Purchasing in kintone: outputting approval forms, purchase orders and payables reports
Published / Updated
To manage purchasing in kintone, split the process into one kintone app per document (plan, quote, approval, contract, order, delivery, invoice, payment) and link them with the upstream number as a LOOKUP. PRING for kintone fills your existing Excel or Word templates with each app's records to output the documents of every step, such as approval forms, purchase orders, inspection reports and payment notices.
An approval form gets each approver's seal and date (up to 10 approval steps), and quotes and invoices received from suppliers can be read by AI and saved as records after a person checks them. Every output is logged in the audit log inside your own kintone. You build the purchasing apps yourself in kintone (as of 2026-10-27).
Which documents do you output at each purchasing step?
Create one kintone app per document, and give each downstream app a LOOKUP to the upstream number. From any document you can follow the numbers back to the original plan. Under each step, the diagram shows an example of the document PRING outputs.
- Purchase request (plan)
Plan document
- Quotes
Request for quotation, reading of received quotes
- Approval
Approval form (approver seals and dates)
- Contract
Contract (Word template)
- Order
Purchase order (sent by email)
- Delivery and inspection
Inspection report, reading of received delivery notes
- Invoice
Reading of received invoices, three-way match
- Payment and payables
Payment notice, payables report by supplier
You can change the number and names of the steps to fit your process. Document links accepts 1 to 12 steps.
What does PRING output at each step?
Every document in the table below comes from an Excel or Word file that you register as a template. PRING does not supply the layouts.
| Step | Document PRING outputs (example) | Feature used | Point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase request (plan) | Plan document, purchase request form | Document output (Excel template) | Use it as the starting point of the case number. |
| Quotes | Request for quotation. Received quotes become records through AI reading | Document output, AI reading | Keep competing quotes as several records in the quote app. |
| Approval | Approval form (approver seals and dates) | Approval records and seals | The approver who presses the approval action and the time are shown as a seal for each approval step. |
| Contract | Contract, supplier selection memo | Word templates | Text documents can stay in Word. |
| Order | Purchase order | Document output, email, line-item expansion | Send it to the supplier one record at a time with the Send email button. |
| Delivery and inspection | Inspection report | Document output, AI reading, three-way match | Read the received delivery note and check quantity, unit price and amount against the order. |
| Invoice | Received invoice (the document comes from the supplier) | AI reading, three-way match | Give the invoice a status (unpaid or paid) to see what is unpaid. |
| Payment and payables | Payment notice, payables report by supplier | Document output, bulk output, summary output | The balance is total invoiced minus total paid. Output it as one sheet from a list. |
How do approval records, the audit log, document links and AI reading help in purchasing?
In purchasing it matters that you can explain afterwards what each payment was based on. These four features help with that.
Approval records and seals
When an approver presses an approval action in the process management of the approval app, the approver and the time are recorded on the record, and a seal for each approval step (a date stamp for people without a seal image) is placed on the approval form. You can set up to 10 approval steps. The record is for the visual seal, and anyone with permission can edit the fields, so restrict the fields' access rights to the approvers.
Help: Approval records and a seal per approval stepAudit log
Create the PRING File Log app in your own kintone, and each output, attachment, replacement and deletion adds one row with the time, version, file name and SHA-256. For PDFs you can also put a document ID and the SHA-256 from before embedding into the metadata or footer. The records are not stored on PRING servers.
Help: Audit log of output filesDocument links and the evidence bundle
Open Document links from a record of any step and you see upstream and downstream documents, gaps, and the result of matching each attachment's SHA-256 against the log on one screen. The evidence bundle PDF puts them in one volume with a cover page (PDFs and images only, up to 30 MB and 100 files). You can trace a payment back to the plan and answer an auditor's questions.
Help: Case links and the evidence bundleAI reading of supplier documents
Quotes, delivery notes and invoices from suppliers are read with your own Gemini API key. The AI only proposes values; a record is created only when a person checks and corrects them on the confirmation screen and presses save. For invoices and delivery notes, the result of the three-way match against the order is also shown. Google bills you for the reading.
