Purchase order software that pays only for what was ordered and received
Cash Flow Inventory runs buying as one chain — requisition, request for quotation, purchase order, goods received, bill and payment — with approvals at each step. The bill is made from the goods receipt, and the receipt from the order, so nothing is paid that was not ordered and received.
The problems it solves
Supplier invoices that cost too much to handle
Processing one supplier invoice costs best-in-class teams $2.78 against $12.88 for the rest, and takes 3.1 days against 17.4 (Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2024).
Paying for goods that never arrived
When the order, the delivery and the supplier’s invoice live in different places, a bill can be paid for the wrong quantity or the wrong price, and nobody notices until stock is counted.
Buying without a limit
Orders placed by anyone, for any amount, without a second pair of eyes tie up cash in stock the business did not plan to buy.
How buying works in Cash Flow Inventory
Ask for what is needed
A requisition records what a department wants to buy. It is submitted and approved — or approved automatically if the business chooses — and then becomes a request for quotation or a purchase order.
Compare supplier quotes
A request for quotation is sent to suppliers by e-mail, SMS or both, with a quote link that lasts from 24 hours to 14 days. Each supplier’s quote is recorded, the winner is awarded as a purchase order and the others are rejected.
Approve the purchase order
Orders are approved by hand, automatically, or automatically up to an amount. A workflow can route an order to an approver, and each approver’s right has its own amount limit.
Receive the goods
Goods received are recorded against the order — partial receipts allowed, with lots and serial numbers — and the stock arrives at the location. Landed costs such as freight and duty can be spread over the receipts.
Bill and pay
The receipt makes the bill. An approved bill is owed; a disputed one can be held out of payment runs; payments are made against bills, with withholding tax where it applies.
What you can do
Requisitions and approvals
Requisitions move from draft to submitted, approved and converted, or are rejected or cancelled. Purchase orders, budgets and other document types can follow an approval workflow by amount or type.
Requests for quotation
Send one request to several suppliers, record each quote, award the best one as a purchase order and reject the rest, all on one record.
Agreements and price lists
Purchase agreements work as blanket orders that later purchase orders call off, alongside each supplier’s price list.
Goods received
Receive against the order in part or in full, with lots and serials. Stock and its value change on receipt, costed by FIFO or weighted average as the business has chosen.
Landed costs and price corrections
Freight and duty can be spread over the receipts they belong to. When a bill made from a receipt had the wrong prices, Correct prices sends the difference to stock on hand or cost of goods sold.
Held bills and write-offs
Hold a disputed bill so it stays out of payment runs, and choose whether a held bill can still be paid after a warning or not at all until it is released. Small balances can be written off.
Returns and supplier credits
Return goods to the supplier: the stock and its value are reversed, and the return is credited or refunded. Views show what is waiting for a credit and what has been credited.
Order from the plan
Replenishment lists the items below their minimum and orders up to the maximum in one click, as purchase orders per supplier. Suppliers also show what to order and what is still on its way.
Bills and receipts in the assistant
Ask for the waiting purchase orders or bills and act on them together in a work queue: approve, then receive or pay. Any change the assistant proposes is yours to approve.
Where it is not the right fit
- Restaurants and cafés: table service, kitchen display and recipe costing are not its focus.
- A business that depends on one specific connector that is only built and not yet proven — it should be proven with that business’s live account first.
- Very large enterprises that need a global multi-company ERP rollout with on-premise hosting — this is a cloud product per business.
- A business with no stock and no invoicing may not need most of it.
Questions and answers
Software that records what a business orders from its suppliers, who approved it, what arrived and what is owed. In Cash Flow Inventory the purchase order sits in one chain with the requisition, the supplier quotes, the goods received, the bill and the payment, all on the same ledger.
Yes. In Settings › Purchase each order can be approved by hand, approved automatically, or approved automatically up to an amount. Approval workflows can route orders by amount or type, and each approver’s right has an amount limit.
Receive the goods against the purchase order, then make the bill from the goods receipt. The bill carries what was ordered and received, and bills that are disputed can be held out of payment runs until they are released.
Yes. Landed costs can be spread over the goods receipts they belong to, so the cost of each item includes them. The landed-cost field can be shown or hidden on the purchase screens in Settings › Purchase.
Yes. A request for quotation goes to several suppliers by e-mail, SMS or both, with a quote link that lasts between 24 hours and 14 days. Record each quote, award the winner as a purchase order and reject the others.
A purchase return takes the goods back out of stock and reverses their value. It is then credited — or refunded — by the supplier, and the returns list shows which are still waiting for a credit.
Yes. Rights go down to fields, so cost, margin and supplier prices can be hidden from someone who does not need them, and every save, approval and cancellation is in the audit trail.
Learn more
Step-by-step guides
Articles
Related
Start with the free plan
Create a business in a few minutes. The free plan has no time limit and needs no card; move to a paid plan when you need more users, locations or orders.