Enhanced interface

Field descriptions: Configure Purchasing

The following tables describe each field on the Configure Purchasing page.

Workflow

The workflow you use in your company uses transaction definitions to determine how purchasing transactions are routed through your company's financial system. You can use standard workflows, or, if your company has additional needs, you can use advanced workflows.

Standard workflow

Option	Description
Change workflow	Change to a different standard workflow.
Select Purchasing workflow	Select a workflow from the list. When you select a workflow, a diagram illustrates the workflow progression and the transactions at each step along the way.
Apply workflow	Apply the selected standard workflow to your Purchasing application.

Advanced workflow

Option	Description
Export workflow	Export your transactions definitions, then import them into another company.
Custom workflow	Browse to and select a workflow with custom transaction definitions.
Apply workflow	Apply the selected custom workflow to your Purchasing application.

Accounting

This section appears only if you’re using standard workflows.

Option	Description
Accounts payable	Select the default Accounts Payable (AP) account to use for the credit side of purchasing transactions (offset account).
Unbilled payable	Select the default unbilled account to use in unbilled workflows.

Unit of measure

Unit of measure options
Option	Description
Default group	Select the unit of measure (UOM) group to display as the default in transactions. A UOM group is a group of related measures. For example, the UOM group of Time includes seconds, hours, days, weeks, and years. This option on the Inventory Control, Order Entry, and Purchasing configuration pages and is a global setting. If you change the Default group in any of these application configurations, you are changing the setting for all the applications.
Enable custom units of measure	Select this option if you need to create your own units of measure, as needed. This option on the Inventory Control, Order Entry, and Purchasing configuration pages and is a global setting. If you enable or disable custom units of measure in any of these application configurations, you are changing the setting for all the applications. After you enable this feature, it can be disabled only if a custom unit of measure hasn't been used in any transactions.