Help: AI reading of supplier documents
How do you set up purchasing output?
First build the apps in kintone, then set up the templates and features in the PRING settings screen. The total time depends on the number of documents (our estimate is half a day, as of 2026-10-27).
Build the purchasing apps in kintone
Create one kintone app per document: plan, quote, approval, contract, order, delivery, invoice and payment. PRING does not create these apps. If you already have purchasing apps, you can use them as they are. Put line items in subtables and the original documents in attachment fields.
Help: Using PRING for purchasing (from plan to payment)Link the apps with the upstream number as a LOOKUP
In each downstream app, add a LOOKUP field that refers to the upstream app's number. For example, an approval number on the order app and an order number on the delivery app. These numbers are what Document links follows.
Register the document templates
Register the Excel purchase order or approval form you use now in the settings screen. Map fields to cells, and you can ask AI for suggested cell mappings (with your own Gemini key). Register text documents such as contracts as Word templates.
Help: Register a templateSet up line items and totals
Map the line items of orders and invoices to cells as a subtable. Totals and tax stay as Excel formulas.
Help: Set up the layout of line items (subtables)Set up approval records and seals for the approval app
Turn on process management for the approval app and add approver and approval time fields for each approval. In the Seal tab of the settings screen, assign the fields for each approval action under Approval records, and assign the approver fields to the seal cells of the approval form template.
Help: Approval records and a seal per approval stepSet when the button appears, and set up email
For each template, choose the statuses in which the button appears (for example, show the purchase order button only when approved) and the users and organizations who can use it. To send purchase orders to suppliers, register your own mail server in the mail settings.
Help: Control when export buttons appearSet up the audit log and document links
Create the File Log app in the Audit log tab, then set up the case summary app and the table of steps in the Document links tab.
Help: Case links and the evidence bundleSet up reading of supplier documents
In the quote, delivery and invoice apps, prepare fields such as the original attachment, transaction date, amount and supplier, and map them in the Document reading tab. Register your Gemini API key in the AI settings tab first.
Help: AI reading of supplier documentsOutput and check
Press the purchase order button on an order record and check the PDF. To output inspection reports or payment notices together at month end, filter a list and use bulk output.
Help: Batch export from a list
Frequently asked questions
Can I output approval forms and purchase orders as PDF from kintone?
Yes. Register your existing Excel approval form or purchase order as a template, and the button on the record detail screen outputs it as PDF or Excel. kintone values are filled in while formulas and merged cells are kept.
Does PRING build the purchasing apps for me?
No. You build the plan, quote, approval, contract, order, delivery, invoice and payment apps in kintone yourself. PRING creates only two apps from its settings screen, the case summary app that holds the totals of each case and the PRING File Log app that records outputs, and both are created inside your own kintone.
Can I email a purchase order to a supplier?
Yes. Use Send email on the record detail screen to send one record at a time from your own mail server (SMTP). PRING does not relay mail. Email sending is available on the Standard plan and above (as of 2026-10-27). Bulk output only creates the documents and does not send mail in bulk.
Does a supplier's invoice become a record automatically?
No. A record is written to kintone only after a person checks and corrects the AI's proposed values on the confirmation screen and presses Create record or Save to record. Any value changed from the proposal is kept as a correction.
How do I show what a payment was based on when audited?
Open Document links from the payment record, and the upstream documents appear on one screen in order: invoice, delivery note and inspection report, purchase order, contract, approval form, quotes and plan. The result of matching each attachment's SHA-256 is shown too, so you can hand over the evidence bundle PDF.
Are purchasing documents kept on PRING servers?
No. The totals of a case are saved in the case summary app in your kintone, and the record of each output is saved in the File Log app in your kintone. You keep the downloaded evidence bundle PDF yourself.
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