Purchasing in Odoo 16: Purchase Orders, Receipts and Vendor Bills

Sourcing from vendors: requests for quotation, purchase orders, receipts, returns and control of received invoices. Here you will find 36 Binovo tutorial videos (3 h 31 min) organized into 8 sections. Each video includes a summary and a step-by-step description of what is shown.

Odoo 16 · Updated on October 13, 2026 · See all areas

Configuration and master data 3 videos

Purchase Management in Odoo5:55

A brief introduction to purchase management, with a quick overview of the menu options.

What the video shows
  • Orders menu: requests for quotation, purchase orders, purchase order lines (checking quantities ordered and received) and vendors
  • Workflow: request for prices and lead times, confirmation as a purchase order, receipt via delivery slip, and invoicing from one or several orders
  • Products menu: products that are purchased and product variants (template with sizes and colors)
  • Prerequisites: well-defined product and vendor master data, settings in Configuration, Settings, and purchase analysis reports
  • Integration with the rest of the ERP: the product’s VAT and accounting account flow through to accounting, and receipts affect stock and its valuation

How to Create Vendors in Odoo6:16

Creating and configuring vendors, including the data that affects purchasing and accounting, before you start buying.

What the video shows
  • Purchase, Orders, Vendors: the vendor record and a check that the tax details are correct
  • Purchase section of the record: payment terms, payment method, usual discount and currency, which carry over to quotations, orders and invoices
  • Fiscal position (domestic, intra-EU, non-EU, withholdings, equivalence surcharge) and how it maps the product’s generic VAT
  • In the purchase order, Other Information pulls in the payment terms, payment method and fiscal position from the vendor record and lets you change them on a one-off basis
  • Accounting tab: payable account (400 vendors or 410 creditors), internal notes and warning or blocking messages

Configuring Purchase Products in Odoo13:22

Creating and configuring purchase products, including the data that affects purchasing, inventory and accounting, before you start buying.

What the video shows
  • The “Can be Sold” and “Can be Purchased” checkboxes and their effect on the default Products filter in Purchase and in Sales
  • Product type: storable (tracks stock), consumable (generates a receipt without tracking stock) and service
  • Control policy in the Purchase tab: invoice based on ordered quantities or received quantities; the sales equivalent is in the Sales tab
  • Product category to classify and analyze how much is bought and sold by product family
  • Vendor taxes on the product (generic VAT), which the vendor’s fiscal position converts into the applicable tax
  • Vendor pricelists in the Purchase tab: price, discount, lead time, vendor name and code, validity dates and minimum quantity
  • The first vendor in the list is the one used when automatically generating purchase orders from sales orders
  • Purchase description, warning or blocking messages, routes in Inventory, and the product’s expense account or, if empty, that of its category

Requests for quotation 6 videos

How to Request a Quotation from a Vendor14:53

Vendor quotations are used to request prices and to record the quotations received.

What the video shows
  • Purchase > Orders > Requests for Quotation: RFQ statuses, sent, purchase order after Confirm Order, and locked, with filters by status
  • Header: vendor, order deadline, expected arrival (promised delivery date), vendor reference and currency
  • Lines with product, quantity, price and taxes, plus optional columns for expected arrival per line and analytics
  • Purchase VAT comes from the product record, and if it does not appear it must be set there (example: input VAT on current goods)
  • The expected arrival date in the header is carried over to the lines and is the expected receipt date on the delivery slip if the product is storable
  • Fiscal position, payment terms and payment method are taken from the vendor record and later carried over to the invoice
  • Indicators for pending to send, waiting and late, source document (sales order, stock scheduler) and the quotation’s buyer
  • Printing the request or sending it by email with a template changes the status to sent and is logged in the chatter

Sending Quotation Requests to Vendors1:36

Sending the request for quotation to the vendor by email, which is recorded in Odoo for control and follow-up.

What the video shows
  • The request can have the price set to zero in order to ask for it, and it is sent with the Send by Email button, using an editable text template and a PDF attachment
  • The status changes to Request for Quotation Sent and the sending is logged in the history on the right
  • The email can be resent or the document printed, also from the list view by selecting the request or the order

Printing a Vendor Request for Quotation in Odoo0:59

Printing the vendor request for quotation as a PDF, in addition to sending it by email.