Enable functionality

Option	Description
Foreign currency	If your company uses multiple currencies, this option enables you to use multiple currencies in your purchasing transactions. If you select this option, your transaction pages will include fields for tracking the transaction currency, base currency, and exchange rate. This field appears only if multi-currency is enabled in the General Ledger (GL). Having to enable multi-currency separately in each applicable application gives you the option of choosing the applications where users are allowed to enter multi-currency transactions. For example, you want multi-currency transactions in Accounts Payable and Purchasing, but not Accounts Receivable.
Use ledger and subledger restrictions for future posting dates	Use this option to inherit the thresholds that are configured for the General Ledger and Accounts Payable for handling transactions that have a future GL posting date. The possible thresholds are: Show warning Do not allow transactions to be created Do nothing The thresholds are applied depending on where the transaction posts: Posts to Accounts Payable: The GL or AP threshold is applied, whichever is the most restrictive. Posts to General Ledger: The GL threshold is applied. Do not post: No threshold is applied. A future posting date is a date that's not in the current period. The AP subledger shares the same posting period as the General Ledger. The option does not apply to recurring transactions.
Enable draft mode	Gives users the option of saving transactions as a draft to finish and post later. When you select this option, Intacct adds a Draft button to the left of the Post button on Purchasing transaction pages.
Restrict employee user access to purchase documents	Employee users can only create purchasing transactions that have a Template type of Quote. This option controls what Employee users see in purchasing transaction lists other than the Approve purchasing transactions list: When the option is on, Employee users can only view the purchasing transactions that they created. When the option is turned off, Employee users can view all purchasing transactions that have a Template type of Quote. This option has no effect on the purchase transactions that Employee users see in the Approve purchasing transactions list (Purchasing > All > Approve transactions). In the Approve purchasing transactions list, an Employee user sees only the purchase transactions that are awaiting their approval and the purchasing transactions they have already approved. The View submitted and View all buttons in the Approve purchasing transactions list toggle what's displayed in the list. Exception: if an Employee user is made the unrestricted approver, they see all purchasing transactions that are awaiting approval or have already been approved by any approver. However, the Employee cannot drill down into the transaction and will receive a message that indicates they do not have permission to see the transaction information.
Display payment status	Adds a Payment details tab to Purchasing transactions so that you can see whether a transaction was paid for without having to go to Accounts Payable. Applies only to transactions that post to Accounts Payable.
Enable advanced processing	This option lets you use the Process Transactions page to: Convert 2 or more transactions into 1 transaction Convert line items from different transactions into one transaction Process 2 or more transactions at a time
Enable deliver-to contact at the header level Deliver to Enable deliver-to contact at the line level	These options let you add a deliver-to contact to purchasing transactions to specify multiple delivery addresses on a single purchasing transaction for use when printing purchasing documents. To enable deliver-to contacts: Select the Enable deliver-to contact at the header level checkbox. The Deliver to and Enable deliver-to-contact at the line level fields appear. Select a deliver-to contact from the Deliver to dropdown. This is the contact address in your company where shipments are received. To have different deliver-to contacts for the line items in a purchasing transaction, select the Enable deliver-to contact at the line level checkbox. Enabling line-level deliver-to contacts also enables line-level subtotals. Optional. To let users change the deliver-to contact on purchasing transactions, select the Allow editing checkbox next to the Deliver to contact on each applicable purchasing transaction definition. Avalara only: If Intacct cannot find a deliver-to contact for a line item, it uses the following hierarchy to find a contact to use for the line-level tax rate: Warehouse Ship to contact, if the item is an Inventory, Kit, or Stockable kit item Location Ship to contact Purchasing transaction header Deliver-to contact Best practice: If you configure Purchasing with Enable deliver-to contact at the line level set to true, verify that all warehouse ship-to contacts and location ship-to contacts have valid addresses.
Create additional posting transactions in transaction currency	For multi-currency organizations, this option enables additional postings to be posted in the transaction currency and not the base currency. Posting in the transaction currency ensures that journal entries are consistently recorded for all posted transactions in compliance with the rules for multi-currency transaction posting. The transaction currency is converted to the base currency using the exchange rate in effect at the time transactions are posted. Best practice: Select this option to comply with the rules for realizing exchange rate gains and losses.
Enable match tolerances	Select this option to enable match tolerances, which validate the percent tolerance for quantity and unit price when converting a source transaction to the transaction to validate. Sage Intacct flags any lines in the transaction as an exception, when either the quantity, unit price, or both is higher or lower than the percent tolerance. Optional. Select a Match tolerance GL account. If you select an account, the variance posts to this account. If you leave the field blank, the variance posts according to the account mapping in the transaction definition. Specify the transaction definitions that you want to validate and the percent tolerance for quantity and unit price. When a source transaction is converted to the transaction definition, Sage Intacct automatically validates the transaction lines. A transaction line is flagged with an exception when either or both of the following are true: The quantity for a line varies from the quantity in the source transaction by more that the percent in Quantity tolerance percent—if either under or over. The unit price for a line varies from the unit price in the source transaction by more than the percent in Price tolerance percent—if either under or over. Users with the appropriate permissions can edit transactions with exceptions to either correct the variance or to accept the variance and allow the transaction to go through the rest of the transaction workflow. Learn more about match tolerances and how to set up match tolerances.
Use line-level dimensions in the subtotals at the top level	For top-level transactions in a multi-entity environment only. Select this option to have the dimension values that are selected for line items used as the dimension values in the subtotal lines. You can view the corresponding AP supplier invoice to see the subtotal dimension values. If Edit subtotal dimensions at the top level is also selected, the dimension values from the line items override any dimension values that are selected for the lines in the subtotals. Learn more about how Sage Intacct determines subtotal dimensions.
Edit subtotal dimensions at the top level	For top-level transactions in a multi-entity environment only. Select this option to specify dimension values in the subtotal lines for transactions. If Use line-level dimensions in the subtotals at the top level is also selected, the dimension values from the line items override any dimension values that are selected for the lines in the subtotals. Learn more about how Sage Intacct determines subtotal dimensions.
Distribute subtotals at the entity level	Appears only at the entity level. Select this option to distribute dimensions across subtotal lines, including proportional distributions. When you run custom reports for subtotal details, the subtotal information for the entity-level transactions is included.
Convert transactions by price	Allows you to choose price instead of quantity (default) as a conversion option for non-inventory line items on orders and invoices. Learn more about price conversion.
Allow override of item's default conversion type	For non-inventory items, this option allows users to change the default conversion type to price on orders and invoices. The conversion type cannot be changed in recurring transaction templates. Learn more about price conversion.
Enable conversions for multiple source documents	Allows you to convert multiple documents, including lines of documents, into a single Purchasing transaction so that you can pay a supplier in one payment. Learn how to convert multiple documents into a single Purchasing transaction.

