Creating Purchase Receipts

Purchase receipts represent purchase transactions for materials or services from vendors. Aspire provides two ways to create purchase receipts:

1. Purchasing Assistant screen – The Purchasing Assistant Screen recommends items that should be added to purchase receipts based on opportunity estimates. Once you have selected the desired purchases, Aspire populates these into the Purchase Receipts screen so that you can complete the creation of the purchase.
2. Purchase Receipts screen – This allows you to directly create purchase receipts without guidance from the Purchasing Assistant screen or to view and update previously created purchase receipts.

Purchase Receipts Search List Screen

You can create and manage purchase receipts from the Purchase Receipts Search List and Purchase Receipts screens. The Purchase Receipts Search List screen shows purchase receipts that users have created within Aspire and behaves like other search lists.

Purchase Receipts Screen

The Purchase Receipts screen allows you to create, review, or edit purchase receipts and purchase credits for tracking material purchases by the company. You can access the Purchase Receipts screen from the following locations:

• From the Purchasing Assistant screen.
• Selecting Add Purchase Receipt from the New drop-down of the Purchase Receipts Search List screen.
• Selecting Add Purchase Credit from the New drop-down of the Purchase Receipts Search List screen.
  • Added purchase items must include positive values. You can only add a negative value to an Extra Cost categorized under Other. 
• Click on a purchase receipt in the list on the Purchase Receipts Search List screen.
• As seen below, drilling down into an item on the Work Ticket Costs screen is allocated on a purchase receipt.

The Purchase Receipts screen provides multiple sections for entering information documented below.

Note that some columns in the table that list the items being purchased are conditionally displayed depending on the Receipt Status of the purchase receipt, as further described in the field descriptions below. Also, depending on the Receipt Status, some fields may be read-only or allow updating, as described below.