What the video shows
  • Print RFQ button at the top of the quotation, which generates the PDF document
  • When printing, the status changes to Request for Quotation Sent even if no email has been sent
  • Resending by email to the address on the vendor record remains available afterwards

How to Cancel Vendor Quotations in Odoo1:45

Cancelling purchase quotations that do not go ahead; they are kept for reference and can be filtered by status.

What the video shows
  • Cancel button inside the quotation, which changes its status to Cancelled in the quotation list
  • Filters by status (cancelled, quotations, sent, orders) to keep consulting them, although they can be deleted if you prefer not to keep them
  • Note in the history with the reason for cancellation (price not accepted, vendor does not send a quotation)

How to Duplicate Vendor Quotations in Odoo2:43

Duplicating a purchase quotation to send the same one, or a very similar one, to several vendors or to the same vendor.

What the video shows
  • From the source quotation, Action > Duplicate creates a new request for quotation, not yet sent or printed
  • The copy keeps the lines and the vendor, and the order deadline and arrival date take the day on which it is duplicated
  • In Other Information, the payment terms and payment methods from the vendor record are carried over
  • When changing vendor, the payment terms, payment method and fiscal position are updated, and the taxes on the lines must be reviewed (intra-EU case)

From Quotation to Purchase Order3:17

When a purchase quotation is confirmed, it becomes a purchase order. Depending on the configuration, the order may or may not generate receipts.

What the video shows
  • In Purchase > Orders > Requests for Quotation, after reviewing prices and dates, “Confirm Order” turns it into a purchase order
  • The confirmed order appears both in Requests for Quotation and in Purchase Orders, with its billing status
  • Confirmation generates a pending receipt, accessible from “Receive Products” or from the receipt button
  • Only storable products and consumables (the latter without affecting stock) generate a receipt, not services

Purchase orders 14 videos

How to Manage Activities from Odoo Purchase7:44

Using activity types in Purchase to follow up, schedule meetings and create reminders.

What the video shows
  • Activities column in the list view of quotations and purchase orders, which is added from the column selector if it is not visible
  • Scheduling an activity from the clock icon: type (to do, call, meeting, upload document), summary, note, assigned user and due date
  • The icon in the list changes depending on the activity type, and activities can also be created, edited and marked as done from the order’s chatter
  • Activity notification in the top bar, grouped by document and split into late, today and future
  • Activity view of quotations: a grid by document and type from which you can schedule, mark as done or chain the next activity

How to Manage Purchases from Sales Orders in Odoo7:53

Make-to-order purchasing: the configuration needed so that, when a sales order is confirmed, the purchase order to the vendor is generated automatically.

What the video shows
  • On the product, in the Inventory tab, “Replenish on Order (MTO)” and “Buy” are ticked. Routes are defined in Inventory > Configuration > Routes
  • In the Purchase tab, vendors are entered with minimum quantity, price, lead time and validity dates, and the first one in the list is used
  • Confirming the sales order generates the delivery to the customer and a purchase quotation linked to the source sale
  • If an unconfirmed purchase quotation to that vendor already exists, new sales are added to it
  • To have one purchase per sale, the purchase order must be confirmed before confirming the next sale

How to Send Purchase Orders by Email0:10

The quotation and the purchase order are sent to the vendor by email from a template, and the sending is recorded in the document.

What the video shows
  • Option to send a purchase quotation by email

Confirming Receipts with the Vendor6:11

Sending the vendor an email to confirm the agreed receipt date, a number of days before the expected arrival, either automatically or manually.

What you see in the video
  • On the vendor record, in the Sales & Purchase tab, the receipt reminder is enabled along with the number of days before the delivery date that it is sent (5 in the example)
  • The vendor’s purchase order then shows “Ask for confirmation” with those days, next to the expected arrival date
  • A scheduled action sends the email automatically, or it can be triggered manually from the order, using an editable template with the document attached
  • The feature depends on the receipt reminder setting under Purchase > Configuration > Settings; without it, the option does not appear
  • Changes to settings should be discussed with your consultant beforehand, as they may affect data that has already been recorded

How to cancel purchase orders1:29

Cancelling a purchase order or quotation instead of deleting it preserves the history and the reason for cancellation.