Construction

Option	Description
Prefill conversion price or quantity (depending on conversion type) with 0 (Construction only)	Choose this option if you want a 0 (zero) to prefill on lines when converting a document rather than converting the remaining amount. Prefill conversion price or qty (depending on conversion type) with 0. Include fully converted lines on new document during conversion. Enable conversion reversal for non-inventory items.

Option

Description

Prefill conversion price or quantity (depending on conversion type) with 0 (Construction only)

Choose this option if you want a 0 (zero) to prefill on lines when converting a document rather than converting the remaining amount.

Prefill conversion price or qty (depending on conversion type) with 0.
Include fully converted lines on new document during conversion.
Enable conversion reversal for non-inventory items.

Contacts

Option	Description
Contacts in transaction dropdown lists	Options are: Show all contacts: Displays all contacts in transaction dropdown lists. Restrict to contacts related to supplier only: Limits the contacts that are displayed in transaction dropdown lists to the contacts that are associated with the selected supplier. When this option is selected, the contact list loads faster and users only have access to the most appropriate contacts. If you restrict the displayed contacts, expect the following behavior: You can only select a contact from a dropdown list if the applicable transaction definition allows editing of the Pay-to, Return-to, or Deliver-to contacts. Only contacts that are assigned to supplier records on the Contacts tab will appear in transaction dropdown lists. The Find functionality is not available in restricted dropdown lists.

Option

Description

Contacts in transaction dropdown lists

Options are:

Show all contacts: Displays all contacts in transaction dropdown lists.
Restrict to contacts related to supplier only: Limits the contacts that are displayed in transaction dropdown lists to the contacts that are associated with the selected supplier. When this option is selected, the contact list loads faster and users only have access to the most appropriate contacts.

If you restrict the displayed contacts, expect the following behavior:

You can only select a contact from a dropdown list if the applicable transaction definition allows editing of the Pay-to, Return-to, or Deliver-to contacts.
Only contacts that are assigned to supplier records on the Contacts tab will appear in transaction dropdown lists. The Find functionality is not available in restricted dropdown lists.

Tax

Option	Description
Use Advanced Tax schedules	Enables Advanced Tax for the tax calculation method. You create tax details, schedules, and tax schedule maps to define the tax mapping for the tax calculations in transactions. If you've enabled Avalara AvaTax or you plan to use Simple Tax, do not enable this option. Advanced Tax is not compatible with either of these two other tax calculation methods. For companies subscribed to the Taxes application: When you subscribe to the Taxes application, Advanced tax schedules is enabled automatically and cannot be turned off. The checkbox cannot be modified. Be sure to deselect this option if you have yet to configure the Taxes application, to avoid errors. After you enable the Taxes subscription, this option is automatically enabled. The checkbox cannot be selected or deselected. Learn more about setting up Taxes. If you are configured for multiple tax jurisdictions, the option is ignored for entities that use the Avalara AvaTax solution. The Avalara AvaTax solution does not depend on tax details, tax schedules, and tax maps like the VAT, GST, or Advanced Tax solutions do. You must enable this option to use the tax schedule override in Purchasing and Order Entry transactions for the Construction application.
Enable subtotal templates	In a multi-entity environment, enables using subtotal templates to populate the transaction subtotals in a transaction definition instead of defining them inline. You can use subtotal templates in transaction definitions that are created at the top level. They are especially useful for setting up a transaction definition that's used in different entities where different subtotal calculations need to be applied for the different entities. After subtotal templates have been enabled, they cannot be turned off. However, you do not have to use subtotal templates. You can enter the subtotal details directly in the subtotals table in the transaction definition without referring to a subtotal template.
Enable override of tax schedule on document entry
Enable override of tax schedule on document entry	Allows you to override the default tax schedule for a transaction with tax implications. A Tax solutions configuration is required for the company. To use this feature, select Enable override tax schedule of document entity if it is not already selected

Price and discounts

Option	Description
Price schedules	Apply any price schedule associated with a supplier to purchasing for that supplier.
Supplier price lists	Enables you to assign price lists to specific suppliers. If you assign a price list to a supplier, this price list overrides the one associated with the transaction definition for the Purchasing transaction.
Fixed supplier discounts	Apply the fixed or blanket discount percentage for a supplier to purchasing for that supplier.
Default decimal places	Intacct default is 2 decimal places for unit price and cost. Depending on your required level of precision, you can set as many as 10 decimal places. However, Intacct rounds values to 10 decimal places for costing calculations, to 2 decimal places for the General Ledger, and to 2 decimal places for reports.

