How to Create Purchase Invoice in Navision & Dynamics Nav Purchase Orders

One of the nice features of NAV / BC is the ability to choose how to perform activities from a couple of different options. Processing Purchase Invoices for purchases coming from a Purchase Order (PO) is one of the biggest changes I like to see a company make as they grow. You can post invoices directly from the PO and I see a lot of companies doing it this way. In smaller companies, where everyone shares the same job duties, this makes sense. However, once you can separate the purchasing function from the payables function physically, it’s time to change the method for vouchering invoices.

So now, how do we use this functionality? If we assume the receipt has already occurred on the Purchase Order (or using the warehousing function), the steps are simple. First, we’ll create the Purchase Invoice for the Vendor, entering the appropriate invoice information.

Next, we’re going to grab the receipts outstanding for this Vendor that are waiting to be invoiced. In the Line section of the page, use Line \ Functions \ Get Receipt Lines to open the underlying table of receipts.

You can review the document to confirm additional details like Posting Date, PO, and more if there are similar receipts waiting to be vouchered. Once you’ve determined the lines to bring in, highlight them and select OK.

For each receipt, a Comment line with the Receipt No. will be brought in followed by all the lines selected on the receipt. Review the quantities, units of measure, prices, taxability, and total invoice amounts.

If the invoice amount is different than the cost brought in from the receipt, make the change here with no impact to the original PO. You can add additional charges not originally on the PO as well.

Complete the invoice and post.

Moving away from processing invoices directly from the PO provides 3 big improvements for your team. First, since there is currently no out of the box field level security, allowing the accounts payable function to voucher off the PO means they must have permission to the entire page. From an internal control perspective, this poses a problem. The PO can be changed without the appropriate knowledge or checks and balances.

Second, the employee responsible for processing payables can work from the same page for all payables, regardless of the origin. If invoicing is done directly on the PO, the payables function must work with two pages. The PO and the Purchase Invoice, for those invoices that are not derived from a PO (i.e. services, utilities, etc.)

Third, in an environment where the details of an invoice do not match a PO, there is more flexibility for the payables function to process those changes using the Purchase Invoice without the PO being changed. Not only does this provide the ability to hold the PO to its original version (useful for reporting purposes), it also helps where an approval process on PO’s exist. Imagine opening and having to re-approve a PO for every small change, like a $1 difference on price. It is important for your team to determine what invoice variances will require an external approval process, but that is a small price to pay to keep invoice vouchering moving forward.

This program is built to grow with you as your company grows. Take the time to question your current processes and evaluate new and better ways to handle your daily tasks.