i-Clarity Purchase Order Processing consists of 5 stages:

1. Creating an initial purchase order
2. Sending it to the supplier
3. Recording the goods and services that have been received
4. Reconciling the goods received with the supplier invoice
5. Exporting the confirmed invoice to an accounts package, e.g. Xero, for analysis and payment.

This article looks at section 4, reconciling the goods received with the supplier invoice

Once you have created purchase orders and recorded the fact that the goods you ordered have been received (or not, as the case may be) then you can use i-Clarity to reconcile your purchase orders and delivery notes with the supplier invoices. This complete purchase order processing (‘POP’) cycle has several benefits:

1. When you record goods received you are checking that you have received the goods that you have ordered – and only those goods that you have ordered.
2. When you reconcile the supplier invoices with goods received/delivery notes you are checking that you are only paying for goods that you have actually received.
3. When you reconcile the supplier invoices with goods received/delivery notes you are also checking that the cost price you thought you were paying is what you have actually been charged.
4. You can search electronically through your invoices by several criteria, e.g. spectacle order number or Px ID, so you have information to hand if you need to query faulty goods or returns with your supplier.
5. Finally, the reconciled invoices can be batched together and electronically exported so that they can be imported to your accounts package of choice for later payment. (This is currently a bespoke option and is chargeable. Please contact a member of the i-Clarity team if you are interested in this option.)

Entering Invoice Details

When you receive invoices from your supplies you enter them into i-Clarity using the Invoice module:

1. To enter invoice details, access the Invoicing module from i-Clarity main form.
2. Click the ‘Add New Invoice’ button and enter the invoice details (outlined in red in the picture below), then click Save.
3. You can now add items that have been received from this supplier to the invoice by clicking ‘Add Received Goods To Invoice.’ This will display the following form:
4. You can now search for the items that you have received by
   1. Date received
   2. Despatch note reference
   3. By order number
5. You can then compare what has been delivered with the supplier invoice, and if they match, add those lines to the invoice.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 as necessary, for example a lab or CL supplier may send many despatches during the course of a month with several delivery notes but then a single invoice at the end.
7. As you add lines to the invoice i-Clarity will list the cost price as recorded in i-Clarity. If these are different from those on the invoice from the supplier, then the difference should be investigated.
8. You can amend the price of the invoice line in i-Clarity by overtyping it. Note: This does not update the price in the i-Clarity product catalogue, so you may wish to update this and review the retail price that you are charging.
9. You can add other products and services to the invoice, e.g. for products that have been delivered and invoiced but were not originally ordered through i-Clarity. You can use this facility to add details of postage and packing – we recommend you create a ‘product’ called ‘P and P’ or similar, so you can add it to each invoice and enter the price that the supplier has charged you.
10. Finally, enter the total amount of VAT that you are being charged in the VAT box. Note: we do not calculate the VAT as you should always enter the amount of VAT that you are being charged. If your supplier has calculated it incorrectly then you should enter the incorrect figure here.
11. Once the invoice matches your supplier invoice you can confirm it by pressing the Confirm button:

Once an invoice has been confirmed you can print it and export to a text file or spreadsheet that can be imported directly into some account’s packages e.g. Sage or Xero.

Alternatively, you can ‘batch’ together a batch of invoices, which will give a reference for that batch, as shown here:

You can then file those invoices in an envelope clearly marked with the batch reference (so they can be retrieved if necessary). The batch of invoices can then be imported into an accounts package such as Sage or Xero.