Items

Option	Description
Turn off editing during conversion	Select to prevent users from making certain changes during the workflow, such as editing a line item to increase the quantity or adding new line items. When this option is selected, users can still decrease quantities and delete line items. For example, if you create a purchase order with a quantity of 10 and then convert it to a PO purchase invoice, you cannot increase the quantity to 12. Construction subscriptions: If you allow editing during conversion, adding lines during transaction conversion can cause invoices to update the original transaction incorrectly.
Warehouses Product lines	The Manage buttons are shortcuts for opening the corresponding lists. You can also open the lists for warehouses and product lines on the Setup tab of the Purchasing menu.

Option

Description

Turn off editing during conversion

Select to prevent users from making certain changes during the workflow, such as editing a line item to increase the quantity or adding new line items. When this option is selected, users can still decrease quantities and delete line items.

For example, if you create a purchase order with a quantity of 10 and then convert it to a PO purchase invoice, you cannot increase the quantity to 12.

Construction subscriptions: If you allow editing during conversion, adding lines during transaction conversion can cause invoices to update the original transaction incorrectly.

Warehouses

Product lines

The Manage buttons are shortcuts for opening the corresponding lists.

You can also open the lists for warehouses and product lines on the Setup tab of the Purchasing menu.

Price variance GL posting

Option	Description
Enable automatic price variance posting Purchase price variance Invoice price variance	With the standard cost method, you assign a predetermined standard cost to an item and then track the variance between the standard cost and the actual cost. Select this option to have the variance between the standard cost and the actual purchase or invoice price automatically posted. After enabling, select the GL account for posting each type of variance. How the transaction definition increases the ONHAND inventory determines which GL variance account is used: Quantity only: The Purchase price variance account Value only or Quantity and Value: The Invoice price variance account For example, if you have a receiver that affects quantity and value, variances are posted to the Invoice price variance account. You can use the Purchase Price Variance report, which lists the variances between the standard and purchase cost, to decide whether to update your standard cost to reflect reality. If you enable the primary document workflow on transaction definitions, you cannot enable this feature.

Option

Description

Enable automatic price variance posting

Purchase price variance

Invoice price variance

With the standard cost method, you assign a predetermined standard cost to an item and then track the variance between the standard cost and the actual cost. Select this option to have the variance between the standard cost and the actual purchase or invoice price automatically posted.

After enabling, select the GL account for posting each type of variance. How the transaction definition increases the ONHAND inventory determines which GL variance account is used:

Quantity only: The Purchase price variance account
Value only or Quantity and Value: The Invoice price variance account

For example, if you have a receiver that affects quantity and value, variances are posted to the Invoice price variance account.

You can use the Purchase Price Variance report, which lists the variances between the standard and purchase cost, to decide whether to update your standard cost to reflect reality.

If you enable the primary document workflow on transaction definitions, you cannot enable this feature.

Approvals

Option	Description
Enable purchasing approval	Turns on the approval process, which enables defining approval policies. Approval policies determine which purchasing transactions require approval and by whom. When you enable approvals, other approval options become available, such as generating email notifications to approvers and enabling approval delegation. Learn more about setting up approvals.
Require supplier for approval	When selected, a supplier must be present on the transaction before being sent for approval. After a supplier is selected for the transaction, the supplier cannot be changed.
Require a new approval cycle if an approved transaction is modified	Options are: No reapproval needed: A new approval cycle is not required. Line amount changes only: A new approval cycle is required if the amount in any line item changes. Any line or subtotal amount changes: A new approval cycle is required if the amount in any line item changes, the amount in a subtotal line changes, or both. This configuration to trigger a new approval cycle is not supported if your company is set up for the Spend Management subscription.
Email notifications	Automatically send email notices to users in the purchasing approval chain.
Approval policies	Select Manage to create and manage approval policies.
Enable delegation	Allows approvers to delegate their approval responsibility to assigned delegates who can approve on their behalf.
Manage delegates	Appears when Enable delegation is selected. Select Manage to assign and manage delegate approvers for each of your approvers.
Unrestricted	Select a super user who can terminate the rest of the approval cycle for a transaction by approving or declining the transaction. Best practice: Assign a user who has no lower-level approval responsibilities.