What you see in the video
  • “Cancel” button on a confirmed purchase order with no receipts, which changes its status to cancelled
  • A cancelled order can be set back to draft and returned to request for quotation
  • If any quantity has already been received, Odoo warns that the order cannot be cancelled because there are completed receipts

Lock / unlock purchase orders2:49

Orders can be locked automatically upon confirmation to prevent changes, or locked manually whenever the user decides.

What you see in the video
  • “Lock” button on the confirmed purchase order, which sets it to locked, and “Unlock” to return it to purchase order status
  • A locked order still allows products to be received
  • The “Lock Confirmed Orders” setting under Purchase > Configuration > Settings makes every confirmed quotation become locked
  • With the setting enabled, the order is unlocked manually when it needs to be modified

Purchase order tracking2:49

The purchase order records every action taken: who confirmed or modified it and when, emails sent and activities, all available to other users.

What you see in the video
  • The history appears to the right of or below the order depending on screen resolution, and shows who created the order and when
  • Log of status changes: from request for quotation to locked order or purchase order, and of each lock and unlock
  • Log of the email sent to the vendor and of the confirmation of the expected receipt date
  • When products are received, the update of the received quantity is recorded, and the invoice is reflected in the same way

How to change the quantity of a purchase order pending receipt2:03

Changing the quantity of a purchase order whose delivery note has not yet been received: the delivery note quantity updates automatically.

What you see in the video
  • If the order is locked, it is unlocked to return to purchase order status
  • When the ordered quantity is changed, the demand on the delivery note is updated as long as it is not done
  • The order can then be locked again

How to change the quantity of a purchase order that has already been received2:21

Changing the quantity of a purchase order whose delivery note has already been received: another delivery note is automatically generated for the difference.

What you see in the video
  • If the order is locked, it must be unlocked first
  • Increasing the ordered quantity on an order that has already been received generates a new delivery note in Ready status for the difference
  • That delivery note is validated to receive the additional quantity

Purchase history of a product1:43

Access a product’s purchase history from the order line, without going to the product record.

What you see in the video
  • “Purchase history” arrow on the order line: orders, confirmation date, vendor, quantity and unit price
  • The same information is available from the purchases button on the product record, covering the last 365 days

Managing purchase order lines4:08

List view with all the lines of all purchase orders, with filters and groupings by status or date: what has been received, receipt deadlines and what remains to be invoiced.

What you see in the video
  • Purchase > Orders > Purchase Order Lines: all lines of all orders, view-only
  • Optional columns for received, invoiced and to-be-invoiced quantities, and for invoicing status
  • Grouping by vendor, product, invoicing status or order status
  • Filters by status, searches saved as favorites and a pivot view exportable to Excel

Managing activities and notifications from orders7:44

Scheduling activities (calls, meetings, emails) on quotations, orders and invoices, with a date and a visual indication of the type of pending activity.

What you see in the video
  • “Activities” column in the list of quotations and purchase orders, with the clock icon for scheduling
  • Activity types: to-do, call, meeting or upload document, with summary, assignee and due date
  • The icon changes depending on the type, and the activity also appears in the order’s chatter
  • Activities can be marked as done, edited or chained with a next one
  • Activity alert in the top bar, split into late, today and future
  • “Activity” view of orders, with one column per activity type

Dropshipping setup in Odoo12:53

With dropshipping, the vendor ships the order directly to the customer, without the product passing through your own warehouse or being stored.

What you see in the video
  • Dropshipping is enabled under Purchase > Configuration > Settings, which creates routes and rules in Inventory
  • The product must be sellable and purchasable, storable, have a vendor and have the Buy and Dropshipping routes
  • Confirming the sales order does not generate an outgoing delivery note, but a purchase order to the product’s first vendor
  • The purchase order shows “Deliver To: Dropshipping” with the customer’s address
  • Confirming the purchase creates a dropshipping transfer with its own sequence, from the vendor to the customer
  • Validating that transfer records both the receipt of the purchase and the delivery of the sale at the same time
  • Inventory shows pending and completed dropshipping operations
  • Binovo recommends contacting them to enable the setting and review the routes

Adding lines to a purchase order after it has been confirmed2:41

Adding a product line to a purchase order that has already been fully received; a new delivery note is generated for its receipt.

