Purchase orders
Purchase orders close the gap between ordering and paying. The promise gets recorded when you make it — so a job's costs are honest from the moment you pick up the phone to the merchant.
The invisible fortnight
You order the boiler on your trade account. £1,400 is spoken for the moment you ring it through — but no bill exists yet, and none will for a fortnight. Until now, that money was invisible: every number you looked at said the job was £1,400 better off than it really was.
Raise the order
Build a PO from scratch, or use Raise PO from estimate— it copies what you planned to buy straight from the job's priced lines. Send it to the supplier (email, PDF, or a link) and that's the moment the cost becomes committed: counted against the job before any bill lands.
Receive the delivery
Goods arrive — hit Receive, all of it or just what turned up. The committed amount converts into spend on the job, penny for penny. One pound lives in one column: money moves from committed to spent, it's never counted twice.
The payoff
The job's Costs tab reads Base cost → Sell → Committed → Spent. So “what will this job finally cost?” has an answer mid-job — while you can still do something about it — not at month-end when the bills land.
More in Job costing
- Estimate, committed, actual — How the cost strip reads, and why committed costs stop a job looking healthier than it is.
- Expenses — Log receipts, mileage and labour against a job, a project or the business itself.
- Suppliers — The merchants you buy from, and how every pound rolls up against their name.
See what else Job costing can do, or browse all guides. Still stuck? Email support@jobivo.co.uk.