Different Ways to Create a Purchase Receipt

Purchase receipts track materials you order from vendors and the material costs tied to your work tickets or inventory, and they can act as order forms. You can create a purchase receipt in several ways depending on what you're purchasing for: a single opportunity, multiple opportunities, or inventory.

This article walks you through starting a purchase receipt, filling in the fields on the New Purchase Receipt screen, and receiving the receipt when materials arrive.

Videos

These videos walk you through creating a purchase receipt in different scenarios. Please note that these videos may not reflect all of Aspire’s current features.

• Creating a Purchase Receipt for Inventory

• Creating a Purchase Receipt Tied to a Single Opportunity

• Creating a Purchase Receipt Tied to Multiple Opportunities

Things to know

• A purchase receipt in Aspire can only be tied to a single vendor. It's common for an opportunity to have multiple purchase receipts, each for a different vendor.

• A receipt in New status means you've ordered the materials but haven't received them yet. The quantity on the receipt is tracked as a Committed Quantity on the work ticket.

• Actual material costs are reflected on the work ticket only after the purchase receipt is marked as received.

• For inventory purchases, always start the purchase receipt from the Quick Menu so items aren’t costed to a specific opportunity. The quantity on hand updates in the Inventory module after the receipt is received.

• Always double-check quantities and prices before receiving to ensure accuracy.

Requirements

• To create a purchase receipt, you need the Add Receipt permission added to your user role.

• To access the Purchasing module, you need the View Purchasing permission added to your user role.

• To mark a purchase receipt as Received, you need the Receive Receipt permission added to your user role.

Start a purchase receipt

How you start a purchase receipt depends on what you're purchasing for. Choose the method below that matches your situation.

From a work ticket (single opportunity)

Use this method when you're purchasing materials for one opportunity and want the receipt pre-filled with that ticket's estimated materials.

1. Select the Scheduling icon on the left side panel.

2. Use search or filters to find the scheduled work ticket you want to make a receipt for.

3. Right-click the work ticket and select Create Receipt.

4. In the Work Ticket Receipt window that appears, select the checkbox next to each material you're purchasing for the work ticket.

5. Select Create Purchase Receipt.

6. In the Create Purchase Receipt window that appears, verify the Branch and select the Vendor you're purchasing from.

7. If you have Vendor Invoice OCR enabled for your system, you can turn off the Enable OCR field if you don’t want the PR to be findable in OCR scans.

8. Select Purchase.
   
   

A new purchase receipt opens with all the selected items filled in. Skip to the Fill in the purchase receipt fields section.

From Purchasing Assistant (single or multiple opportunities)

Use this method when you're purchasing materials for one or more opportunities from the same vendor. Purchasing Assistant is like a grocery list of all estimated items across all opportunities that haven’t been lost.

1. Select the Purchasing icon on the left side panel. The Purchasing Assistant tab opens by default.

2. Use search or filters to find the items you want to purchase. For example, to find plant material, set the category quick filter to show only your plant categories.

3. Select the checkbox next to each item you want to purchase.

4. Select Bulk Actions in the upper right, then select Create Purchase.

5. In the Create Purchase Receipt window, verify the Branch and select the Vendor you're purchasing from.

6. If you have Vendor Invoice OCR enabled for your system, you can turn off the Enable OCR field if you don’t want the PR to be findable in OCR scans.

7. Select Purchase.

A new purchase receipt opens with all the selected items filled in. Skip to the Fill in the purchase receipt fields section.

From the Quick Menu (inventory)

Use this method when you're purchasing materials into inventory to allocate later instead of costing them to a specific opportunity.

1. Select the Quick Menu near the top of the left blue navigation bar.

2. Select New Purchase.

A blank purchase receipt opens with no items pre-filled.

Tip

You can use Purchasing Assistant to figure out how much inventory material you need before creating a receipt for inventory. Filter Purchasing Assistant by category and item, then set a Status filter set to Open and Scheduled to see the estimated order quantity in the upper right.

Fill in the purchase receipt fields

The New Purchase Receipt screen has the same layout regardless of how the receipt was started. Some fields are pre-filled or behave differently depending on the method you used.

Basic information fields

Add notes

Use the Notes section for internal notes or notes you want printed on the purchase receipt layout sent to the vendor.

The notes section only appears when starting a purchase receipt from a work ticket or the Purchasing Assistant, or when editing an existing purchase receipt.

Upload attachments

If needed, upload attachments such as a pick ticket, a copy of the vendor's invoice, or a receipt from the vendor.

Note

If you use Vendor Invoice OCR to match purchase receipts to invoices, you don’t need to upload the vendor invoice here.

Add and manage Purchase Items

If you started the purchase receipt from a work ticket or the Purchasing Assistant, this table shows all the materials for the selected tickets. Each row shows the Item, Item Type, Category, Quantity, Est. Unit Price, and Ext. Price.

