Purchasing report
Overview
The report presents external costs per project and supplier as a target-versus-actual comparison. Four figures:
| Figure | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Open purchase orders | not yet completed |
| Overdue purchase orders | delivery deadline exceeded |
| Committed (target) | volume bindingly promised |
| Actual costs | what has actually been incurred |
The gap between committed and actual is the real message. It shows what is still to come — and thereby makes visible whether a project budget is already spent even though the invoices have not arrived. That is where projects usually become expensive by surprise.
Core tasks
Read by project. The table shows project, committed, actual, variance and the number of purchase orders.
Read by supplier. The same breakdown by supplier — the view in which dependencies and price trends show up.
Chase the overdue. The overdue purchase orders figure is the day's action list: a missed delivery deadline means somebody has to follow up.
Note the external reconciliation. Where a reconciliation with bookkeeping is configured, the report shows the actual costs recorded there separately.
Fields in detail
This page has no input mask — it reports on the purchase orders. The selection at the top cuts the report, not the data.
| Figure | What it comes from | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Period | date pickers | Which orders are included, counted by order date. |
| Supplier / project / brand | selection | The cut of the report. |
| Order volume | sum of order values | What was commissioned. |
| Open commitment | orders in a category counting as open | What is promised but not yet invoiced. The figure missing from a cash forecast when nobody keeps it. |
| Actual cost | recordedActualCost of the orders | What was really paid. |
| Variance | actual against budget | Where it became more expensive than approved. The real question of the page — not how much was bought, but how accurately it was planned. |
| Per supplier | totals per supplier | Where the volume sits. The basis for negotiation and for the question of where a dependency is forming. |
Settings & permissions
- Module
module.procurement. - Permission
procurement.report.view. - Attribution happens on the purchase order. Without a project reference, an order does not appear
in the project view, see Purchase orders.
- Drafts do not count towards committed — only approved orders are binding.
FAQ & troubleshooting
A project is missing from the breakdown. Then no purchase order references it.
Committed is high, actual is zero. Normal for running orders: promised but not yet invoiced. That gap is exactly the warning the report delivers.
The variance is negative. Then actual costs exceed what was promised — check supplements and the tolerance on the orders concerned.
The report shows less than expected. It follows your view of purchase orders and projects. Anyone allowed to see less sees smaller totals.