Overview
This article explains how to set up internal sales in Blackpurl so that parts taken off the shelf for workshop or dealership use — such as polish for merchandise or grease for a mechanic — are correctly removed from inventory and expensed to the appropriate General Ledger (GL) account in your accounting package. The setup takes a few steps, but once complete, processing these internal transactions is straightforward.
Setup Steps
Step 1: Set Up the Accounting Category
The accounting category defines which GL accounts are used when the transaction is processed. Navigate to System Settings > Accounting Integration > Categories to review or create categories for internal sales.
Ensure the relevant category exists with the correct GL accounts assigned. If it doesn't exist, click Add a New Category to create one.
The income GL will have no consequence for internal sales, since the sale amount will be set to zero.
You do need to remove the part from inventory — direct it to an expense account or a Cost of Goods Sold (COGs) account in the category settings.
Step 2: Create a Transaction Type
Transaction types control how a customer order (CO) is classified and which category rules apply. Navigate to System Settings > Accounting Integration > Transaction Types and add a new sales type.
Click Add a new sales type and set the Type to Part Sale.
Enter a Code — this is the name that will appear on the sales order (for example, "Internal Stock").
In the Part Category field, select the category you created or identified in Step 1.
Click Save.
Step 3: Create an Internal Customer
Internal purchases are processed as sales to a dedicated internal customer. This keeps the transactions separate from regular customer sales and ensures the correct pricing and tax settings are applied.
New Internal Customer
Create a new customer whose Business Name clearly describes its purpose — for example, "Internal Shop Supplies." We recommend making this customer GST/tax exempt, since these are not taxable transactions.
New Price Level
Assign a price level to the internal customer that reflects cost price, so parts are recorded at cost rather than retail. To set up or review price levels, go to System Settings > Settings and Controls > Price Levels.
For more detail on creating or amending price levels, see How to Create or Amend Price Levels (no longer available).
If you need to expense parts to different GL accounts, repeat Steps 1–3 for each additional internal customer and category combination.
Step 4: Process the Internal Sale
Once the setup is complete, follow these steps each time you need to expense a part for internal use.
1. From the Blackpurl header, select Sell and add the relevant internal customer (for example, "Internal Shop Supplies") as a Parts and Accessories order.
2. Select Change Type, choose the transaction type you created (for example, "Internal Stock"), and click Save.
3. Search for and add the part you are expensing. Enter the quantity and change the retail price to $0.
4. Check out as normal — select a payment method for the $0 amount, click Add Payment, and then Finalise Checkout.
Accounting Integration Result
After the internal sale is processed, your accounting package will reflect the transaction as follows:
No income will appear, because the sale was processed with a retail price of zero.
A journal entry will remove the cost of the item from the Inventory GL account and debit the Expense GL account that was set up on your category.
