Purchase Price Variance: Cleaner Vendor Bills & Automated Journal Entries for Intacct
Availability
This update is rolling out broadly and will be available to all BuildOps customers. No action is required to receive the new Purchase Price Variance visibility.
The new bill-level details are available in the updated Bill detail experience. Companies using two-way matching will still see the Purchase Price Variance screen, but bill-level PPV columns and the PPV tab are not available in the legacy Bill detail screen.
What is changing
Purchase Price Variance (PPV) is the difference between the actual cost on a vendor bill and the expected cost from the related receipt. A lower actual cost results in a favorable variance, while a higher actual cost results in an unfavorable variance.
BuildOps now provides:
PPV amounts at the bill-line level.
A PPV tab on supported bill detail pages.
A dedicated Purchase Price Variance workspace at Accounting → Purchase Price Variance.
A clearer Intacct integration workflow that sends PPV as journal entries instead of adding PPV as an extra line on the vendor bill.
Benefits
This update helps your accounting team:
Compare vendor bills in Intacct with the original vendor documents without an additional PPV line changing the bill presentation.
Track favorable and unfavorable cost differences more clearly.
Clear purchase accrual balances more accurately when receipt and bill costs differ.
Review PPV records and their Intacct sync status from one place.
Manage PPV and offset account mappings directly in BuildOps instead of requesting account changes through BuildOps Support or Implementation.
Where to find PPV information
On a bill
Open a bill in the updated Bill detail experience to review PPV information at the line level and in the PPV tab.
PPV records appear when the variance amount is not zero and the related bill has already been exported to Intacct or imported from Intacct. This sequencing helps prevent PPV journal entries from being created before the bill is available in Intacct.
In the Purchase Price Variance workspace
Go to Accounting → Purchase Price Variance.
The workspace includes:
Accumulated PPV: PPV records that have not yet been exported to Intacct.
Transactions: PPV records that have been submitted for export, along with their sync status and sync log.
Resync failed transactions: An option to retry PPV transactions that did not sync successfully.
The export and transaction features are available for companies using the Intacct integration. Companies that do not use Intacct can still access the PPV visibility and review features, but Intacct export actions do not apply.
Intacct configuration and export workflow
If your company uses Intacct, an accounting administrator can configure PPV from:
Integrations → Intacct → Purchase Price Variance
To configure PPV:
Turn on Purchase Price Variance.
Select the journal type to use for PPV entries, such as IJ (Inventory Journal), APJ (Accounts Payable Journal), or another journal type configured in Intacct.
Select the PPV expense account and PPV offset account.
Optionally enable Inherit from item list to use the item’s mapped expense account when creating PPV entries.
Save the configuration.
After configuration, the previous approach of adding PPV as a separate vendor-bill line is replaced by the journal-entry workflow.
To export PPV transactions:
Go to Accounting → Purchase Price Variance.
Open the Accumulated PPV tab.
Select the PPV records you want to export.
Select Export to Intacct.
Open the Transactions tab to review the export status and sync log.
Use Resync failed transactions to retry any failed exports.
How PPV journal entries work in Intacct
For each bill line with a PPV amount, BuildOps creates a journal entry when the PPV transaction is exported to Intacct.
For a favorable variance, the offset account is debited and the PPV expense account is credited.
For an unfavorable variance, the PPV expense account is debited and the offset account is credited.
The journal entry includes the related bill and bill-line reference. Depending on your Intacct and BuildOps configuration, it can also include dimensions such as class, department, location, project, and item.
Vendor bills sent to Intacct now mirror the vendor document without an additional PPV line. The variance is recorded separately through the PPV journal entry.
Average inventory assets and tax capitalization
If your company uses PPV and tax capitalization with average inventory assets, additional account settings are available under Integrations → Intacct → Purchase Price Variance.
You can configure:
A default PPV asset account for average-cost items when no asset account is assigned.
A default PPV expense account for standard, FIFO, and LIFO items when no expense account is assigned.
Whether PPV asset or expense accounts should be inherited from the item list.
When item-list inheritance is enabled, BuildOps uses the account mapped to the item. If no account is assigned to the item, BuildOps uses the configured default account.
Limitations
Companies using two-way matching will not see bill-level PPV columns or the PPV tab because they use the legacy Bill detail experience. The Accounting → Purchase Price Variance workspace remains available.
Companies that do not use the Intacct integration cannot export PPV transactions to Intacct. They can still review PPV records in the workspace for reporting purposes.
PPV records are created only when the variance amount is not zero.
A related bill must be exported to or imported from Intacct before its PPV record is eligible for export.
If no transactions appear in the Purchase Price Variance workspace, there may be no difference between the related receipt and bill-line costs. Historical PPV records may also still be populating as part of an ongoing data update.
The journal type and account options available to you depend on your Intacct configuration.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the vendor bill in Intacct no longer show a separate PPV line?
PPV is now recorded through a dedicated journal entry so the vendor bill more closely matches the original vendor document. This also gives your accounting team a separate record for reviewing and reconciling the variance.
When can I export a PPV record to Intacct?
A PPV record must have a non-zero variance, and its related bill must already be exported to Intacct or imported from Intacct. Eligible records appear in the Accumulated PPV tab.
Can I retry a failed PPV export?
Yes. Open Accounting → Purchase Price Variance, select the Transactions tab, and use Resync failed transactions for failed records.
Why can’t I see PPV columns or the PPV tab on a bill?
If your company uses two-way matching, BuildOps uses the legacy Bill detail screen, which does not include the new bill-level PPV columns or tab. You can still review PPV records from Accounting → Purchase Price Variance.
Do I need to configure anything if I do not use Intacct?
No Intacct configuration is required. You can use the available PPV visibility and review features, while Intacct export and sync options apply only to Intacct-integrated companies.