Vendor workflows in Pavilion track two things:

Inventory movement: whether items are ordered, received, held on memo, returned, or converted to owned stock.
Financial activity: whether money is owed, paid, credited, refunded, or applied to a vendor balance.

Some workflows start with a document, such as a Purchase Order or Memo. Other workflows create follow-up documents, such as a Purchase Receipt or Credit Memo, when items are received, purchased, or returned.

Purchased inventory flow

Use this flow when your store is buying inventory from a vendor.

1. Create the purchase order

A Purchase Order is the starting document for purchased inventory.

It records the items your store plans to order from the vendor. At this stage, the items are not fully received into inventory yet.

2. Post the purchase order

Posting confirms that the purchase order is ready to move forward.

Depending on the workflow, posting may lock in the document details or prepare the order for receiving.

3. Receive the items

When the items arrive, click Receive.

This is the point where the purchase order becomes a Purchase Receipt or creates a purchase receipt record. The receipt reflects what was actually received.

This is also the key inventory moment: received items are added into inventory as purchased stock.

4. Financial impact

The purchase receipt represents purchased inventory and supports the financial record of what was bought from the vendor.

Standard Purchase Receipt flow

Use this flow when your store receives purchased inventory without starting from a purchase order.

1. Create the purchase receipt

A Purchase Receipt can be created directly when the items have already arrived or when your team does not need to create a purchase order first.

2. Add the received items

Add the items that were received from the vendor.

3. Post or save the purchase receipt

When the purchase receipt is completed, Pavilion adds the items into inventory as purchased stock and records the related vendor financial activity.

Memo inventory flow

Use this flow when your store receives items from a vendor but has not purchased them yet.

1. Create the memo

A Memo records vendor-owned items that your store is holding.

The items are added into Pavilion as memo stock. They are in your store, but they are not treated as owned inventory yet.

2. Decide what happens to the memo items

From here, memo items usually follow one of two paths:

If your store…	Then…	Document created
Sends the items back to the vendor	Return the memo items. When the memo items are returned, Pavilion adjusts inventory so those items are no longer available in your store.	Credit Memo
Keeps, sells, or buys the items	Purchase the memo items. The main inventory change is that the items move out of memo status and become owned or purchased inventory. Pavilion records that the vendor is owed or has been paid for those items, depending on the payment workflow.	Purchase Receipt

Credit notes

A Credit Note is used when purchased inventory is returned to the vendor and there is financial value to track.

Use a credit note when:

Purchased items are returned to the vendor
The vendor owes your store credit
The return should reduce the vendor balance
The return should be applied as a refund

A credit note is different from a memo return because a credit note involves purchased inventory. Memo returns are for items your store held but never purchased.

Vendor purchase workflow overview

Workflow	Inventory impact	Financial impact
Purchase order	Items are marked as ordered.	Once items are received, creates a purchase receipt and records vendor purchase activity.
Standalone purchase receipt flow	Items are added directly into owned inventory.	Records vendor purchase activity.
Memo inventory flow	Items are added as memo stock. They are in store but not owned.	No purchase is recorded yet.
Memo return flow	Memo items are removed from inventory when returned to the vendor.	Creates a credit memo to document the memo return.
Memo purchase flow	Memo items are converted from memo stock into owned inventory.	Creates a purchase receipt and records vendor purchase activity.
Purchased item return flow	Purchased items are removed or adjusted when returned to the vendor.	Creates a credit note that can apply as vendor credit, refund, or balance reduction.

How do purchases work in Pavilion?