As you enter items, the Sub Total and Total fields below the table update automatically. If you need to remove an item, select the trash can icon on the right side of the item row.

Add catalog items to a purchase receipt

1. Select the Select a Catalog Item OR Enter a One-Time Item field to find and select catalog items.

2. Enter the total Quantity to be purchased.

   1. If the receipt isn’t connected to any opportunity or covers multiple opportunities, a clipboard icon appears to the right of the Quantity field for each item. Select the clipboard icon to open the Purchase Allocations window where you can view and modify the quantities allocated to each work ticket.

   2. If you need to add one or more work tickets to the purchase allocations list, select the plus + icon at the top of the list to search for and select them.

      Caution

      To avoid errors, we don’t recommend manually adding multiple work ticket allocation items to a blank purchase receipt. Always allocate items through the Purchasing Assistant when possible.

   3. Select Save after making any changes to purchase allocations.
      

3. Enter the Est. Unit Price, which is the price you expect to pay per item. The Ext. Price field updates automatically based on the Quantity and Est. Unit Price values.

Add a one time item to the purchase receipt

1. Add a one time item by typing the item’s full name and selecting the plus + icon.

2. Select the correct Item Type and Category for each.

3. If adding a one time item to a multi-opportunity purchase receipt, you must select the clipboard icon next to the Quantity field to open the Purchase Allocations window.

   1. Select the plus + icon at the top of the window. This open the Work Tickets window.
      

   2. Search for and select the work ticket the item should be allocated to. Repeat for each work ticket the item should be allocated to.

   3. Enter the Quantity to be allocated to each work ticket.

   4. Select Save in the Work Tickets window then again in the Purchase Allocations window to return to the purchase receipt.
      

4. Enter the Est. Unit Price, which is the price you expect to pay per item. The Ext. Price field updates automatically based on the Quantity and Est. Unit Price values.

Extra Costs

Below the the Sub Total is the Extra Costs dropdown which lets you add non-material costs from invoices including Discount, Tax, Freight, and Other.

Note

This field also includes the Use Tax option if the Avalara integration is active for your system.

To add extra cost, select a type from the dropdown, then enter the correct amount.

Add Ship To information

The Ship To section tells the vendor where to deliver the materials. It includes Ship To Address, Location Name, Address Line 1, Address Line 2, City, State, and ZIP fields.

Select the Ship To Address field and choose a branch or inventory location. Your selection auto-fills the remaining fields in the Ship To section.

Tip

After selecting a branch or inventory location, you can manually update the address information if you want the shipment to go directly to a worksite or another location.

Save the receipt

Select Save in the upper right to save the receipt and return to the previous screen. Until you mark the receipt as received, its status will remain New.

Print or email the receipt

Once you've verified all information is correct, you can print or email the purchase receipt to send it to the vendor.

1. Go to Purchasing > Purchase Receipts.

2. Find and open the purchase receipt.

3. Select the three-dot icon and select either Print Receipt or Email Receipt.
   

   1. Print Receipt opens the Report Settings window where you select a Report Layout and an Export Type. Select Print when you’re done, and the report will download to your device.

   2. Email Receipt opens the Email Purchase Receipt window where you specify recipients, add attachments, and customize the email body. For details on all the fields in this window, read our Email Purchase Receipts screen reference.

When the vendor receives the receipt, they can process the order and deliver the items.

A few days later…

Receive the purchase receipt

When your materials arrive from the vendor, receive the purchase receipt in Aspire to record actual costs and quantities.

1. Go to Purchasing > Purchase Receipts.

2. Find and open the purchase receipt.

3. In the Received field, enter the date you received the materials.

4. Refer to the vendor invoice and carefully compare it to the purchase receipt to confirm you received the right materials and quantities and that the prices match.

   Note

   If you have Vendor Invoice OCR enabled for your system, you can upload the vendor’s invoice to greatly simplify and review process.

5. Make adjustments as necessary.

   1. To make adjustments to quantities for inventory receipts or receipts tied to a single opportunity, make updates directly in the Purchase Items table.

   2. To make adjustments to the quantities for receipts tied to multiple opportunities, select the clipboard icon next to the Quantity field in the Purchase Items table, and update the quantities for each ticket as needed. The overall quantity on the receipt updates to reflect the change.

6. Select the three-dot icon in the upper right corner, select Receive, and confirm. If necessary, select the Receive Partial option. Learn more in our article about receiving partial quantities and creating back orders.
   

The receipt status updates to Received.

What happens after the receipt is received

• Receipts can now be approved so vendor invoices can be paid.

• Opportunity receipts (single or multi): Actual material costs appear on the related work tickets. To see this on a single-opportunity receipt, open the work ticket and select the estimated materials dollar value to view actual costs and the linked receipt.

• Inventory receipts: Quantity on hand updates in the Inventory module, making the materials available for crews to use on upcoming jobs.