---
title: "Procurement and assets"
description: "How Outpost takes hardware from an accepted quote to a delivered, tracked asset, and which parts each plan and console offers."
url: "https://support.outpostplatform.com/procurement/"
product: "depot"
type: "concept"
status: "draft"
ai_summary: "Overview of quote to delivery: sales order (MSP), purchase orders emailed or submitted to a distributor, receiving with serials into stock, delivery to the client, supplier bill 3-way match and landed cost, and assets that link to endpoints and track warranty. Home Lab, Essentials, and Enterprise get all but sales orders, quoting tools, opportunity workflows, and reconciliation."
availability:
  plans: ["home-lab", "essentials", "enterprise", "msp"]
  preview: false
source: "https://gitlab.com/outpostplatform/docs/-/edit/main/src/content/docs/procurement/index.md"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

# Procurement and assets

Procurement and assets covers what happens to hardware after somebody decides
to buy it: the order to the supplier, the delivery, the stock on your shelves,
the hand-over to the client or the staff member, the supplier's bill, and the
unit's life afterwards as an asset with a warranty. This page explains how the
pieces connect, what each plan includes, and where each task is documented.

## The flow from quote to delivery

On the MSP plan, the flow starts with a quote:

1. **A customer accepts a quote** with hardware on it. Outpost converts the
   quote as it always does, and adds a **sales order** for the goods. See
   [Sales orders](/msp/sales-orders/).
2. **You buy the goods** on **purchase orders**, grouped by supplier. A
   purchase order is approved, then emailed to the supplier or submitted to a
   distributor. See [Purchase orders](/procurement/purchase-orders/).
3. **The goods arrive.** You receive them against the purchase order and scan
   each serial number. Stock goes into a location, and each serialized unit
   becomes an asset. See [Receive deliveries](/procurement/receiving/).
4. **You deliver to the client.** Delivering takes the units out of stock,
   moves the assets into the client's register as deployed, and raises the
   delivery invoice the order's invoicing calls for.
5. **The supplier bills you.** The bill is matched against the purchase order
   and what was received. Approving it spreads freight and fees over the
   goods as landed cost, which corrects the stock cost, the assets' cost, and
   the sales order's margin. See [Supplier bills](/procurement/supplier-bills/).
6. **The asset lives on.** It links itself to the endpoint that reports the
   same serial number, tracks its warranty with the manufacturer, and appears
   on the refresh forecast when it ages out. See [Assets](/procurement/assets/).

On Home Lab, Essentials, and Enterprise there are no sales orders. You raise
purchase orders yourself, or let the reorder run draft them, and the rest of
the flow is the same for your own organization.

## What lives where

| Section in the console | What it holds |
| --- | --- |
| **Sales** > **Orders** (MSP plan) | Sales orders: lines, deliveries, purchases, invoices, and margin |
| **Procurement** | **Purchase orders**, **Supplier bills**, **Suppliers**, **Returns**, and **Settings**. On Home Lab, Essentials, and Enterprise, **Subscriptions** too. |
| **Inventory** | **Stock items**, **Stock levels**, **Locations**, **Transfers**, **Movements**, and **Reorder** |
| **Assets** | **All assets**, **Staff equipment**, **Warranty and refresh**, and **Returns** |
| **Client billing** (MSP plan) | **Subscriptions** and **Reconciliation** |
| **Settings** > **Integrations** | **Distributors**, **Warranty**, **API keys**, and **Webhooks** |

On the MSP plan, purchasing, stock, and distributors belong to your practice,
so they are at the practice level and not inside a client's workspace.
Assets belong to whoever holds them: hardware still in your stock is in your
practice's register, and a delivered unit moves into the client's own
register. Each client's workspace has its own **Assets** section, and the
practice-level **Assets** pages list every client's assets together.

## What each plan includes

| Capability | Home Lab, Essentials, Enterprise | MSP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Purchase orders, receiving, supplier bills, returns | Yes | Yes |
| Stock items, locations, transfers, reorder | Yes | Yes |
| Assets, warranty lookup, refresh forecast, staff equipment | Yes | Yes |
| Distributor connections and ordering | Yes | Yes |
| Pax8 and StreamOne subscriptions | Yes, subscriptions and their bills | Yes |
| Agreement quantities from subscriptions, monthly reconciliation | No | Yes |
| Sales orders, deposits, delivery invoicing, margin | No | Yes |
| Quoting tools (Quoter, Salesbuildr, QuoteWerks) | No | Yes |
| Opportunity workflows | No | Yes |
| API keys and outbound webhooks | Yes | Yes |
| From the refresh forecast | **Draft purchase order** | **Quote replacement** |

Remote Outpost does not include any of these features.

## Permissions

Nine permissions control this area. Assign them through roles. See
[Roles and permissions](/depot/roles-and-permissions/).

| Permission | Allows |
| --- | --- |
| `procurement:read` | Reading suppliers, purchase orders, receipts, supplier bills, returns, and subscriptions |
| `procurement:write` | Creating and editing suppliers, purchase orders, supplier bills, and returns |
| `procurement:approve` | Approving purchase orders and supplier bills, submitting orders to distributors, placing subscription orders, and changing procurement settings |
| `procurement:receive` | Receiving deliveries and reversing receipts |
| `inventory:read` | Reading stock items, locations, levels, and movements |
| `inventory:write` | Managing stock items and locations, adjusting and transferring stock, and delivering sales orders from stock |
| `assets:read` | Reading the asset register, staff equipment, and warranty status |
| `assets:write` | Managing assets, checking equipment out and in, and refreshing warranty status |
| `integrations:admin` | Managing distributor and warranty connections, API keys, and webhooks |

The owner holds all nine. The **Field Technician** and **Support Manager**
roles hold `assets:read`, `assets:write`, and `inventory:read`. **Accounting**
holds `procurement:read`, and on the MSP plan **Sales** holds
`procurement:read` and `assets:read`. A **Purchasing** role holds everything a
buyer needs: all four procurement permissions, both inventory permissions,
and `assets:read`.

## Related

- [Purchase orders](/procurement/purchase-orders/)
- [Inventory](/procurement/inventory/)
- [Assets](/procurement/assets/)
- [Distributor connections](/procurement/distributors/)
- [Sales orders](/msp/sales-orders/)
- [API keys and webhooks](/depot/api-keys-and-webhooks/)