Procurement
Procurement workflow from pending items to received, purchase order statuses, and distributor API ordering.
Written By Victor Raessen
Last updated 4 days ago
The procurement module manages ordering products from distributors after a quote is approved. It tracks what needs to be ordered, groups items into purchase orders, submits them to distributors, and syncs everything back to your PSA.
Procurement is the bridge between sales and fulfilment. When a quote is approved, line items automatically appear as pending items. From there, you create purchase orders, submit them to distributors (via API, email, or manually), receive items as they arrive, and track the full audit trail. The entire flow ties back to your PSA — the exact entities created depend on which PSA you use.
Procurement workflow
- Quote approved — Product line items from Quotes automatically appear as pending items in Procurement. Services and items flagged as "does not require procurement" are excluded.
- Review pending items — Navigate to Procurement > Pending Items to see all items awaiting order. Dismiss items that don't need procurement (e.g., internal items) with a reason.
- Create purchase order — Group pending items into a purchase order, assigned to a distributor. Items from multiple quotes can be combined into a single PO.
- Approval (if configured) — Orders exceeding a configured value threshold are sent for internal approval before they can be placed.
- Place order — Submit the order to the distributor via API, email, or mark as manually submitted. Optionally skip distributor submission for internal/warehouse orders while still syncing to your PSA.
- PSA sync — Salesbuildr creates the corresponding entities in your PSA (tickets, charges, purchase orders, or sales orders — depending on your PSA).
- Receive items — Track received quantities and serial numbers as items arrive. Receiving data syncs back to your PSA where supported.
- Complete — The order is automatically marked complete when all items are received.
What each PSA creates
The entities Salesbuildr creates in your PSA differ significantly. Understanding these differences is important for your post-sale workflow.
Autotask details
Autotask has the most complete integration. Salesbuildr creates:
- A post-sale ticket with charges for each line item (operational charge type, with cost, sell price, quantity, and product link)
- A purchase order entity in Autotask with line items, including ship-to address for dropship orders
- Receiving records that sync back to Autotask PO items as you receive in Salesbuildr
Autotask PO creation requires the Enable for Procurement toggle in Admin > Integrations > Autotask > Purchase Order, a configured inventory location, and products synced to Autotask. Service-type items are excluded from both PO line items and ticket charges.
Note: Autotask creates tickets and purchase orders — not sales orders or contracts. To add products to Projects, use the Won Opportunity Wizard in Autotask manually.
ConnectWise details
ConnectWise creates a service ticket on your configured board and converts the won opportunity's products into service ticket line items using ConnectWise's native conversion mechanism.
Purchase orders are not created in ConnectWise — they exist only in Salesbuildr. You can still submit POs to distributors via API or email, but the PO entity is not synced to ConnectWise Manage. Item receiving is tracked in Salesbuildr only.
Configure ticket settings (board, status, priority, SLA, impact) in Admin > Integrations > ConnectWise > Ticket Settings.
HaloPSA details
HaloPSA creates two distinct entities:
- A sales order (not a ticket) with line items, linked to the Halo quotation and opportunity. Each line includes cost, sell price, and supplier ID.
- A purchase order entity in Halo, linked to the sales order and supplier company.
When items are received, Salesbuildr creates stock records in Halo. For products with a linked asset type, serialized asset records are created automatically.
All items in a Halo PO must belong to a single company. The distributor company must be configured as a supplier company type in Halo.
Standalone (no PSA)
Without a PSA connected, procurement still works for distributor ordering. Purchase orders are created and tracked in Salesbuildr, and can be submitted to distributors via API or email. All internal features work — approval workflows, item receiving, audit trail, PDF generation. No external entities are created.
Purchase order statuses
Order types
- Wholesale — Shipped to your location for staging, configuration, or internal stock
- Dropship — Shipped directly from the distributor to the customer. Enter the customer's shipping address when placing the order.
Submission methods
When placing a purchase order, you choose how to submit it to the distributor:
- API submission — Sends the order directly to the distributor's ordering API. Available for supported distributors (see below). The distributor's order number is stored automatically.
- Email submission — Generates a PDF of the purchase order and emails it to the distributor. Available for any distributor with a configured email address.
- Mark as submitted — For orders placed manually (phone, distributor portal). Optionally store a link to the external PO for reference.
- Skip distributor submission — Submit to your PSA only, without sending to the distributor. Useful for internal/warehouse distributors or orders you'll place separately.
Supported distributors
Purchase orders can be submitted directly to supported Distributors via API:
For other distributors (Also, Westcon, Dicker Data, or any custom distributor), use email submission or mark as manually submitted.
Approval rules
Configure approval rules under Admin > Procurement > Approvals to require internal approval before purchase orders can be placed.
Each rule defines a value range (from/to amount) and an approver. When a purchase order's total falls within a rule's range, the order must be approved by the designated person before it can be submitted. The order creator cannot approve their own orders.
Rules are evaluated in order. If no rule matches (amount below thresholds, or the only matching rule's approver is the creator), no approval is required. Approval rules are snapshot onto the order at creation time — changing rules later does not affect existing orders.
When an order requires approval, it enters the awaiting approval status and the approver receives an email notification. The approver can reject the order (returning it to pending with a reason) or place it directly (which constitutes approval).
Products, services, and recurring items
Not all quote items enter the procurement pipeline:
Recurring services (subscriptions, MRR items) are not handled by procurement. These are typically managed through your PSA's native contract or agreement tools. Salesbuildr's procurement pipeline does not create contracts or agreements in any PSA.
Item receiving
As items arrive from distributors, track received quantities and serial numbers in Salesbuildr. Navigate to the purchase order and record each receipt.
The order status updates automatically: partial when some items are received, completed when all quantities match.
Receiving data syncs to your PSA where supported:
- Autotask — Creates receiving records on the Autotask PO items (quantity, serial number, date)
- HaloPSA — Creates stock records in Halo (quantity, cost, supplier). For products with a linked asset type, serialized asset records are created automatically.
- ConnectWise / Standalone — Receiving is tracked in Salesbuildr only
What you'll continue to do separately
Procurement handles the sales-to-ordering handoff — from approved quote through to item receiving. Some areas remain outside Salesbuildr and are managed through your existing tools:
See also
Shipping — Post-Sale
Fulfillment Tickets — Post-Sale
Quote Editor — Quotes
Release Notes — Support
Troubleshooting — Support