What you see in the video
  • Starting scenario: a confirmed order with two lines already fully received, to which more material needs to be added
  • First option: increase the ordered quantity on the existing line; when saving, another receipt is created in ready status
  • Second option: add a new line with the same product, its quantity and its price, which also generates another receipt
  • In both cases, the new receipt is validated to book in the missing material

Receipts and returns 4 videos

Full receipt of a purchase order8:24

Full receipt: all products and quantities arrive and the order is completely received.

What you see in the video
  • Confirming the purchase order generates an incoming delivery note in Ready status
  • Ordered, received and invoiced quantity columns on the order lines
  • Access to the delivery note from the receipt button or from “Receive products”
  • Delivery note statuses: draft, waiting, ready and done
  • Scheduled date and deadline, inherited from the order’s expected arrival
  • When validating without entering quantities, Odoo offers to process all ordered quantities
  • The order is marked as received and “Create invoice” is enabled if the product is invoiced on received quantities
  • The product’s stock is updated with the incoming goods

Partial receipt of a purchase order6:55

Receiving partial shipments from the vendor: what arrives is received and a delivery note is generated for the remaining part until the order is complete.

What you see in the video
  • On the receipt delivery note, the quantity actually received for each line is entered under “Done”, instead of validating directly
  • Until it is validated, the quantities do not enter stock
  • When validating with a lower quantity, Odoo asks whether to create a backorder
  • “Create backorder” validates what has been received and generates another delivery note with the outstanding quantity
  • “No backorder” closes the receipt, with no pending delivery note
  • The order shows ordered and received quantities, and accumulates as many delivery notes as there are receipts until it is complete

Partial receipt of purchase orders (II)4:16

Partial receipt in which the receipt is closed because the vendor will not supply the rest, without generating another delivery note for the outstanding part.

What you see in the video
  • On the order’s receipt, the quantities actually received are entered, lower than those ordered on at least one line
  • When validating, Odoo asks whether to create a backorder; the option not to create one is chosen so that no other delivery note is generated for the outstanding quantity
  • The delivery note is done with the unreceived difference set to zero, and the order shows the ordered quantity and the received quantity
  • Under Other Information, the receipt status changes to fully received; that field can be displayed in the purchase order list
  • In the list, a fully received status shown in red indicates that the received quantity does not match the ordered quantity

How to return goods to the vendor in Odoo5:33

Returning products that have already been received: a return delivery note and a stock outgoing movement are generated.

What you see in the video
  • From the purchase order, the receipt is opened and Return is clicked; only the products and quantities being returned are left in
  • An outgoing delivery note is generated in ready status, whose source document indicates it is a return of the original receipt
  • Once validated, the stock leaves the warehouse and the received quantity on the purchase order line is reduced
  • The To Refund option means the return is deducted when creating the invoice from the order; with Do Not Refund it is not deducted
  • The order shows both transfers, the incoming and the outgoing, both in done status

Purchase invoicing 5 videos

Creating invoices from the purchase order8:59

Creating the vendor bill from the purchase order, covering these cases: one order invoiced across several bills as goods are received, a full order on a single bill, or several orders on the same bill.

What the video shows
  • In Purchase > Orders > Purchase Orders, filter by the billing status Waiting Bills
  • Which orders appear depends on whether the product is invoiced on ordered or received quantities; a partially received order can already be billed
  • One bill per order: the Create Bill button on the order, then a check of quantities, prices, VAT, taxable base and total against the bill received
  • The bill shows the source purchase order, and the order shows the bill it is linked to
  • Several orders on one bill: in list view, select the orders and use Action > Create Vendor Bills
  • The consolidated bill includes the products and quantities of all the orders and links to each of them
  • The generated bills can also be found in Billing > Vendors > Bills
  • When a draft bill is deleted, the orders go back to being pending billing

Bills based on received or ordered quantities?5:57

Whether purchases are billed on ordered or received quantities is decided for each product. With received quantities, you cannot bill until the goods are received; with ordered quantities, you can bill at any time, but take care when more is received than was ordered. Storable products are usually set up on received quantities.

