Purchase Quote to Order
Overview
When purchase quotes are used as part of an approval or procurement workflow, converting them to purchase orders is typically a manual step performed one at a time. The Purchase Quote to Order feature provides a batch process that automates this conversion for all quotes that have been released and approved, and then notifies the relevant parties.
Approval entries recorded against the quote are copied to the resulting purchase order so that the approver information remains visible on the order. The purchase order is then released immediately, bypassing any purchase order approval workflow that may be configured in your environment. This is intentional — the assumption is that approving the quote is sufficient authorisation to proceed. If your organisation requires a separate approval for purchase orders, do not use this batch process.
How It Works
The conversion process runs as a report and performs the following steps for each qualifying quote:
- Checks approval status — The quote must have been through the approval workflow and must pass the pre-post approval check. Quotes without approval entries, or with outstanding approvals, are skipped.
- Converts the quote to a purchase order — The standard Business Central Purch.-Quote to Order process is used, preserving all lines, vendor details, and dates.
- Releases the purchase order — The resulting purchase order is automatically released (set to Released status), making it ready for receiving.
- Emails the vendor — The purchase order document is sent by email to the vendor using the vendor's email address and report selections.
- CCs the quote creator — The user who originally created the purchase quote is automatically included as a CC on the vendor email, keeping the requestor informed without any manual steps.
Prerequisites
Before using this feature:
- Enable the setting in Purchase Accrual Setup. Navigate to Purchase Accrual Setup (via Tell Me) and enable Create Purchase Order on Release of Quote. If this is not enabled, the batch report will not process any quotes.
- Vendor email addresses must be configured. The vendor must have an email address on the Vendor Card, or a custom report selection for purchase orders with a send-to email address. Without this, the order will be converted but no email will be sent.
- Approval workflows must be configured for purchase quotes. The batch process only converts quotes that have approval entries. Quotes without any approval history are skipped.
Running the Conversion
- Search for Purch. Quotes to Orders using Tell Me.
- On the request page, you can optionally filter by quote number or other criteria. Leave the filters blank to process all eligible quotes.
- Click OK to run the process.
The report processes each released, approved purchase quote in turn. For each successful conversion, a purchase order is created, released, and the vendor email is dispatched.
If a quote has no approval entries (i.e. it was not sent through an approval workflow), it will not be converted by this batch. Only quotes with a completed approval chain are processed.
Quote Creator Notification
When a purchase quote is first created, the extension records the Security ID of the creating user against the quote. This information is preserved through the conversion process so that when the purchase order email is sent to the vendor, the original quote creator is automatically included as a CC.
The CC address used is the creator's Contact Email from their user setup. If no contact email is configured, the Authentication Email is used as a fallback.
This ensures that the person who raised the purchase quote is informed when it has been converted to an order and sent to the vendor—without requiring any manual follow-up.
Setup Summary
| Setting | Location | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Create Purchase Order on Release of Quote | Purchase Accrual Setup — General | Must be enabled for the batch report to process any quotes. |
| Vendor Email | Vendor Card or Custom Report Selections | Required for the order email to be delivered to the vendor. |
| User Contact Email / Authentication Email | User Setup | Used as the CC address for the quote creator notification. |