Purchasing in Your ERP:
From PO to Payment to GL Posting
Automate purchase orders, track supplier performance, and connect purchasing directly to your financials. Every PO updates inventory costs, landed costs flow to COGS automatically, and three-way matching ensures accurate AP. No disconnected procurement system.
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Why Purchasing in Fulfil vs. Standalone Procurement Tools
| Feature | Spreadsheets + QuickBooks | Standalone Procurement Tools | Fulfil ERP |
|---|---|---|---|
| PO management | Manual PO creation in spreadsheets | Centralized PO management and approvals | PO creation + automatic inventory and financial updates |
| Inventory integration | Manually update inventory when goods arrive | Update inventory, but disconnected from accounting | POs automatically update inventory quantities and COGS |
| Financial integration | Export to QuickBooks, manual journal entries | Limited integration—requires reconciliation | Native accounting: POs = AP, receipts = COGS, payments = GL postings |
| Landed costs | Calculate manually in spreadsheets | Track landed costs, but requires export to accounting | Landed costs automatically flow to COGS and product costs |
| Three-way matching | Manual spreadsheet reconciliation | Automated matching, but requires sync to accounting | Built-in matching with direct GL impact |
| System complexity | Multiple disconnected systems | Another layer in your Frankenstack to manage and integrate | All in your ERP—one system |
For growing brands: Spreadsheets work until you have multiple suppliers and warehouses—then you're manually tracking POs, updating inventory, and reconciling invoices. Standalone procurement tools centralize purchasing but create another expensive layer in your Frankenstack, disconnected from accounting—you're still exporting data and doing manual reconciliation at month-end. Fulfil connects purchasing to your complete ERP—every PO updates inventory costs and financials automatically.
Stop the Manual Purchasing Headaches
Fulfil eliminates the manual work that slows down your purchasing process
No more spreadsheet PO tracking
All purchase orders in one system with real-time status updates
No more manual COGS updates
Landed costs automatically flow to product costs on receipt
No more invoice reconciliation nightmares
Three-way matching catches discrepancies before you pay
No more guessing what to order
Demand forecasting and reorder points generate purchase suggestions automatically
No more disconnected systems
Purchasing, inventory, and accounting all in your ERP
Automated Purchase Orders That Update Your Books Immediately
Most procurement tools create POs. Fulfil creates POs and updates your accounting:
- PO created → Accounts Payable liability recorded
- Goods received → Inventory value increases, COGS updated with landed costs
- Invoice arrives → Three-way match against PO and receipt
- Payment made → AP reduced, cash decreases, all in your GL
Why this matters: Your inventory value and COGS are always accurate. Finance doesn't wait until month-end to reconcile purchasing—it's done in real-time as goods arrive.
Flexible PO creation
Create purchase orders manually, from CSV, or automatically from demand and forecasts
Supplier collaboration
Send POs via email, request quotes, and track confirmations all within Fulfil
Three-way match
Automatically verify PO, receipt, and invoice to prevent fraud and payment errors
Receiving & putaway
Mobile-first receiving with barcode scanning and automatic putaway to shelf locations
Demand-based planning
Generate purchase suggestions based on sales forecasts and historical trends
Lead time management
Factor in supplier lead times to ensure inventory arrives exactly when needed
Re-order points
Set minimum stock levels and automatically create purchase requests when triggered
MOQ optimization
Respect minimum order quantities and case pack sizes while optimizing order consolidation
Purchase Planning That Considers Cash Flow, Not Just Demand
Most tools tell you what to order based on sales velocity. Fulfil tells you what to order based on sales velocity + profitability + cash flow:
- Which SKUs have the highest margin after landed costs?
- Which products tie up the most cash in slow-moving inventory?
- What's the ROI of ordering more inventory now vs. waiting?
- How do supplier payment terms affect cash flow timing?
Example: You could order 1,000 units now (better per-unit cost, ties up $50K for 90 days) or order 300 units now and 700 units in 60 days (higher per-unit cost, but preserves $35K cash for other uses). Fulfil's inventory planner shows both scenarios with cash flow impact and margin implications.
Three-Way Matching Built Into Your ERP—Not a Manual Spreadsheet Process
What is three-way matching?
Before paying a supplier invoice, verify that three things align:
- Purchase Order: What you agreed to buy (quantity, price, terms)
- Goods Receipt: What you actually received (quantity, condition, date)
- Supplier Invoice: What the supplier is billing you for
Why it matters: Catches billing errors, prevents fraud, ensures you only pay for what you received.
How most companies do it:
Export PO data to spreadsheets, compare to receiving records, manually check against invoices. Time-consuming and error-prone.
How Fulfil does it:
When goods arrive, Fulfil automatically creates a draft invoice based on what was received. When the supplier's invoice arrives, compare instantly. Discrepancies flagged immediately—pay only for what you actually received.
Financial impact:
Automatic three-way matching prevents overpayments, catches supplier billing errors, and ensures your AP and inventory values stay accurate.
