How do I raise a purchase order when the price is not agreed yet?

Record what is actually known on the day: vendor, quantities and delivery date, and leave the rate empty on purpose. An empty field is honest, a guess is not. The rate is then entered once at goods receipt, when the real landed cost is known, and the order backfills from that entry.

What does a guessed cost price actually break?

Three things at once. The margin report, which can show 28 percent when the true figure is nearer 12. The reorder decision, made against a cost that never existed. And the vendor balance, which stays short by the difference until somebody reconciles by hand. On 400 units with a Rs 270 gap, that is Rs 108,000 of stock value that was never real.

Should cost price include freight and duty?

Yes. Enter the landed cost, not the invoice cost. Freight, duty and clearing are part of what the unit cost you sitting on your shelf, and a cost price that excludes them makes every margin look better than it is.

What happens to stock I already sold when I correct the rate?

It depends on the system, and it is worth asking before you buy. If units were sold before the real cost was known, their margin was computed from the guess. Some systems restate those sales and some leave them, and the two answers give very different profit figures.

How do I keep track of what I owe a supplier?

Post receipts and payments against the same supplier line so there is one running balance. What you owe then becomes a number you read rather than a figure you reconstruct at month end from invoices and bank statements.

Does Modventrix support purchase orders without a rate?

Yes. Orders can be raised with no rate, the landed cost is captured at goods receipt, and the purchase order, vendor bill and stock value all update from that single entry with a trail of when it was set and by whom. It was built because import buyers in Pakistan asked for it repeatedly.

Raising a purchase order before the rate is agreed. Modventrix

Three step purchasing flow: raise the purchase order with no rate, capture the real landed rate at goods receipt, then let the order, vendor bill and stock value backfill from that one entry.

If you import, you already know the problem. The supplier confirms quantities and a delivery window, but the rate depends on the exchange rate the day the payment clears, or the freight quote that has not come back yet, or a duty calculation nobody will commit to. You need the purchase order to exist anyway, because the goods have to be booked.

So somebody types a number in. That guess then travels through every report you own.

The problem: a placeholder cost never stays a placeholder

The number entered to get the PO saved becomes the cost price. It sets the stock value, it sets the margin the reports show, and it sets the price somebody quotes a customer. Nobody goes back and corrects it, because by the time the real rate is known the PO has been approved and the goods are on a ship.

Three step purchasing flow: raise the purchase order with no rate, capture the real landed rate at goods receipt, and let the order, vendor bill and stock value backfill from that one entry.

What the guess actually costs

Take one line: 400 units, guessed at Rs 1,200, landed at Rs 1,470.

A guessed cost of Rs 1,200 against an actual landed cost of Rs 1,470, a gap of Rs 270 per unit, which distorts the margin report, the reorder decision and the vendor balance.

Rs 108,000 of stock value that was never real. The margin report shows 28 percent when the true figure is closer to 12. The reorder decision is made against a cost that never existed. And the vendor balance is short by the difference until somebody reconciles it by hand.

None of that is a software failure. It is the arithmetic doing exactly what it was told with a number that was invented.

The fix: let the rate arrive when it arrives

The order records what is actually known on the day: vendor, quantities, delivery date. The rate stays empty on purpose, because an empty field is honest and a guess is not.

When the delivery lands and the real landed cost is known, it is entered once, against the line it belongs to. The purchase order backfills, the vendor bill is raised at the correct figure, and the stock value updates from the same entry. Nothing is typed twice, and there is a trail showing when the rate was set and by whom.

That is how Modventrix handles it, and it exists because import buyers in Pakistan asked for it repeatedly. It is not the common way to build purchasing software, which usually assumes a price exists at order time.

Then the vendor balance stops being a memory

Once receipts and payments post against the same supplier line, what you owe is a number you can read rather than a figure you reconstruct at the end of the month.

A vendor ledger showing goods received and payments posting to one running balance, ending at Rs 245,000 owed.

Tips and tricks

Never save a PO with a placeholder rate you intend to fix later. You will not fix it later. If the system forces a number, put the last known real rate and flag the line, so at least the guess is visible.

Enter the landed cost, not the invoice cost. Freight, duty and clearing belong in the number, because that is what the unit actually cost you sitting on your shelf. A cost price that excludes them makes every margin look better than it is.

Check one line per delivery against the vendor invoice. Not all of them, one. Systematic differences show up quickly and random ones do not matter.

Keep the delivery date on the PO even when the rate is blank. It is what drives your reorder planning, and it is knowable long before the price is.

Ask what happens to already-sold stock when a rate is corrected. If you sold units before the real cost was known, the margin on those sales was computed from the guess. Know whether your system restates them or leaves them, because the two answers give very different profit figures.

What comes next

The rate is captured at receiving, which means the receiving step is now carrying more weight than most shops give it. That is the next problem in the chain: what to do when the delivery does not match the order.

Raising a purchase order before the rate is agreed