Screen Element	Description
Branch	Required. The branch for which the purchase receipt is being created.
Inventory Location	Required. Inventory location associated with the purchase. This field is required if materials are being purchased into inventory or job inventory. The reason that the inventory location is required for job inventory is that later, if the materials have not all been utilized on the job, once the work ticket is closed, the remaining materials can be placed back into inventory, and the location identified on the purchase receipt is used.
Vendor	Required. Vendor from whom the company intends to purchase the order. For orders that are out for bid, you can create a pseudo-vendor called “Out for bid” or “Seeking proposal” to temporarily assign until you are ready to place the order.
Vendor Resync	This causes Aspire to check the accounting system for new vendors that must be imported and made available within Aspire.
Attachments	Displays a hyperlink showing the number of attachments saved for the purchase receipt. If there are attachments, clicking the hyperlink will provide a list of the existing attachments allowing you to edit or remove attachments.
Upload Files	Click this icon to add an attachment to the purchase receipt. Attachments are frequently documents or photos that provide additional information about the purchase.
Submitted to LandscapeHub?	Aspire directly integrates with LandscapeHub, a web-based marketplace for plants and landscape supplies, to help streamline the material acquisition process. If this feature is enabled on the Application tab of the Application Configuration screen if you have to Submit Receipt to LandscapeHub permission enabled to have access to the Submit to LandscapeHub option on the Purchase Receipts screen in the Actions menu to send purchase receipts to LandscapeHub for fulfillment.  This field tells whether the purchase receipt has been submitted to LandscapeHub. This field is not present when creating or editing a purchase credit.
Received	Allows you to specify the date on which the order is received. While the order is in New status, this field may be blank. However, you must specify a received date before performing the Receive or the Approve from the More drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Invoice Date	Allows you to specify the date on which the order is invoiced by the vendor for payment. This field may be blank while the order is in New or Received status. You must specify an invoice date before you will be able to select Approve from the More drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Invoice #	Allows you to specify the vendor’s invoice number on the invoice you submitted for payment. You must specify an invoice number before selecting Approve from the More drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Receipt Status	Specifies the status of the invoice as it advances through the payables process. The field can have one of four values: New, Received, Approved, or Complete. New - Purchase receipt has been created. Commonly when the purchase receipt is in New status, users typically seek to finalize the purchase requirements, seek bids from vendors, or await receipt of the ordered items. Received - Items on the purchase receipt have been received as indicated when you select Receive from the More drop-down menu at the top of the page. Approved - Items on the purchase receipt are approved as indicated when you select Approve from the More drop-down menu at the top of the page. Typically, this means that you have received the invoice from the vendor, agree with the charges, and are ready to pay the vendor. Complete - This status only applies to companies that have integrated Aspire with their accounting system and indicate that the purchase receipt has been properly transmitted to the accounting system.
Sync Status	Sync Status indicates whether the purchase receipt has been submitted to the accounting system. This is only applicable if the company integrated Aspire with the accounting system during the system's setup on the Accounting Sync tab of the Application Configuration screen. Possible values are: Not Synced – Aspire has not yet attempted to send the PR to the accounting system. Synced on Date – Aspire has successfully synced the PR to the accounting system. Not Synced - Error – Aspire has tried to sync the PR and has encountered an error.
Ticket	All items listed on the purchase receipt may optionally be associated with a single work ticket. If this is the case, the work ticket is identified by this field. The field displays a hyperlinkc to the linked work ticket. A work ticket is selected by clicking the Work Ticket Searcha icon and selecting a work ticketb.  If a work ticket is selected and shown in this field, Aspire will not allow you to drill into the allocations for the individual line items unless you delete the work ticket allocation because all line items are allocated to that single work ticket.
Work Ticket Search Icon	This icon displays a work ticket search list to select a single work ticket that applies to the purchase receipt.
Job Inventory Checkbox	This checkbox lets you specify that all items on the purchase receipt will be placed into the Job Inventory when you are received until installed. This checkbox is only available if a single work ticket is selected. This field is not present when creating or editing a purchase credit.
Audit Info Icon	When you hover over this icon, Aspire will display a small window showing the date and the user's initial associated with each status change for the purchase receipt.
Sync Error Info Icon	This icon will only be visible if Aspire has been set up to integrate with the accounting system on the Accounting Sync tab of the Application Configuration screen. Hovering over this icon will provide additional information if errors occur when synchronizing the purchase receipt with the accounting system.
Purchase Item Columns
Screen Element	Description
Itema	Shows the name of the item to be purchased. For purchase receipts whose status is New, this column allows you to add new items to the purchase receipt. You can select items from the item catalog or enter one-time items to add to the purchase receipt. After typing the item's name into the field, you can add a one-time item to the purchasing receipt by selecting the + icon to the right of the purchase line item field.
Item Typeb	This field displays the item type for the line item (material, equipment, sub, or other). If the item is selected from the item catalog, Aspire automatically provides the value of this field based on the catalog item. If you added it as a one-time item, Aspire provides a drop-down allowing you to choose the item type as shown.
Categoryc	This field displays the associated item category set up in the main catalog. If this is a one-time item added to estimates, it will inherit whichever category is selected.  You can select the Category for one-time purchase items. However, purchase items that are not one-time items will reflect a read-only Category field because the category of existing items must be changed by navigating to the Item Catalog subsection of the Estimating section of the Administration menu.  Categories that can be selected and one-time purchasing items will be reflected in reporting, i.e., Purchase Pivot Report.
Quantityd	This field displays the item quantity you plan to order and is displayed in “purchase units.” The quantity field value can be filled in when a purchase receipt is created based on selected items on the Purchasing Assistant Screen. For items set up as inventory items in the item catalog or purchase receipts fully allocated to a single work ticket, the quantity can be entered directly in the Quantity column. Otherwise, you must click the Allocation Items icon to modify the quantity to display the Purchase Allocations screen.
Rec. Quantity	This column is only displayed on purchase receipts for received items. The received quantity is determined when the order is received using the Receive option or the Receive Partial option from the More drop-down at the top of the page.
Est. Unit Pricee	The estimated unit price is initially populated based on the purchase unit cost for the item in the catalog. For one-time items, the value is initially set to zero. You can change this value based on the cost expectations from the vendor up until the time that the item is marked as received.
Unit Price	A column is only displayed on purchase receipts for which items have been received. For items that have been received but not yet approved, you can update this value to reflect the unit price from the vendor. Once the purchase is approved, this field becomes read-only.
Ext. Pricef	Read-only. This value is calculated by multiplying Quantity by the Estimated Unit Price for purchase receipts in New status. This value is calculated by multiplying Quantity by the Unit Price for purchase receipts in Received or Approved status.
Sub Totalg	Read-only. Displays the total of all extended prices for items in the grid.
Extra Costsh	This section allows you to add extra cost to the purchase receipt until the status becomes Approved. You can add multiple extra cost line items. Each added line can be represented as tax, freight, or other. When the purchase receipt status changes to Approved, this area becomes read-only.
Totali	Read-only. Total displays the sum of the subtotal and all extra costs.
Save	Saves changes made to the purchase receipt.

Effect of Enable Inventory as an Expense Option

The setting of the Enable Inventory as Expense option on the Application Configuration screen has the following effects on the Purchase Receipts screen:

1. When the Enable Inventory as Expense option is checked, and the purchase receipt is not being received for a specific job, a drop-down is available for selecting the division to which inventory purchases should be applied. If any item on the purchase receipt is being received into inventory, then a division value is required in this field.

