Financial decision guides

Commitment or Purchase Order?

Use a Commitment for subcontracted scope that needs an SOV, retention, invoicing, and contract administration. Use a Purchase Order for purchased goods or a simpler vendor agreement. Purchase Orders default to zero retention. See Creating commitments and purchase orders.

Invoice or Receipt?

Use an Invoice when cost is billed against a Commitment SOV. Use a Receipt for a non-committed cost that should hit the project budget without contract progress billing. See Recording Receipts and other non-committed costs.

Projected Costs or Actual Costs?

Use Projected Costs to understand expected costs from Commitments, Change Orders, and Receipts. Use Actual Costs for approved invoice progress and Receipts already recorded. See Comparing Projected Costs and Actual Costs reports.

Edit, void, or create a correction?

Edit Draft records when the original information is wrong. Use Void when a contract or Change Order should stay in the project history but no longer be active. After execution or invoicing, a documented correction or new change usually keeps the history clearer unless your permissions and accounting process explicitly allow an edit.

Which export?

Choose the export that matches what the recipient needs: a Payment Application PDF for an invoice package, a contract or Change Order PDF for executed documents, a Budget CSV for analysis, a report PDF for a current view, or closeout exports for project handoff. See Choosing the right financial export.