Alex Ruben
How To Transform a Purchase Order into a Purchase Invoice: A Step-by-Step Guide
Dealing with purchase orders in Tally Prime sometimes feels like walking a tightrope — especially when you realize you need to convert those pending purchase orders into actual invoices to keep everything in sync. It’s kind of annoying that Tally doesn’t have a super obvious way to do this, but once you know the workaround, it’s not so bad. Basically, this guide is about how to turn a purchase order into a proper purchase invoice without messing up your records. The goal? Getting your financials correct and avoiding extra hassle at the end of the month.
How to Convert Purchase Order to Purchase Invoice in Tally Prime
Accessing the Gateway and Finding Your Purchase Order
Start by opening Tally Prime and heading to the Gateway of Tally. From there, you want to navigate to Display More Reports and then find Daybook. This is essentially your transaction log where all your vouchers (like purchase orders and invoices) are stored. Because Tally doesn’t have a direct “convert” button for purchase orders, locating the correct order is the first step. Depending on your setup, the search can get a little tricky, so use filters if needed. On some setups, opening the Daybook and filtering by voucher type might help narrow down the right entry.
Locating and Opening the Purchase Order
- Navigate to the specific purchase order you want to convert — double-click on it.
- Make sure it’s in Alteration Mode so you can modify it if needed or clone it.
Heads up — sometimes it’s helpful to enable hiding or showing certain voucher types. You can do this by pressing F11 for Features, then Vouchers, and check if Purchase Orders are visible under your filters. Because of course, Tally has to make things less straightforward than they should be.
Converting the Order into an Invoice
Here’s the tricky part — Tally doesn’t let you just hit “convert” like in some ERP systems. Instead, you basically have to clone the purchase order as a new voucher and change its type to a Purchase Invoice. You can do that by:
- Selecting the purchase order voucher, then pressing Alt + 2. This creates a duplicate record.
- Open the duplicate voucher, and in the Type of Voucher field (usually right at the top), change it from Purchase Order to Purchase Invoice.
This is a bit convoluted, but on some setups, this method works like a charm. On other machines, it sometimes fails or doesn’t save the change properly — so it’s worth double-checking after saving.
Filling in Invoice Details
Once you’ve got your duplicate voucher set as a Purchase Invoice, just fill in the relevant info:
- Invoice Number: Create a unique number — no duplicates!
- Party Name: Your vendor.
- Items: Ensure all items match what was agreed upon in the purchase order.
Sometimes, the items auto-fill from the original purchase order, which is helpful. But on some times, you might need to double-check quantities and rates — because of course, Tally isn’t perfect at syncing data across voucher types.
Adding Narration and Final Checks
If you want to add or edit narration, just copy it from your purchase order and paste it into the invoice’s narration field. Use Ctrl + A to select all if you want to overwrite the old stuff fast. After everything seems good, hit Save — and your invoice is good to go. It’s kinda weird that Tally doesn’t streamline this process, but that’s how it works.
Extra Tips & Common Problems
- Always good to review your purchase order details before doing this — it saves headaches.
- If the change doesn’t save or behaves strangely, double-check if your Tally version is up-to-date. Sometimes bugs are fixed in newer releases.
- Backing up data before doing major changes is always recommended — especially with these manual conversions. Better safe than sorry, right?
And if you’re running into weird errors, sometimes a restart or re-opening Tally helps, especially if the app has been running for a bit or is sluggish.
Wrap-up
Honestly, converting a purchase order to an invoice in Tally isn’t exactly a one-click affair, but once you get the hang of cloning and changing voucher types, it gets easier. It’s kind of frustrating that Tally forces this workaround instead of a built-in “convert” feature, but at least it’s doable. Just remember to verify everything after, and keep backups.
Summary
- Locate the purchase order in the Daybook.
- Open and clone it using Alt + 2.
- Change voucher type to Purchase Invoice.
- Edit invoice details as needed.
- Save and review to make sure everything looks OK.
Conclusion
Getting this process down can save a lot of time in your bookkeeping. Sure, it’s not the slickest method — and yes, Tally could do this better — but it works once you understand the steps. Just something that worked on multiple setups, so hopefully, it helps someone avoid the headache. Fingers crossed this gets one update moving, and the process becomes smoother someday.