Procurement without leaks: the bill, the order, the delivery and the store on one thread
Procurement leaks in the joints. The bill of quantities says one thing, the order says another, the delivery note says a third, and the store issues on a verbal request. Each step is fine on its own; the loss lives in the handovers between them, and it is only discovered at stocktake, which is months after anyone could have done something about it.
The chain that has to hold
- 01A purchase order that carries the bill line it came from
- 02Suppliers with a history, not a name typed fresh on each order
- 03A goods receipt against the order, with the short delivery recorded as a short delivery
- 04A store that knows what it holds and what it issued, to whom, for what
- 05Committed cost visible before the invoice arrives
- 06Rentals and services on the same thread as materials
- 07A payable created by the receipt rather than typed up later
Committed cost is the number nobody has
Most firms know what they have spent, because that is what the ledger holds. Very few know what they have committed, because a purchase order is not an accounting document and lives somewhere else. On a project with a thin margin, the gap between spent and committed is the difference between a decision made in time and one made at the end.
The store is part of procurement, not a separate department
Material received and material issued are the same chain as material ordered. Splitting them across two systems is why reconciliation is a monthly argument. The full procurement walk-through follows one line from the bill to the site.
Where this sits in Ofivio
Procurement, purchase orders and the store are part of Ofivio Build, because that is where the bill of quantities lives. The payable it produces is posted in Ofivio Books when you have it, and the committed cost shows on the project either way.
Who this is not for
If you are on this list, Ofivio is the wrong purchase and we would rather you know now than in month three.
- Retail buying and stock replenishment — that is Ofivio POS, a different rhythm entirely
- Manufacturers needing a bill of materials, work orders and production planning
- Firms whose purchasing is a handful of office invoices a month
- Anyone needing supplier tendering with sealed-bid workflows
The products behind this
Questions people actually ask
Can a purchase order be raised without a BOQ?
Does it handle partial deliveries?
Is the store the same as retail stock?
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