In order to ensure clear communication and accountability, a purchase order is essential since it formalizes the agreement between the customer and supplier and specifies the items, quantities, and agreed prices. As legal documentation of the transaction, bills are equally significant because they contain information for financial reporting and payment processing. When combined, they assist a business in maintaining accurate financial records, avoiding conflicts, and streamlining procurement procedures.
In certain businesses, the accounting department handles billing while the procurement department handles the purchasing process. To manage purchase orders and billing in Odoo 18, users can utilize two distinct modules. The two modules are Odoo 18 Accounting and Odoo 18 Purchase. The two components are connected together, which is an intriguing feature. Therefore, it is necessary to match the vendor bills and the purchase order in these situations. Ensuring that the items or services supplied match what was ordered and that the purchase order and bill match helps to avoid mistakes or overpayment. This procedure promotes accurate record-keeping, audit readiness, accountability, and a reduction in financial disparities.
So let's check how the Bill/Purchase order matching happens in Odoo 18. For that, let's open the purchase module. Here, the purchasing department decided to purchase some new items to stock in the company. So, create a new RFQ for the vendor. Click on the new button to add a new RFQ.
Here, the vendor is Anita Foster. Set the other details like currency, Order Deadline, Expected Arrival date, etc. Then, the products tab allows you to add the products to purchase.
The order line contains product names, quantities, and unit prices. Here, the purchase team ordered two products. One is a Storage Box with a unit price of $140, and a Large Cabinet costs $800. The top of the screen contains a confirmation button. So click on the Confirm button.
So the purchase order is confirmed. As said before, the billing staff is responsible for creating the bill. Moving to the accounting module, click on the Vendor menu and choose the Bills.
A list view of the created bills is shown there. Bill sequence, vendor, bill date, due date, reference, and other details are shown there. Click on the New button to add a new bill.
Here is a draft vendor bill, so add the same vendor, Anita Foster. In the Invoice Lines, add the details like product and reference. So, to add a new reference, click on the icon marked in the screenshot below.
Then, instead of the product, a description is added as "Payment."Add the price there. The amount added here is $940. Add the bill date, then confirm the bill.
Here, a new smart tab appeared with the name Purchase Matching, which is newly added in Odoo 18. The ‘Purchase Matching’ smart tab allows you to match the bill payment with the purchase order. Click on it to open it.
The smart tab contains all the created purchase orders for the vendor Anita Foster. To add the created payment to the purchase order, select the Bill and purchase order.
To add the payment to the purchase order, click on the button ‘Add to PO.’ Then, a new popup will appear that shows a field to choose the purchase order. Here, add a purchase order, then click on the Add Down Payment button.
Then, the chosen purchase order will open there. To check the purchase order, return to the purchase. Open the previously created purchase order.
Here, a new description was added inside the order line, which is the same as the one added inside the Vendor bill.
Two new smart tabs were added, named Vendor Bills and Bill Matching. Open the first smart tab, Bill Matching.
Which is the same as the Purchase Matching shown inside the vendor bill. This means it's also possible to match vendor bills and purchase orders from here.
From the purchase order, click on the Receive button to receive the products. Then, the next step is to create the bill. To do so, click on the Create Bill button.
But here, the accounting department already created and confirmed the bill. So the vendor bill shows the down payment, which arrived from the vendor bill created by the accounts department.
Confirm the vendor bill. Then, the bill was paid. Let's check the Invoice Lines. Here, the products added in the purchase order are shown with the cost. The amount that is added to the vendor bill is shown with a negative sign.
Here, the amount in the vendor bill is deducted from the total amount. So there is no need to pay the bill.
In conclusion, Odoo 18 makes it very easy to match a vendor bill with a purchase. It will improve financial accuracy, avoid inconsistencies, and promote confidence in company operations.
To read more about How to Configure Bill Control Policy in Odoo 18 Purchase, refer to our blog How to Configure Bill Control Policy in Odoo 18 Purchase.