What the video shows
  • In the Purchase settings, Billing section, you choose bill control based on ordered quantities or received quantities
  • That value is the default for new products in the control policy on the Purchase tab, and it can be changed for each product
  • With ordered quantities, once the order is confirmed you can already create the bill even if nothing has been received
  • With received quantities, Create Bill warns that there are no billable lines until the receipt, full or partial, is validated
  • Recommendation: storable products and consumables on received quantities, and services on ordered quantities

How to adjust the bill to match the vendor’s quantity5:04

When the vendor bills an order that has already been received in several bills, you adjust the billed quantity on the bill and the remainder stays pending for another bill.

What the video shows
  • Order of 26 units received in two delivery notes (12 and 14): with billing based on received quantities, Create Bill proposes all 26 units
  • The draft bill can be deleted, which resets the billed quantity to zero, and it can also be created with Action > Create Vendor Bills
  • For the first bill, the line quantity (14) and the price are adjusted, and the taxable base, tax amount and total are checked before confirming
  • When you click Create Bill again, Odoo proposes only the remaining difference to be billed (12 units)
  • Once all 26 units are billed, the Create Bill button disappears and the order ends up with two associated bills

How to bill purchase orders in Odoo6:17

Generating the vendor bill from a purchase order created in Odoo, while keeping the order-to-bill traceability.

What the video shows
  • If the bill is entered directly under Bills, the purchase order remains pending billing and has no link to it
  • The product’s bill control policy (Purchase tab), based on ordered or received quantities, determines whether Create Bill is enabled
  • Create Bill from the order generates the draft: the vendor bill number and date are entered, and payment terms, accounts, taxes and total are reviewed
  • On confirmation, the received bill number is assigned; a new attempt to bill the order warns that there are no billable lines
  • Navigation in both directions: from the purchase order to the bill and from the bill to the order

How to bill several purchase orders at once3:39

Billing several purchase orders on a single bill, generated from the orders to keep the order-to-bill traceability.

What the video shows
  • In Purchase, search for the vendor’s orders, grouping by vendor and filtering for those pending billing
  • What is ready to bill depends on whether the product is invoiced on ordered or received quantities (received, in the example)
  • Select the orders and choose Create Vendor Bills under Action: a draft bill is generated with the lines from all of them
  • The journal entry has one purchase line per order, account 472 as a combined amount, and account 400 or 410; the bill shows the two source purchases
  • The orders end up fully billed; it is advisable for them to share the same fiscal position, payment terms and payment method before reviewing and validating

Costs and valuation 2 videos

Setting up service products as landed costs4:04

Methods for splitting landed costs among the received products: equally, by quantity, by current cost, by weight or by volume. The choice depends on the nature of the costs and the products.

What the video shows
  • Inventory > Products: landed costs are service-type products that can be purchased, are not sold and are not expenses in the Expenses module
  • On the Purchase tab, “Is a Landed Cost” is ticked, visible only on services and with the landed costs module enabled
  • Default split method: equal, by quantity, by current cost, by weight or by volume, which can be changed later when the cost is applied
  • The vendor tax is filled in and, under Accounting, the expense or purchase account you want to use
  • Configured examples: transport and insurance costs, both as landed costs with the equal split method

Setting up the product category cost method2:56

The cost method is defined on the product category. To calculate landed costs it must be FIFO or average cost (AVCO); standard price does not work for this feature.

What the video shows
  • Inventory > Configuration > Product Categories: the settings are defined on the category, whether parent or child
  • Costing method: must be average cost or FIFO; standard price does not work because the cost is not recalculated automatically
  • Manual or automated inventory valuation: automated generates an entry for every movement, while manual requires adjusting stock by hand
  • If set on the parent category, it affects all the products under it, which makes it possible to include or exclude products by category

Purchase reports 2 videos

Reports on RFQs and purchase orders10:10

A review of the reports linked to requests for quotation and purchase orders.

What the video shows
  • The result depends on the filters applied beforehand: in Requests for Quotation everything is shown, and you can filter by purchase orders or by quotations only
  • Pivot view with measures: taxable base, taxes, total number of bills, exchange rate, total and count (number of orders)
  • Turning measures on and off adds or removes columns and determines their order
  • Row groupings with the + button: vendor, order date or custom group (fiscal position, payment method, billing status)
  • Only order header data is available: you cannot group by product
  • “Received Bills” and “Waiting Bills” filters to see orders already billed or pending billing
  • Flip axis, Expand all and export to Excel
  • Favorites > Save current search, with the option to use it by default, which keeps filters and groupings in both list and pivot views

Purchase reports in Odoo8:09

The purchase analysis report in the Reporting menu, in pivot view, to review ordered, received and billed quantities by vendor, product, order or date.

