Purchasing is how a business gets the goods and materials it needs from its suppliers. The Odoo Purchase app manages that. This piece is about setting up the Odoo Purchase app.
What the Purchase app is for
The Odoo Purchase app manages a business's buying: the process of getting goods and materials from suppliers, from the request to a supplier, through the purchase order, to the goods arriving and the supplier being paid. It is the application a business uses to run its procurement, and it works connected to the rest of Odoo, to inventory, since purchased goods become stock, and to accounting, since purchases become bills to be paid.
The foundations: vendors and products
Setting up the Purchase app rests on a couple of foundations being in place. The business needs its vendors, its suppliers, set up, since purchasing is buying from vendors. And it needs the products it buys set up, since purchase orders are for products. These are the basic data the Purchase app works with, and setting up Purchase well includes having vendors and the bought products properly set up. Where products are bought from particular vendors at particular prices, that vendor and pricing information on the products is part of the foundation too.
Configuring how purchasing works
Setting up the Purchase app means configuring how the business's purchasing genuinely works. This includes how purchase orders are handled, how the process runs from a request to a supplier through to a confirmed order, and the controls the business wants, such as whether significant purchases require approval. The configuration should reflect how the business genuinely wants its purchasing to run, the process, the controls, so the Purchase app supports the business's actual procurement rather than imposing a process that does not fit.
The connections matter
A central part of setting up the Purchase app well is making use of its connections. Purchase connects to Inventory: a purchase order, when the goods arrive, becomes a receipt, and the goods become stock. Purchase connects to Accounting: a purchase becomes a vendor bill to be paid. And Purchase connects to the planning that determines what needs to be bought: reordering rules and the broader replenishment that flow needs into purchasing requirements. Setting up Purchase as part of the connected whole, so purchases flow into inventory and accounting and purchasing requirements flow in from planning, is what gives the Purchase app its real value. Set up as an isolated thing, it is far less useful.
Set it up to match the business
The recurring principle in setting up the Purchase app, as with any Odoo application, is to configure it to match how the business genuinely buys. The vendors, the products, the purchasing process, the controls should reflect the business's genuine procurement. And the setup should make use of the connections, so purchasing is part of the connected operation. Set up that way, the Purchase app gives a business managed, connected procurement; set up poorly, or as an isolated thing, it gives much less.
The takeaway
Setting up the Odoo Purchase app means configuring it to manage the business's buying from suppliers, connected to inventory and accounting. It rests on the foundations of vendors and bought products being properly set up, and it involves configuring how purchasing genuinely works, the process and the controls. The central value comes from the connections, purchases flowing into inventory and accounting, purchasing requirements flowing in from planning, so set Purchase up as part of the connected whole, to match how the business genuinely buys. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.