Instant purchases

Where

Purchase Transactions → Instant Purchases

Plan

All plans

Permission

Purchasing → Good Receipt

An instant purchase is the order, the delivery note and the payment in a single document. Use it when you have bought something and walked out with it: a crate of drinks from the market, a box of stock from a wholesaler, a cash top-up from a supplier’s van.

This is the quickest way to get stock into a new shop, and it works on every plan.

How to record an instant purchase

1. Go to Purchase Transactions → Instant Purchases.
2. Click New instant purchase.
3. Choose the Location the goods are going to.
4. Choose the Supplier, or type a name for a new one (see below).
5. Set the Purchase date.
6. Under Products, click Add product for each item. Enter the Received quantity and the Unit cost you paid. Add Discount or Tax if they apply.
7. Under Payments, click Add payment. Choose the Method — cash, bank and so on — and the Amount. Add a Reference for a cheque or transfer.
8. Add more payments if you split the payment across methods.
9. Click Save & post.

You will see Purchase posted. The stock is on your shelf and the money is recorded as having left.

How to buy from a supplier who is not on your list

Type their name into the Supplier box instead of picking one. If your business allows it, a supplier record is created automatically — or reused if one of that name already exists.

If it is not allowed, you will be told to pick an existing supplier instead. You can also leave the supplier blank entirely, though then you have no record of who you bought from.

How to cancel an instant purchase

1. Find it in the list and click Cancel in the row menu.
2. Give a Reason if you want, and confirm.

This properly unwinds everything: the stock goes back out, the accounting entry is reversed, and a matching refund line is recorded against every payment you took, so the cash movement is visibly undone.

The same two blocks apply as for a receipt — if the goods have already been sold, or are reserved for somebody, you must deal with that first.

What posting does

Stock	Goes up, with a cost layer at the unit cost you entered.
Accounts	Stock value and input tax are debited; each payment method is credited for what it paid.
Cheques	A cheque payment is registered in the cheque book as issued.
Backorders	Arriving goods are claimed against any customer waiting.

What to watch out for

Pay an instant purchase in full

If you record less payment than the total, the shortfall is booked as money you owe the supplier — but no bill is created under Payables to pay it against.

The debt exists in your accounts with nothing on the supplier’s account to settle, so it will not appear in what you owe, will not age, and will be easy to miss. Unlike a good receipt, an instant purchase raises no supplier invoice.

If you cannot pay in full, use a purchase order and good receipt instead.

• There is no purchase order on an instant purchase, so it never goes through three-way matching. Nothing cross-checks what you were charged.
• No batch, serial or expiry boxes. Unlike a good receipt, the form does not even ask.
• No barcode scanning. You add products through the picker.
• Edit while it is a draft only. After posting, cancel is the only way back.
• The permission is shared with Good Receipts. You cannot let somebody record instant purchases without also letting them receive goods.
• Approvals still apply. If a rule matches, Save & post parks it for approval and nothing moves until someone approves.
• Needs a connection.

Related

• Receiving goods — the fuller path, with a purchase order
• Your first day — using this to load opening stock