How to Process Service-Based Purchase Orders and Invoices

Overview

Use this workflow when you're purchasing a service rather than physical inventory — for example, an outsourced study, an annual instrument service/calibration contract, or per-sample core facility fees (sequencing, mass spec, imaging). This guide shows how to structure the PO and how to draw down the authorized balance as invoices come in, for both non-integrated orgs and orgs connected to QuickBooks Online or NetSuite.

Quartzy allows you to create, receive, and process POs and invoices for items with decimal quantities, so you can accurately track spend for partially billed services. 

We'll use this example scenario throughout the doc:

• Precision Cal Services, 2026 HPLC Service & Calibration Contract
• Statement of Work (SOW) total: $18,000, billed at $225/hour → 80 hours authorized.
• Invoiced across three site visits as work is completed: 30 hours, then 25 hours, then 25 hours.

Step 1: Create the Service Request

1. Go to the Requests module and click Add Request

2. Enter the service’s details. For example: 
   • Item Name: 2026 HPLC Service & Calibration Contract
   • Vendor: Precision Cal Services
   • Catalog Number: N/A
   • Unit Size: 1 Hour
   • Quantity: 80
   • Unit Price: $225

Set Unit Size to match how the vendor bills (e.g. hour, sample, run, visit). This is the unit you'll draw down against in Step 4.

If your SOW is billed by milestone rather than by time, don't force it into a single request. Instead, create one request per milestone, then group each into a single PO. 

Step 2: Generate the PO

1. Navigate to the Approved tab in the Requests module
   1. If Request-level approvals are not enabled, start in the New tab instead.
2. Check the box next to your service request(s). 
3. Click Group Actions > Create PO

4. On the Create PO Page, enter the Payment Terms and any other relevant data.
5. Click Submit for Approval (or Create PO or Create + Sync, if your lab doesn’t use PO-level approvals).

Step 3: Mark as Ordered

1. After the PO has been approved and submitted to the vendor, click Mark as Ordered on the PO Details page.
2. Enter the vendor's confirmation number and click Save.

Step 4: Record each Drawdown

As vendors submit invoices for completed work, do this before uploading the invoice, every time. Receiving generates a Goods Received Note (GRN), and the payment packet in Step 5 needs that GRN to be generated in full. PO + GRN + Invoice is the three-way match auditors will look for.

1. Go to the Requests module and click the Ordered tab.
2. Find the service line and click Mark Received on the far right.

3. Set the inventory option to Do Not Add To Inventory.
4. Enter the quantity being invoiced in the Qty Received field, in the same unit you set up in Step 1. 
   • Decimal amounts (e.g., 30.5 hours) are supported. The dialog shows how much of the authorized quantity remains.
5. Click Save.

Step 5: Create the Linked Invoice

1. Go to the Invoices module, click Add Invoice, and upload the relevant invoice.
   
   
    
2. Review the parsed data on the Invoice Details Page and ensure everything was entered correctly.
3. Click Generate Payment Packet and select the relevant Goods Received Note, then click Export. 
4. Click Approve + Sync to create the linked bill in QuickBooks Online. 
   • If you do not have a QuickBooks Online integration, simply click Approve. 

Step 6: Close the PO

Once the full authorized quantity has been received (Step 4) across all invoices, the request moves out of the Ordered tab into Received tab, and the PO is moved to Closed. In our example, once all 80 hours are received across the three site visits, the PO is fully drawn down and automatically closed.

Amending a PO after Creation

A PO's authorized quantity or dollar amount can be changed after its creation, in either direction. In every case, the edit happens on the request, not the PO:

1. Have an Admin open the original service request (not the PO itself).
2. Edit Quantity or Unit Price directly. 
3. Save. The linked PO's authorized total recalculates automatically to match.

When you'd do this:

1. Scope increase. A change order, an added site visit, or a rate change. Raise Quantity or Unit Price to match the amended SOW.
2. An invoice exceeds what's left. If a PO’s final invoice is for 32 hours and only 30 remain, treat it as an exception, not a data-entry fix. 
   • Check the overage against the SOW.
     • If it's legitimate, get whatever sign-off your org requires for a spend increase (a change order, an approver's email) before raising Quantity in Quartzy. 
     • If it isn't, ask the vendor for a corrected invoice. 
   • Either way, don't record the drawdown or approve the invoice until the authorized quantity covers it — the GRN and invoice quantities should match.
3. The contract ends under budget. If the vendor only ever bills 70 of 80 hours, the request could sit in the Ordered tab indefinitely, with 10 hours outstanding. Lower the request’s Quantity to 70 to close the PO and move the request to Received. 

Note: Once a request has been marked as Ordered, edits made this way bypass PO approval entirely, even if PO-level approvals are enabled. The change is recorded in the PO Audit Log, but re-approval is not required. If your org relies on approvals for an audit trail on spend increases, we recommend requiring sign-off outside of Quartzy (for example, a signed change order attached to the PO) before making any edits.