Purchasing

A purchase order (PO) is how stock comes in. “Orders placed with suppliers to receive inventory.”

The life of a purchase order

Status	Meaning	Stock	Can change items?	Next
Draft	Being prepared.	Not yet	Yes	Ordered, Cancelled
Ordered	Sent to the supplier.	Not yet	Yes	Completed, Cancelled
Completed	Received.	Added now	No	Partially paid / Paid
Partially paid	Received, part paid.		No	Paid
Paid	Received and fully paid.		No
Cancelled	Won’t be received.		No

Partially paid and Paid are set by themselves as payments are recorded, and go back if a payment is voided. “Once a PO enters this family” (received) it can never be cancelled.

The purchase order page

Opening a PO shows the order document (supplier, order date, items with quantity and unit cost, charges, returns, payments, refunds, totals and balance), Payments & refunds, Returns, People (who created and completed it) and the status history. At the top:

Button	Shown when	What it does
Update status	You have Update purchase orders, and there’s a next status (Ordered or Cancelled from Draft; Completed or Cancelled from Ordered).	See the steps below. Completing asks for serial numbers when needed.
Record refund	It’s been overpaid.	Opens the refund form for the overpaid amount.
Actions › Edit	You have Update purchase orders, and it’s Draft or Ordered.	Change the supplier, items and charges.
Actions › Add charge	You have Update purchase orders, it isn’t Cancelled, and it isn’t fully settled.	See Extra charges.
Actions › Record a return	You have Update purchase orders, and it’s been received.	See Returns.
Actions › Delete	You have Delete purchase orders, and it’s Draft, Ordered or Cancelled.	Deletes it after you confirm (“This cannot be undone.”).
Actions › Print	Print is on.	The purchase order document.
Add payment / Add refund (in Payments & refunds)	Received with a balance / overpaid.	See Pay the supplier.

1. Create

Procurement › Purchase Orders › New purchase order (“Order inventory from a supplier.”). You need Create purchase orders.

1. Who you’re ordering from: pick the Supplier.
2. What’s on this order: pick items on the left. For each, set Quantity and Unit cost.
3. Reference, charges, and notes: an optional Reference (the supplier’s quote or invoice number), charges (“Shipping, customs, or other costs on top of the items themselves - optional”) and Notes.
4. Overview: “Review before you submit”. Select Create purchase order.

“Nothing is ordered yet. This creates a draft. You’ll still need to mark it Ordered, then Completed once it arrives, before stock updates.”

2. Order

On the PO, select Update status › Ordered when you’ve sent it to the supplier. A PO with no items can’t be ordered: “Cannot order a purchase order without items”. While it’s Draft or Ordered, Edit changes the supplier, items and charges.

3. Receive

When the goods arrive, Update status › Completed. Every line is added to stock as a Received movement.

For serial-tracked items you’re asked to Enter serial numbers to complete this order: “One serial number per unit received, one per line or comma-separated.” Each line shows how many are needed, for example “Implant (3 needed)”. The count must match exactly: “item needs exactly 3 serial number(s) - got 2.” Select Complete order. One unit is created per serial number.

Received fewer than ordered?

Complete the PO with what was ordered, then record a return for what didn’t arrive, or edit the quantities before completing while it’s still Ordered.

Extra charges

Add shipping, customs and similar costs with Add charge (Description and Amount), and remove one with Remove charge. Charges count towards what you owe the supplier. They can’t be changed on a cancelled PO, nor once a received PO is fully settled: “Additional charges cannot be changed while this purchase order is settled”.

What you owe

The PO shows Items total, charges, Subtotal, Returns, Payments, Refunds and the Balance:

Balance = items + charges − returns − payments + refunds

4. Pay the supplier

Payments can be recorded once the PO is Completed (or Partially paid) and has a balance. You need Update purchase orders and staff access to the account.

1. On the PO’s Payments & refunds section, select Add payment, or go to Finance › New Transaction › Purchase Order (“Record a payment or refund against a supplier purchase order.”) and pick the PO.
2. Is this a payment or a refund? Payment: “Money going out to the supplier.”
3. Details: Account, Amount (or Pay full balance), Method, Date (“Backdate if this happened a few days ago.”), Reference number, Notes.
4. Record payment.

The payment is a finance transaction and follows the account’s approval rules. If the PO can’t take a payment you see “This purchase order can’t take a payment right now. It has no balance due, or is in a status that cannot receive payments.”

Refunds from the supplier

When you’ve paid more than you owe (usually after a return), record what the supplier pays back: Add refund, or choose Refund (“The supplier paying us back.”) in the same flow. You can refund up to the overpaid amount (Refund max). If nothing is overpaid: “No refund is available - this purchase order has not been overpaid”.

Returns

Goods going back to the supplier (damaged, wrong, not delivered). Only after receiving: “Returns can only be recorded once a purchase order has been received”.

1. Select Record a return: “Which items are going back to the supplier.”
2. For each line, the Qty going back.
3. A Reason and the Refund amount the supplier owes you for them.
4. Record return.

Each line becomes a Returned to supplier movement and comes off stock. The refund amount lowers the balance. You can’t return more than was ordered: “Cannot return more than was ordered for item”.

Delete or cancel

• Cancel: Update status › Cancelled, only while Draft or Ordered.
• Delete (needs Delete purchase orders): “Only draft, ordered, or cancelled purchase orders can be deleted”. “This cannot be undone.”

Finding purchase orders

The list shows Reference, supplier, Items, Status and Balance. Search by reference or supplier. Filters: Supplier, Status, Order date, Items. The Outstanding Supplier Balances widget shows “Purchase orders you still owe suppliers on.”