Purchase — Overview

The Purchase module covers everything from "we need parts" to "the supplier is paid" — with two AI agents doing the heavy lifting when you want them to.

Who can use Purchase

Purchase Manager, Company Admin and Super Admin. Purchase Managers land on the Purchase Dashboard at login.

📷 Screenshot spot — capture this screen and save it as static/img/screenshots/purchase-overview.png, then replace this whole box with the single line:
![Purchase Overview: Procure to Pay](/img/screenshots/purchase-overview.png)

The procure-to-pay journey

 Demand                     Sourcing            Ordering        Receiving          Billing & paying
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Sales-order shortage ┐
 Low stock / reorder  ├──▶ REQUISITION ──▶ PURCHASE ORDER ──▶ GRN ──confirm──▶ SUPPLIER INVOICE ──▶ PAID
 Smart Procurement AI ┘        │              ▲                (stock in)         (3-way match)
                               │              │
                               └─ optional RFQ ┘        Invoice Reader AI ──▶ draft GRN

1. Demand appears — a sales order is short of materials, stock hits its reorder level, or the Smart Procurement Agent spots it first.
2. A requisition is raised and approved, with a supplier chosen per line — see Requisitions.
3. Optionally, RFQs go out to vendors for quotes, compared side by side — see RFQs and Vendor Comparison.
4. A purchase order is created (manually, from the requisition, or from an RFQ), approved and sent — see Purchase Orders.
5. Goods arrive and a Goods Receipt Note is confirmed — the single event that puts stock in — see GRN. The AI Invoice Reader can draft the GRN from a photo of the supplier's invoice.
6. The supplier's bill is recorded, 3-way matched (PO ↔ GRN ↔ invoice), verified and paid — see Supplier Invoices.

The screens at a glance

Screen	What it's for
Purchase Dashboard	Pending RFQs, POs awaiting approval, low-stock triggers, recent activity.
Vendors	The supplier master — contacts, GST, payment terms, ratings.
Requisitions	Approve shortage-driven buying and convert it to POs.
RFQs	Ask vendors to quote; convert the winner to a PO.
Purchase Orders	The full PO workspace — lines, receipts, invoices, payments.
Material Receiving (GRN)	Goods receipt notes — confirming one moves stock.
Supplier Invoices	Purchase bills, verification and payment tracking.
Invoice Reader (AI)	Photo/PDF of a supplier invoice → matched lines → draft GRN.
Smart Procurement (AI)	Daily sweep finds what to buy and picks the cheapest vendor.
Price Lists & OCR	Import supplier price lists from PDF/photo/Excel with AI.
Vendor Comparison	Cheapest-vendor lookup per product, plus RFQs by vendor.

Two rules that keep the books honest

1. Confirming a GRN is the only stock-in event. Nothing else — not the PO, not the AI reader, not the supplier invoice — adds stock. A GRN can't be confirmed twice, so stock is never double-counted.
2. The 3-way match protects you from over-billing. When a supplier invoice is created from a confirmed GRN, ZAPTIZ compares ordered vs received vs billed quantities and prices and flags any variance before you approve payment.