What is a Purchase Order?
Purchase orders in your account are used to procure product inventory from suppliers. This product is usually purchased from a manufacturer, distributor, reseller, or any other external entity.
Purchase order shipments.
Within a purchase order, you will also see shipments. Shipments belonging to a purchase order, are used to;
Tracking the status of a delivery of goods from a supplier.
Tell an inventory location that some amount of inventory is coming to them and when (commonly called an ARN or advance receiving notice).
Track defect rates, delivery issues, and data used to pay the supplier after delivery and inspection.
Statuses
There are several statuses for both purchase orders and the shipments that belong to them.
Purchase Orders
Status | Notes |
Draft | A possible purchase order you may place. |
Open | Still finalizing information or negotiation. Can be edited, but cannot be deleted unless resaved as a draft. |
Sent | Has been emailed to the supplier. Status changes after it has been emailed automatically. |
Confirmed | Finalized and agreed upon purchasing agreement. |
Completed | Products have been fulfilled and delivered according to the purchasing agreement. |
Cancelled | The purchasing agreement has been canceled and closed. |
Error | Something went wrong with the PO usually some type of data issue. |
Shipments
Status | Notes |
Draft | A possible shipment from the supplier. |
Awaiting Shipment | The shipment has not been sent by the supplier yet, but you have been notified of the details of what they plan to send. |
In Transit | The supplier has sent the inventory to the inventory location. |
Arrived | The shipment is at the inventory location but receiving and inspection have not started. |
Processing | The inventory location is in the process of receiving and inspecting. |
Discrepancy | Some expected units were received and inspected. Some expected units were missing or damaged. |
Complete | All expected units sent were received and inspected. |
Cancelled | Shipment was canceled and closed. |
Error | Something went wrong with the Shipment, usually some type of data issue. |
How do I create a purchase order?
Step 1 - Go to the Purchase Orders view.
Step 2 - Create a new Purchase Order.
Use the blue ACTIONS button on the top right of your view and select Create Purchase Order from the options.
Step 3 - Follow the steps in the Purchase Order workflow.
Select a supplier to purchase from.
If you select a supplier only products which have that supplier assigned will show later in the process to be purchased. Learn how to assign SKUs to suppliers.
Although not recommended you can just select None if you are just testing or just need to create a PO to notify inventory locations that the product is coming. Just keep in mind you won't be able to benefit from some of the other features of this PO.
If you know which inventory locations will receive inventory and how much you can select them here. If not you can just select "None" from the drop down.
Click the blue ADD SKU button to open your catalog view to add products to your purchase order.
Then search and filter for the SKUs you want to add to the purchase order, then adjust the Quantity field next to each SKU and click the + button to add them into the purchase order.
Last fill in the quantity you want to send to each inventory location if you know. This can always be adjusted later.
If you don't know you can always Skip this part after you've added your SKUs.Review delivery sites. This is only if you filled out the quantities for each inventory location in the previous step.
Review the purchase orders as a whole. You can also print a copy or email it directly to the supplier in this step.