelist form#

Reports and exports#

The purchase order prints as a PDF with the organization's branding and is sent by email from the document. The Purchase report offers graph and pivot views, exportable to a spreadsheet. Lists export as everywhere else: see Common actions in every application.

Automations#

Two mechanisms work on their own, both conditional. The Receipt Reminder, checked on the demo, sends the vendor a reminder email before the promised arrival date, and their reply comes back to the order's chatter (the message thread at the bottom of the form). Locking confirmed orders, if turned on, closes the document as soon as it is confirmed. Nothing else goes out unless a person triggered it.

Public pages and portal#

The vendor who receives a request for quotation by email can open it in the portal, view the lines and confirm the receipt date. They see only their own documents. See Customer experience.

Modules that extend this application#

No Symbifox module changes the Purchase application: it ships as Odoo publishes it. Two neighbouring applications extend it, however, each in its own chapter: reading vendor bills from PDF, described in Invoicing, and recurring commitments counted in a budget, described in Operating budgets.

Understanding#

One document, two names. The request for quotation and the purchase order are not two documents: they are the same one, before and after the agreement. This avoids copying and keeps the negotiation history attached to the final order.

Why bill received quantities. Paying for what was ordered assumes everything arrives. Paying for what was received assumes someone confirms the receipt, which takes one more step but avoids paying for a partial delivery at the full price. The Boréal demo is set to received quantities.

Three-way matching is not available. Automatic cross-checking between order, receipt and bill belongs to Odoo Enterprise. The setting appears on screen with its label, and it does nothing. Control by received quantities fills much of the same role.

Purchase is not inventory. Symbifox serves service organizations: there is no warehouse and no stock. The expected arrival is an expected date, not a movement of goods, and receipt is recorded by hand.

The price comes from the vendor record, not from chance. When a vendor pricelist exists for the product, it feeds the line. Without one, the product's cost is used. A price retyped on every order ends up drifting from what was negotiated.

Troubleshooting#

See also#

• Invoicing: the vendor bill, its payment and its automatic reading.
• Expenses: costs paid up front by a person, which do not go through an order.
• Operating budgets: the commitment counted before the bill arrives.
• Contacts: vendor records and their addresses.
• Customer experience: the portal where the vendor views their documents.
• Common actions in every application: chatter, activities, exports.