> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://purchasing.docs.growcrm.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Grow CRM Purchasing Module — Features & Concepts
> Manage suppliers, purchase orders, RFQs, and multi-warehouse stock in Grow CRM. Learn how every Purchasing and Inventory feature works together.
The Grow CRM Purchasing module extends your CRM with end-to-end procurement and inventory capabilities — so you can manage the suppliers you buy from, issue purchase orders and requests for quotation, and track stock levels across one or more physical or logical warehouses. Because the module connects directly to your existing **Items** and **Invoices**, selling a tracked item automatically reduces stock on hand, giving you a single, consistent source of truth for both sales and purchasing. Whether you run a single stockroom or multiple warehouses across different locations, the Purchasing module gives your team everything needed to keep supply in line with demand.
## Feature Areas
Create and manage the companies and individuals you buy from. Store contact details, link purchase history, and send orders or RFQs directly from each supplier's profile.
Build priced procurement documents using the same line-item, tax, and discount tools available on invoices. Send orders to suppliers and track their fulfilment status.
Ask one or more suppliers what they can supply and at what cost before you commit to a purchase order. Compare responses and convert the winning quote into an order in one click.
Define the physical or logical stock locations your business operates. Every stock movement — goods in, goods out, transfers, and adjustments — is tied to a specific warehouse.
View live on-hand quantities for every tracked item across all warehouses. Enable per-item inventory tracking and set minimum stock levels to trigger low-stock email alerts.
Review monthly income and expenses, total purchase order values, and purchasing activity summaries from the dedicated Reports page to inform supplier negotiations and budgeting.
## Key Concepts
Before you dive into the individual features, it helps to understand the core terms the module uses. The table below defines every concept you will encounter.
| Term | What it means |
| ------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Supplier** | A company or person you buy from. Suppliers can be linked to purchase orders, RFQs, and stock-in records. |
| **Purchase Order** | A priced document sent to a supplier requesting specific goods. It uses the same line-item, tax, and discount tools as an invoice. |
| **RFQ (Request for Quotation)** | A simplified, unpriced document that asks a supplier what they can supply and at what cost, before you commit to a purchase order. |
| **Warehouse** | A physical or logical stock location. You must always have at least one active warehouse before you can record any stock movements. |
| **Item stock tracking** | A per-item setting on the core Item form that opts an item into inventory tracking. Only tracked items appear in Stock, Stock In, Stock Transfer, and Stock Adjustment views. |
| **Stock In** | A record of goods received into a warehouse, typically from a supplier or against a purchase order. |
| **Stock Out** | An automatic record created whenever a tracked item is included on an invoice. You never create Stock Out records manually — the module generates them for you. |
| **Stock Transfer** | A movement of stock from one warehouse to another. Both the source and destination warehouses update when the transfer is processed. |
| **Stock Adjustment** | A manual correction to a warehouse's on-hand stock count, used after a stocktake, to account for damage, or to correct a data-entry error. |
| **Reconciliation** | The background process that applies Stock In, Stock Out, Stock Transfer, and Stock Adjustment records to your actual on-hand quantities. |
Stock levels do not update the instant you save a Stock In, Transfer, or Adjustment record. The reconciliation process runs automatically in the background and may take **up to approximately one minute** to reflect the updated quantities in your Stock view. This is expected behaviour — refresh the page after a moment if you don't see the change immediately.
## Who Can Use It
The Purchasing module is designed for your internal team — clients and contacts never see it. Visibility and access are controlled by your CRM's role-based permission system.
A team member must have **Manage** or **Admin** access to the Purchasing module on their assigned role before any Purchasing or Inventory pages appear in their sidebar. If a colleague cannot see the Purchasing menu after the module has been enabled, ask an administrator to review that person's role permissions under **Settings → Roles**.
If you are setting up the module for the first time, make sure you have Admin-level access so you can configure warehouses, item tracking, and module settings without hitting permission restrictions.
Once the module is enabled, two new sections appear in every permitted team member's main sidebar:
* **Purchasing** — Suppliers, Purchase Orders, RFQs
* **Inventory** — Warehouses, Stock, Stock In, Stock Out, Stock Transfer, Stock Adjustment
Module-level settings — including document number prefixes, low-stock notification email addresses, and email templates — live under **Settings → Purchasing**.
Not sure where to begin? Head to the [Quick Start guide](/quickstart) for a step-by-step walkthrough that gets the module fully operational in under ten minutes.