Procurement + Accounts · one seat

Source to sale,
on one ledger.

Most businesses run this across a purchase register, an accounting package and a spreadsheet, then spend the month-end deciding which of the three was telling the truth. Here the whole chain — the quote, the award, the receipt, the cost, the build, the count and the invoice — is one set of records that were never apart.

Not a separate product. Procurement and Accounts are two modules on the same seat. This page is about what happens between them.

One order

Follow it from the request to the invoice.

Twenty-two days of a sub-assembly, start to finish. Every line is a real record in the system rather than a stage in a diagram — the movement types named underneath are the ones the inventory ledger actually writes.

Day 1

A requirement is raised — 400 units of a sub-assemblyProcurement · an inquiry record, not an email thread

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Day 1

One RFQ goes to the five vendors who actually supply itProcurement · item synonyms match their part names to yours

5 vendors

Day 3

Quotes come back through a portal none of them signed up forProcurement · each vendor sees only their own line

4 of 5

Day 4

Compared three ways — lowest per item, weighted, then explainedProcurement · price, quality and delivery weights that sum to 100

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Day 4

Split award — two vendors, previewed before it is committedProcurement · the reason and any override are stored with it

₹3,84,000

Day 4

Purchase orders raised against the allocation that was approvedProcurement → Accounts · not re-keyed

2 POs

Day 11

Goods received against the PO, with batch and expiry capturedAccounts · movement type purchase_in

400 units

Day 11

Costed on arrival into a FIFO layer, not an average anyone can argue withAccounts · stock_cost_layers

₹960/unit

Day 12

Moved to the plant from the receiving locationAccounts · movement type transfer_in

—

Day 14

The BOM is exploded — every level of it, not just the topAccounts · a recursive bill of materials

9 components

Day 14

Work order issues material out of stock and into productionAccounts · movement type build_out

₹3,84,000

Day 18

Completed — the finished item comes back in carrying its costAccounts · movement type build_in

380 units

Day 19

Counted — a stock count reconciles what is on the floorAccounts · variance posts to the ledger, not to a note

−2 units

Day 22

Sales order and delivery challan against a customerAccounts · serials recorded on the way out

300 units

Day 22

GST invoice — and the cost of sale leaves the same FIFO layerAccounts · movement type sale_out

₹5,40,000

Ongoing

The vendors are scored on what actually happened, not on memoryProcurement · delay days and rejection rate computed from these POs

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Nothing in that sequence was re-keyed, exported or reconciled. The vendor bill traces to the quote that won it, the cost of the sale traces to the layer the units arrived in, and the finished unit traces to the batch it was made from.

What holds it together

The parts most systems keep in separate buildings.

Buying that ends in a documentAn inquiry goes to many vendors at once, quotes come back through a portal, the comparison is arithmetic before it is an opinion, and the award — including a split across two vendors — becomes purchase orders without being re-keyed.

Stock that knows what it costReceipts land in FIFO cost layers, so the cost of a sale is the cost of the units that actually left — not a rolling average that quietly smooths over a price rise.

Batches, expiry and serialsTraceability down to the batch that came in and the serial that went out — which is the difference between a recall you can scope and a recall you cannot.

More than one place to keep itStock sits per location with transfers between them, so the plant, the godown and the counter are not three spreadsheets pretending to agree.

A bill of materials that goes all the way downThe explosion is recursive, so a sub-assembly made of sub-assemblies resolves properly rather than stopping one level in and leaving you to do the rest by hand.

Work orders that move real stockIssuing material takes it out of inventory and completing the order brings the finished item back in carrying its cost. Production is a set of stock movements, not a status field.

Counted, and the variance goes to the booksA stock count posts its difference to the ledger. Nobody adjusts a quantity in one system and a value in another, which is where most inventory arguments start.

Vendors judged on the recordPromised delivery against actual, delay days and rejection rate, computed from the purchase orders themselves. The next RFQ is weighted by what really happened.

Where the term stops

What this is not.

This is a supply chain in the sense that goods and money move through it end to end. It is not a supply chain management suite, and there are four specific reasons why — better read here than found out in month three.

Demand planning

There is a reorder level, which is a threshold, not a forecast. Nothing here predicts what you will need next quarter from seasonality or a sales plan — and the "Forecast" in CRM is a sales pipeline number, which is a different thing wearing the same word.

Warehouse management

Stock sits per location and moves between locations. It does not sit in a bin on a rack, and there is no pick list, packing station or putaway routine. For a plant or a godown that is usually fine; for a fulfilment centre it is not.

Transport management

No carrier rates, no freight costing, no supplier lead times and no route planning. Outbound parcels can go through a courier integration; the inbound leg is a date on a purchase order.

Production scheduling

Work orders issue material and complete, which is execution. There are no work centres, no routings and no capacity plan, so nothing here tells you the line is overbooked on Thursday.

If those four are what you came for, an enterprise SCM product is the honest answer and we would rather say so. If what you actually need is for buying, stock, making and the books to stop disagreeing, that is this page.

Straight answers

The things an operations head asks.

Is this a supply chain management system?

Not in the enterprise sense, and we would rather be precise than borrow the term. What runs end to end here is the physical and financial chain: source, buy, receive, cost, make, store, move, sell, and score the vendor on the result. What a full SCM suite adds on top is demand planning, warehouse management and transport management, and those are named as gaps further up this page rather than left for you to discover.

Do I have to buy two things?

No. Procurement and Accounts are both modules of the same business OS, on the same seat and the same licence. This page exists because the interesting part is what happens between them, not because it is a separate purchase.

What actually passes between them?

The award. When a comparison is decided, the allocation becomes purchase orders in the books rather than a note somebody re-types — so the receipt, the cost layer and the vendor bill all trace back to the quote that won.

How is the cost of a sale worked out?

FIFO. Receipts create cost layers and a sale consumes the oldest first, so the cost that leaves is the cost of the units that actually left. An average would smooth a price rise into invisibility, which is exactly when you most want to see it.

Does manufacturing really move stock?

Yes, and that is the point. Issuing material to a work order is a stock movement out; completing it is a movement back in carrying the accumulated cost. Nothing is a status flag with the arithmetic done elsewhere.

Can we trace a batch after it has shipped?

Batches and expiry are captured on the way in and serial numbers on the way out, so a specific unit can be walked back to the receipt it arrived on and forward to the invoice it left on.

What about a shortfall between what was made and what was issued?

A stock count posts the variance to the ledger. The quantity and the value move together because they are the same record, which is what stops the annual argument between the storekeeper and the accountant.

Stop reconciling the chain to itself.

The purchase order, the stock and the books were never three systems here.

Both halves of this are modules of the business OS, on one login and one bill — Procurement for the buying and Accounts for the stock and the ledger. The same seat also opens Meetings, Mail, Chat, Drive, CRM, HR, Projects, Learning and Research.

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