Every purchase order in Futureproof carries each deposit and balance with its due date, so you can see what every open order still needs from your cash. You pay each supplier from your own bank.
With QuickBooks and an outside bookkeeper, the PO sits in a spreadsheet your COO keeps, and a deposit reaches the books when it clears the bank.
The factory wants the balance once the container is loaded, so you pay for stock you will not sell for weeks, and the books show the payment with no order beside it.
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Each payment is held against its order as a supplier advance, and counts in stock when you receive it.
The deposit fit in the bank, so the PO went out. Its balance then lands in the same weeks as another container's, right before Chinese New Year.
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Each payment dated before the goods arrive is in your brand's cash forecast, in its week.
Open orders live in your COO's spreadsheet, so your fractional CFO builds the cash view from an old copy, and nobody else can say what is promised to suppliers.
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Open orders show what they have yet to be billed, in the same books your fractional CFO closes.
One PO, from the day it is raised to the day freight and duty are in the unit cost. You pay every bill along the way from your bank.
Enter the factory or co-packer, the lines and the unit cost, with the deposit and balance dates. From that day the order sits beside your sales and bills.
The deposit becomes a bill on its date, held as a supplier advance against the order. You pay it from your bank, and the balance is already in your cash forecast.
When the container is loaded, the balance becomes a bill the same way. The cash you have sent the factory is on record against the goods it bought.
It is paid for and not yet yours to sell. The deposit and balance stay against the order until it arrives, so its cost reaches stock once.
Record what arrived, line by line. Those units go into stock at their unit cost with freight and duty estimated on top, and the order stays open for the rest.
Enter the forwarder and broker costs against the shipment on the landed-cost screen, and the actual replaces the estimate in each unit's cost.
The call on the next PO depends on the orders already open, and each of these answers comes from your brand's books.
If your brand runs QuickBooks with a bookkeeper today, or is pricing NetSuite with a bookkeeper beside it, this is who does each part.
| Futureproof | QuickBooks + a bookkeeper | NetSuite + finance staff | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase orders and their lines | Raised in the same system as your books | A spreadsheet or inventory tool your COO keeps | In NetSuite, kept current by your bookkeeper |
| Supplier deposit and balance recorded | A bill on each date, held against the order | Your bookkeeper, when it clears the bank | Your bookkeeper, as your account was set up |
| What open orders have yet to be billed | Totaled across your open orders | Your COO's spreadsheet | Your bookkeeper, from open PO records |
| Deposit and balance dates in the cash forecast | In its week, if dated before the goods arrive | A spreadsheet your fractional CFO keeps | A spreadsheet or a planning add-on |
| Stock recorded as goods arrive | Line by line, as you receive it | Your bookkeeper | Receipts entered by your bookkeeper |
| Who pays the factory | You, from your bank | You, from your bank | You, from your bank |
New purchase orders are raised in the same system as your books, with the supplier, the lines and the unit cost on each one, so the spreadsheet stops being the record of what is on order. You still send each PO to your supplier the way you do today.
Put the deposit and balance dates on the PO, and each becomes a bill on its date. A payment dated before the goods arrive is held as a supplier advance against the order, then counts in the stock's cost at receipt, and the cash forecast shows it in its week. You pay every one from your own bank.
You record what arrived on each line. Those units go into stock as you do, and the order stays open for the rest until every line is in.
Your open orders show what they have yet to be billed, and the cash forecast shows each payment dated before the goods arrive, in its week. Your fractional CFO reads both from the same books, not from a spreadsheet that ops updates.
Stock comes in with freight and duty estimated on top of its unit cost. When the forwarder and broker bills arrive, you enter them against the shipment on the landed-cost screen, and the actual replaces the estimate in each unit's cost.
A walkthrough of the whole platform, then a talk about how you run your month.
