ForemanFOREMAN

Vendor orders (purchase & work orders)

Send a purchase order or work order to a vendor, get it accepted, and lock in the committed cost against your budget.

A vendor order is your commitment to a vendor — a Purchase Order for materials or a Work Order for a sub's labor. It's a Record, so it lives with everything else you send. When the vendor accepts it, its total becomes committed cost on your Budget.

Create a vendor order

  1. From Records, click Create Record (the project's Records tab has the same button).
  2. Pick the Project.
  3. Under the Vendor Agreements heading, pick the template you want. Purchase Order ("Send a purchase order to a vendor") is the priced one that ships with every organization.
  4. The order opens in the builder with a number like VA-0001.

Note

The options under each heading come from your organization's record templates. Vendor Agreements ship with two — Purchase Order (priced line items) and Lien Waiver (signature only). A Work Order or Subcontract is a template you add yourself under the Vendor Agreement type; see Record templates.

Fill out the order

  1. Set the Vendor the order is going to, in the document header.
  2. Set the Order Date and Expected By chips in the header.
  3. Add line items with Add items, select the budget lines, and click Apply. Each line keeps its cost code and budget link. Save the record to keep the imported lines.
  4. Set Purchase tax if it applies — choose Amount or Percent. The subtotal, tax and total calculate as you go.

The item picker has two controls along its top:

  • Vendor — who the order is for. Changing it clears whatever you'd ticked, since a different vendor's committed cost is a different number.
  • Cost basis — which cost each line is shown against: Estimated Cost, Approved Cost, or Committed Cost. An order opens on Estimated Cost, because in order mode "committed" is what other accepted orders already took — a sanity check rather than the number you're writing. Approved Cost renders blank on any line no accepted client agreement names.

Note

Alongside the basis column the picker shows Committed Cost — what other accepted orders have already taken on that line — and that figure as a percent, so you can see what's left before you commit more. Line-item descriptions aren't shown in the picker.

Note

To start from the project's Budget, select the lines, open Selected row actions, and click Create a record from these lines. Pick a template under Vendor Agreements. The budget saves before the order opens with those lines; save the record to keep them.

Note

Every line needs a cost code before the order can go out. Import the lines from the budget; the editor does not offer inline custom rows.

The order's cost codes surface on the document two ways, both independent column toggles: a Scopes of Work chip band above the line items (turn it off with Show scopes of work under Scope in the side panel), and a per-line Cost Code column sitting just after the item name (its eye is in the table header). The column is read-only — a record line only picks up a cost code from the budget.

Send it to the vendor

  1. In the right-hand panel, add or confirm the vendor under the recipients list.
  2. To require a signature, turn on the Signature? toggle for that recipient.
  3. Click Send.

The vendor gets an email with a link to review the order. The order moves from Draft to Sent. The recipient row and Vendor viewed activity show when they open it; the order itself can remain Sent until acceptance.

Acceptance commits the cost

When the vendor opens the link they click Accept Order (or sign, if you required a signature). The order's status becomes Accepted and its total is written to the Committed column on your Budget against each linked budget line.

Note

The document locks when sent, before acceptance, so the vendor's copy cannot silently change. Acceptance then commits the cost to the budget.

Mark it fulfilled

Once the materials arrive or the work is done, open the accepted order and click Mark Fulfilled. This is an operational milestone for your records — it does not change the committed cost.

Turn it into a bill

When the vendor invoices you for an accepted order, carry it straight onto a new vendor bill instead of retyping it.

  1. Open the accepted order and click Vendor Finance in the side panel. The button only appears once the vendor has Accepted — you can't bill a purchase order nobody agreed to.
  2. Pick which kind of vendor finance to make — Bill, Expense, Receipt, or whichever kinds your organization has set up.
  3. A draft opens carrying the same vendor, line items, budget links, scope of work and attachments.

See Vendor bills & the cost inbox for what happens next.

Note

Want the file the vendor sees? Save any draft changes, then click Download PDF in the side panel. Sent orders use the stored PDF.

Don’t see this?

If you don't see Create Record or the order actions, your role may not allow creating or sending vendor orders. Ask your organization owner.

Purchase tax

Use Purchase tax near the draft totals to enter an Amount or Percent, and adjust the printed label if needed. Tax applies to taxable lines and is included in job cost. These controls describe supplier tax you do not recover; they do not calculate recoverable tax credits.

NextVendor bills & the cost inbox