2. When the Enable Inventory as Expense option is checked in Application Configuration and the purchase receipt IS being received for a specific job, the Job Inventory checkbox is not displayed.

Ship To

This section allows youto specify the ship-to address for the order.

Notes

You can include purchase receipt notes in the layouts for the printable purchase receipts. Some companies use printable purchase receipts internally; many provide them to their vendors to seek bids or place orders. The notes field is commonly used for internal company notes related to the purchase. Alternatively, companies may use them to convey information to their vendors. A company must determine how you will use the purchase receipt note and that you use it consistently. If it is used internally and for notes to vendors, it would be easy to inadvertently send a note to a vendor not intended for them to see.

Whatever the chosen utilization of the Notes field, the note is entered on the Note tab of the Purchase Receipts screen.

More Drop-down  Menu

The options on the More  drop-down menu allow youto perform functions on the displayed purchase receipt as follows:

Receive Partial Screen

The Receive Partial screen allows youto receive a partial order from a vendor based on an existing purchase receipt and simultaneously create a related purchase receipt for the remainder of the order.

Back Orders Search List Screen

The screen is available by selecting View Backorders from the More drop-down menu on the purchase receipts for which there are back-orders.

The Back Orders Search List screen allows youto view a list of related purchases in cases where items are back-ordered.  It displays a list of associated purchase receipts. Clicking on any purchase receipt in the list displays that purchase receipt in the Purchase Receipts screen.

Email Purchase Receipts Screen

The Email Purchase Receipts screen accessed from the Send option in the Actions menu of the Purchase Receipts screen allows youto send the purchase receipt as an attachment to an email.

Purchase Allocations Screen

The Purchase Allocations screen allows youto choose work tickets to which purchases on a purchase receipt should be allocated.

Purchasing Assistant Screen

The Purchasing Assistant screen presents a list of work ticket items you can purchase from vendors to complete work for jobs that have been won. The Purchasing Assistant screen provides a search list that allows you to focus on specific items throughout the purchasing process.

The items displayed in the search list are controlled by selecting the Filtericon. Additional commonly used filters are provided directly on the Purchasing Assistant screen for purchase date, service, item category, and vendor.

On the Purchasing Assistant screen, select multiple items by clicking the check box next to each item. To select or remove all items, click the check box in the header. Access actions for the selected items from the More drop-down menu in the upper-right corner of the screen.

One of the fields in the search list is Estimating Notes. The estimator can enter these notes when adding the item to the estimate (e.g., an estimate based on pricing from the vendor, Jack’s Nursery).

Filters

The following filters are provided at the top of the Purchasing Assistant screen.

Bulk Actions Menu

Automatic Subcontractor Expense

Aspire can be set up to generate subcontractor expenses for a work ticket automatically. This feature is especially useful in snow situations where you do not know in advance which of several subcontractors will perform the service or what items will be required for a subcontractor to perform an instance of the service. The article Subcontractor Automatic Expenses explains how to use this feature.

Cost Recognition Timing

The Aspire End of Month (EOM) report recognizes some costs associated with purchase receipts in the month that a purchase is received and other costs in the month on which the associated invoice is received from the vendor as indicated by approval of the purchase receipt. The article Cost Recognition Timing in Aspire clarifies how Aspire recognizes these costs.

Back Orders

Sometimes a vendor can only initially deliver a partial order for a purchase receipt. The Receive Partial option on the Purchase Receipts screen allows for the receipt of partial orders and the automatic creation of a purchase receipt for the remaining items. The article Back Orders explains how to handle these situations in Aspire.

Job Inventory

Aspire supports job inventory, allowing vendor items to be received but not costed to the job until installed. This delay improves the accuracy of earned revenue calculations. Job inventory differs from placing items in an inventory location (see Managing Inventory).

Reviewing Purchase Receipts

It is important to review purchase receipts weekly to ensure you are properly processed through Aspire. Purchase receipt management includes such things as:

• Reviewing new purchase receipts to ensure you are updated on the received status if associated materials have been received at the job site.
• Reviewing older purchase receipts in Received status for which you would expect to have received a bill from the vendor so the purchase receipt could be approved.
• Ensure total approved receipts in Aspire matches the total value sent to the accounting system for the month.
• Validate that bills are in the accounting system.

The Purchase Receipts section of the article Ticket Management and Month-End Close explains how to make these validations.

Credit Memos

Aspire allows you to create credit memos representing credits your company wishes to provide your customers.