Dropshipping With Proper Financial Tracking—Not Just Order Routing
Most dropship apps route orders to suppliers. Fulfil routes orders and handles the accounting correctly:
- Customer orders → Revenue recognized as deferred until shipment
- Dropship PO created → AP liability recorded
- Supplier ships → Revenue recognized, COGS recorded (supplier cost), customer charged
- Supplier invoice arrives → Three-way match against PO and shipment notice
- Payment made → AP reduced, cash decreases
Why this matters for dropship: Your COGS is accurate per dropship order (not averaged across all orders). You know true margin by dropship SKU vs. warehouse SKU. Finance sees exactly which orders are dropship vs. warehouse and the profitability difference.
Hybrid fulfillment example: Product A normally ships from your warehouse (COGS $20, margin 60%). You run out of stock, automatically dropship from supplier (COGS $28, margin 44%). Fulfil tracks both scenarios—finance sees that 20% of Product A orders last month were dropship with lower margins, informing inventory planning decisions.
Automated workflow
Sales orders automatically create confirmed dropship POs sent to suppliers
Hybrid fulfillment
Automatically ship from warehouse when available, dropship when out of stock
EDI integration
Receive 856 advance ship notices and automatically update order status
Bulk operations
Mark multiple dropship orders as complete in bulk, merge or split as needed
On-time delivery tracking
Monitor which suppliers consistently meet promised delivery dates
Cost analysis
Track landed costs including freight, duties, and fees for accurate profitability
Quality metrics
Document return rates and defects to identify quality issues early
Comprehensive reports
Open PO reports, shipment value analysis, and three-way match tracking
Supplier Management With Complete Financial History
Track more than just delivery times—see the complete financial relationship:
- Total spend by supplier over time
- Payment terms and actual payment performance (do you pay on time? do they offer early pay discounts?)
- True landed costs by supplier (who consistently underestimates freight charges?)
- AP aging by supplier (who you owe money to, for how long)
- Quality issues tracked with financial impact (cost of returns, replacements, credits)
Why this matters: When negotiating with suppliers, you have complete data—not just "we order a lot from you" but "we've spent $850K with you over 18 months, we pay 5 days early on average, and your on-time delivery rate is 94%." Negotiate better terms with real data.
Supplier Returns With Complete Financial Reconciliation
When you return goods to suppliers, the financial workflow matters:
- Return PO created → Track outbound shipment to supplier
- Supplier receives return → Credit note issued
- Credit applied → Reduces AP balance or creates supplier credit for future orders
- Inventory value adjusted → Returned goods reduce inventory value and reverse COGS impact
Why this matters: Your inventory value and AP balance stay accurate. If you return $5K of goods, your inventory value decreases by $5K automatically, and your AP balance to that supplier is reduced by $5K. No manual journal entries, no month-end reconciliation surprises.
Return PO workflow
Create return purchase orders that generate supplier return shipments
Shipping integration
Generate return labels and track shipments back to suppliers
Credit note automation
Automatically create credit notes when return shipments are completed
Financial reconciliation
Apply credits to invoices or track on supplier account for future purchases
Multi-currency support
Purchase in any currency with automatic exchange rate handling and updates
Landed cost calculation
Accurately track freight, duties, and fees to understand true product costs
Multi-warehouse receiving
Receive inventory at different warehouses and automatically update COGS
Units of measure
Purchase in cases, sell in units with automatic UOM conversion
Landed Costs Automatically Flow to COGS—No Manual Allocation
The landed cost problem: You order 1,000 units from China ($10/unit = $10K product cost). Freight is $2K, duties are $1K, customs broker fee is $200. Your true cost is $13.20/unit, not $10/unit. Most systems require manual journal entries to allocate freight/duties to product costs.
How Fulfil handles it:
- Create PO for $10K (product cost) + $2K freight + $1K duties + $200 fees
- Goods arrive → Fulfil automatically distributes $3.2K in landed costs across 1,000 units
- Product cost updates to $13.20/unit automatically
- When you sell units, COGS reflects true $13.20 cost (not just $10)
Why this matters: Your margin calculations are accurate from day one. Finance doesn't discover later that "we forgot to include freight in COGS, so our margins are actually 5% lower than we thought."
Multi-warehouse twist: Receive 600 units at Warehouse A (West Coast) and 400 units at Warehouse B (East Coast). Landed costs split proportionally: $7.92K to Warehouse A, $5.28K to Warehouse B. Each warehouse's inventory value is accurate automatically.
How Growing Brands Use Purchasing in Fulfil
DTC Brand Importing from Asia
Orders products from China ($50K POs every month). Uses demand forecasting to generate purchase suggestions based on 6-month sales trends. Tracks landed costs (product + freight + duties + customs fees) automatically—true product cost is $18.50/unit, not $12/unit.
When goods arrive, landed costs flow to COGS automatically. Finance sees accurate margin by SKU without manual allocation. Discovers that air freight ($3K extra) is worth it for best-sellers to prevent stockouts, but sea freight makes sense for slower-moving SKUs.