Advanced Settings

Option	Description
Enable advanced workflow	By default, when you first configure Order Entry, Purchasing, or Inventory Control, you are asked to select a standard workflow. If your company has more needs, advanced workflows can be enabled and created. We recommend that you use Advanced workflows. Advanced workflows give companies significant flexibility in mapping their transaction workflows to their business needs. This flexibility impacts the subledger, GL posting, and inventory stock levels and valuation. Therefore, the best practice is to have someone skilled in this type of business-process change make the advanced workflow changes. To set up advanced workflows, select Enable advanced workflow in the Configure Inventory Control, Configure Order Entry, or Configure Purchasing page. Learn more about the difference between standard and advanced workflows. Turning on advanced workflows cannot be reversed. If you enable advanced workflows in one application, it's automatically enabled for all 3 applications: Order Entry, Purchasing, and Inventory Control.

Option

Description

Enable advanced workflow

By default, when you first configure Order Entry, Purchasing, or Inventory Control, you are asked to select a standard workflow. If your company has more needs, advanced workflows can be enabled and created.

We recommend that you use Advanced workflows. Advanced workflows give companies significant flexibility in mapping their transaction workflows to their business needs. This flexibility impacts the subledger, GL posting, and inventory stock levels and valuation. Therefore, the best practice is to have someone skilled in this type of business-process change make the advanced workflow changes.

To set up advanced workflows, select Enable advanced workflow in the Configure Inventory Control, Configure Order Entry, or Configure Purchasing page.

Learn more about the difference between standard and advanced workflows.

Turning on advanced workflows cannot be reversed. If you enable advanced workflows in one application, it's automatically enabled for all 3 applications: Order Entry, Purchasing, and Inventory Control.

1099s

Option	Description
Enable 1099 flag override	By default, transaction line items for a 1099 supplier are flagged for 1099 treatment. Enable this option to let users deselect individual line items, which exclude them from a 1099 form for a 1099 supplier.
Enable 1099 form and box override	By default, all transaction line items for a supplier are associated with a specific 1099 form and box. These defaults are defined on the supplier record. Enable this option to override the default form or box for an individual line item within a transaction.

Dimensions setup

Standard dimension display

Option	Description
Enable tracking and reporting against each selected dimension	This section displays the list of standard dimensions that are enabled in your General Ledger. User-defined dimensions (dimensions that you create for your unique business needs) do not appear in this list because they’re automatically propagated across your applications at time of creation. Select the standard dimensions you want to use in this application for tracking and reporting. Projects dimension: You can enable a simple Projects dimension without subscribing to the Projects application. First, enable the Projects dimension in General Ledger. Then, enable the Projects dimension in Accounts Receivable and use Accounts Receivable permissions to control access to it. A Projects dimension limits functionality mainly to reporting. A Projects subscription expands your ability to do the following: Add tasks to your projects View a project summary Generate project invoices And more Contact your Sage Intacct account manager to enable your Projects subscription. Task dimension: The Task dimension is dependent on the Project dimension and a subscription to Projects. After it’s enabled, you cannot inactivate the Task dimension. Asset dimension: The Asset dimension is only available with a subscription to Fixed Assets Management. Sage Intacct propagates dimensions across your application pages where you can select dimension values to apply to specific transactions. For example, if you create a sales order, use the customer dimension to tag the transaction so that you can track and report on revenue per customer. Or, if you create a purchase order, use the supplier dimension to tag the transaction so that you can track and report on costs per supplier.

Option

Description

Enable tracking and reporting against each selected dimension

This section displays the list of standard dimensions that are enabled in your General Ledger.