What the video shows
  • Purchase > Reporting: unlike the pivot for quotations and orders, it offers measures for ordered, received, billed and to-be-billed quantities
  • Example of quantity pending receipt: ordered and received quantity measures grouped by vendor and then by product, with Expand all
  • Other groupings: order date by month, day or quarter, by order and product, or by product and order
  • Additional measures: quantity to bill, quantity billed, days to receive and number of orders
  • Flipping the axes to move the groupings to columns, and downloading to Excel
  • Filters for purchase orders (excluding quotations) or by order date, grouping by vendor or country, and comparison with the previous period or year
  • Saving the report in Favorites with “Save current search” to reuse measures, groupings and filters

Binovo developments and extras 2 videos

AI in Purchase: vendor pricelists and orders in seconds13:50

Binovo’s AI agent updates a vendor’s pricelists from a file, compares and ranks vendors, and generates complete requests for quotation from an instruction in the chat. Everything remains in draft so that a person can review it.

What the video shows
  • Starting point in Purchase, Vendors, Azure Interior: nine vendor pricelists with vendor product code and price, with no start or end date
  • The vendor’s Excel file (SKU, product, validity dates and price) is attached to the chat, and the agent is asked to update the pricelist and list the increases and decreases
  • Before acting, the agent asks in which model the prices are stored (product.supplierinfo), what the vendor ID is and whether there are already existing prices
  • Result: prices and start and end dates updated, and a comparison with difference and percentage, downloadable as CSV and, on request, as XLSX
  • Query of products with zero or negative stock and of lots close to expiry, and opening of the product page after correcting an error made by the agent
  • Assigning Azure Interior as the product’s vendor by instruction and creating a purchase quotation, verified in the order list
  • Ranking of vendors with the labels Optimal or Slowpoke according to how well their orders meet delivery deadlines

Educational centers: order sheets for supplies, works and services12:54

Module developed by Binovo to manage order sheets for supplies, works and services, with greater control and better data analysis of purchase orders placed with vendors.

What the video shows
  • Creating the order sheet in Purchase > Request for Quotation: vendor, expenditure area, sub-item, payment order and the requester’s department
  • Line with product, quantity and price excluding VAT, on which the vendor’s actual and provisional available amounts depend
  • Control by vendor and year according to the contract type (15,000 or 40,000 excluding VAT): a warning on saving if the limit is exceeded
  • Validation request to the department head and a Validations tab showing the validators and the status of each validation
  • The head receives a notification, reviews the sheet and approves or rejects it; without validation the requester cannot confirm the order
  • When the order is confirmed, the actual and provisional available amounts decrease; filters by status in My order sheets
  • Printing of the minor contract report and annexes using templates that can be edited at print time; file number required above a certain amount
  • Viewing of the available balance, contract type and limit on the vendor record and in pivot tables by vendor, date or payment order

Frequently asked questions about purchasing in Odoo

How does dropshipping work in Odoo?

When you confirm a sales order for a product with the dropshipping route, Odoo generates the purchase order to the vendor using the customer’s address. The vendor ships directly to the customer and, when the operation is validated, both the receipt and the delivery are recorded at the same time.

Are purchases invoiced based on ordered or received quantities?

It is set on each product. With received quantities, you cannot invoice until the goods have been received; with ordered quantities, you can invoice at any time. Storable products are usually configured to be invoiced on received quantities.

How are landed costs allocated?

Odoo allocates the cost of freight, customs or other expenses across the received products equally, by quantity, by cost, by weight or by volume. This requires the product category to use FIFO or average cost.

Can AI prepare purchase orders?

The Binovo AI agent updates vendor pricelists from a file, compares vendors and generates complete requests for quotation from the chat. Everything stays in draft until a person reviews it.

Want to see how Odoo would work in your company?

At Binovo we implement Odoo, develop custom modules and train your team. We show you your own processes in a demo.

Contact Binovo Odoo ERP implementation · 943 569 206

More Odoo features