Multi-Warehouse Brand with Domestic Suppliers
Works with 15 domestic suppliers across two warehouses (East and West Coast). Uses reorder points to automatically generate purchase requests when inventory hits minimum levels.
Tracks supplier performance: Supplier A has 97% on-time delivery but costs 5% more than Supplier B (89% on-time). Calculates that Supplier B's delays cost $8K/year in stockouts—decides to consolidate more volume with Supplier A and negotiate better pricing based on increased commitment.
Hybrid Dropship + Warehouse Brand
Sells 200 SKUs—100 stocked in warehouse, 100 dropship from suppliers. When customers order warehouse SKUs, inventory ships from warehouse (COGS $15/unit, margin 60%). When customers order dropship SKUs, Fulfil auto-creates dropship PO to supplier (COGS $22/unit, margin 45%).
Finance sees profitability by fulfillment method—discovers that dropship SKUs have lower margins but higher velocity, while warehouse SKUs have higher margins but tie up more cash. Adjusts product mix accordingly.
Brand with Complex Landed Costs
Imports from multiple countries (China, Vietnam, India). Each country has different freight rates, duty rates, and customs processes. PO from China: $20K product + $3K freight + $2K duties. PO from Vietnam: $15K product + $2K freight + $1K duties.
Fulfil tracks landed costs by country and distributes to product costs automatically. Compares true all-in costs by supplier—discovers that Vietnam supplier is actually cheaper than China supplier after all landed costs, despite higher per-unit prices.
Everything you need for purchasing & procurement
Complete purchasing operations, from PO creation to payment, with real-time financial tracking integrated into your ERP.
Purchase order management
- Create POs manually or auto-generate from demand
- Email purchase orders directly to suppliers
- Track shipment status and expected delivery dates
- Receive inventory with mobile barcode scanning
- Three-way match invoices to prevent fraud
- Manage partial deliveries and backorders
Purchase planning & forecasting
- 6-month demand forecasting based on historical data
- Purchase request generation from re-order points
- Inventory Planner app for strategic buying decisions
- Automatic consideration of inbound stock
- Multi-warehouse planning and allocation
- Days of cover calculation for optimal stock levels
Dropship management
- Auto-generate dropship POs from sales orders
- Track shipments directly from suppliers to customers
- Support EDI 856 advance ship notices from suppliers
- Automatically update customers with tracking information
- Manage split shipments across dropship and warehouse
- Handle dropship returns and supplier credits
Supplier performance tracking
- Track on-time delivery performance by supplier
- Monitor lead time accuracy and trends
- Analyze total landed costs including freight and duties
- Document quality issues and return rates
- Compare supplier pricing and negotiate better terms
- Manage multiple contacts per supplier organization
Returns & credits
- Create return purchase orders from original POs
- Generate return shipment labels and documentation
- Track return shipment status
- Automatically create supplier credit notes
- Apply credits to open invoices or account balance
- Full audit trail for compliance and reconciliation
Global operations & landed costs
- Support for multiple currencies with automatic conversion
- Track landed costs including freight, duties, and handling
- Manage different units of measure per supplier
- Multi-warehouse receiving and inventory allocation
- Automated COGS calculation with landed cost distribution
- Currency gain/loss tracking for accurate financials
Frequently asked questions
How does Fulfil help prevent stockouts and overstock situations?
Fulfil's intelligent planning tools analyze sales trends, seasonality, and supplier lead times to generate optimized purchase recommendations. The Inventory Planner app provides 6-month forecasts, while re-order points trigger automatic purchase requests when stock reaches minimum levels. This data-driven approach helps you maintain optimal inventory levels.
Can Fulfil handle both regular purchasing and dropshipping?
Yes, Fulfil seamlessly manages both workflows in one system. You can set products to always dropship, or configure them to ship from your warehouse when in stock and automatically dropship when out of stock. Dropship purchase orders are automatically created from sales orders and track shipments from supplier to customer.
What is three-way matching and why is it important?
Three-way matching verifies that the purchase order, goods receipt, and supplier invoice all align before payment is made. This prevents fraud, billing errors, and incorrect payments. Fulfil automatically creates draft invoices based on what was actually received, making it easy to spot discrepancies when the supplier's invoice arrives.
How does Fulfil track supplier performance?
Fulfil tracks key supplier metrics including on-time delivery rates, lead time accuracy, quality issues, and costs. The supplier performance reports help you identify your most reliable partners, negotiate better terms with data, and address issues before they impact your business. You can compare suppliers side-by-side to make informed sourcing decisions.
Can I import my existing supplier data and open purchase orders?
Yes. During onboarding, we import your supplier contact information, pricing, lead times, and open purchase orders. Historical POs stay in your old system, but going forward, all purchasing happens in Fulfil. Most brands complete supplier data migration in 1-2 weeks.
How does Fulfil handle purchase order approvals?
You can set approval workflows based on dollar thresholds—for example, POs under $5K auto-approve, POs $5K-$20K require manager approval, POs over $20K require executive approval. Approvers receive email notifications and can approve directly from email or mobile app.
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