User-defined dimensions (dimensions that you create for your unique business needs) do not appear in this list because they’re automatically propagated across your applications at time of creation.

Select the standard dimensions you want to use in this application for tracking and reporting.

Projects dimension:

You can enable a simple Projects dimension without subscribing to the Projects application. First, enable the Projects dimension in General Ledger. Then, enable the Projects dimension in Accounts Receivable and use Accounts Receivable permissions to control access to it.

A Projects dimension limits functionality mainly to reporting.

A Projects subscription expands your ability to do the following:
- Add tasks to your projects
- View a project summary
- Generate project invoices
- And more
Contact your Sage Intacct account manager to enable your Projects subscription.
Task dimension: The Task dimension is dependent on the Project dimension and a subscription to Projects. After it’s enabled, you cannot inactivate the Task dimension.
Asset dimension: The Asset dimension is only available with a subscription to Fixed Assets Management.

Sage Intacct propagates dimensions across your application pages where you can select dimension values to apply to specific transactions.

For example, if you create a sales order, use the customer dimension to tag the transaction so that you can track and report on revenue per customer. Or, if you create a purchase order, use the supplier dimension to tag the transaction so that you can track and report on costs per supplier.

Documents configuration

Use the Documents configuration tab to provide additional information about your transaction definitions. By default, the table includes a row for each transaction definition that exists in your company.

Using the table, you can:

Advanced workflow only. Select which transaction definitions should be active.
For transactions that post to the General Ledger, select a summary frequency.
Assign the applicable journals (such as Inventory, Purchasing, and so on).
Set the order for how the transaction definitions display in the Transactions section of the menu:
1. Select and hold the mouse button on the row element of the document you want to move, drag the document to the desired location, and release the mouse button.
2. Repeat until all documents are in the desired order.
3. Select Save. Upon refresh, the Purchasing menu will show the new document order.

Printed transactions default to the printed document template that's selected in the transaction definition. Learn more about printed document templates and how to customize them.

Option	Description
Row element icon	The row element icon appears in the first column to the left of the Row number column. Use the icon to set the order for how the transaction definitions display in the Transactions section of the menu: Select and hold the mouse button on the row element of the document you want to move, drag the document to the desired location, and release the mouse button. Repeat until all documents are in the desired order. Select Save. Upon refresh, the Purchasing menu will show the new document order.
Row number	Number of the row in the table.
Label	The transaction definition name. You can select the name to view and edit the options for the document, such as specifying a Numbering sequence.
Active or inactive	Appears for advanced workflows only. A check mark indicates that the transaction definition is active. Deselect any transaction definition that you want to deactivate. Users can only create or convert to transaction definitions that are active.
Summary frequency	Set the frequency at which you want to post summaries of this document type. If you have many daily transactions, select Daily; otherwise, select Monthly. Select Each Document if you do not want to summarize multiple transactions, and instead want each transaction to be processed separately, as it’s saved
Additional posting journal	For transaction definitions that are configured for additional posting to the GL. Select the journal to which you want the additional GL journal entries posted. Posting additional GL entries is typically used when a previous transaction in the workflow posted to the GL in a user-defined book.
Inventory journal	You can specify an inventory journal for Purchasing transaction definitions that affect ONHAND inventory.
Purchase journal	For transaction definitions that are configured to post directly to the GL, select the journal to which you want to post journal entries related to purchasing. You can assign a user-defined journal if the corresponding transaction definition does not have Enable reversal posting set to true. Learn more about user-defined books for Purchasing.
Email template	Select the custom email template that you want to be the default template when a user chooses to send an email from this transaction type. Email templates associated with a supplier record will override this email template setting for transactions for that supplier. Learn more about email templates.

Change management setup

This section only appears for Construction subscriptions.

Change Management set up options
Option	Description
Do not validate origin of lines before deleting change documents	Validate whether a line reference exists between change order documents. A line reference between change orders determines the order in which you can delete change orders. Unselecting the Change management setup option (default) validates whether a line reference exists between change order documents. You cannot delete a change order document that created a line in another document until no other documents reference the line. First, you must delete the change orders that reference the line in the original document. Then, when no other line references exist between the documents, you can delete the original change order. Selecting the option means you can delete change order documents in any order, without validating that line references exist between documents. Learn more about change management.