Creating a Purchase Order

A purchase order (PO) is the order you place with a vendor. It starts life as a Draft and then moves through an approval workflow before it's sent — see Tracking a Purchase Order's Status.

If you have not settled the price yet, ask several suppliers first — awarding a quote creates the purchase order for you, already priced.

StepsCopy Anchor Link

1. Open Purchases → Purchase Orders from the sidebar and click New PO.
2. Click Select vendor… — a drawer opens where you can search and pick the supplier. Once picked, a Change link lets you swap it. (No vendors yet? Add one first.)
3. Optionally pick an Expected Delivery Date and add Notes for the order.
4. In the Line Items card, click Add item — an item picker drawer opens. Selecting an item adds a line to the order.
5. On each line, set:
   • Qty — how much to order. Fractional quantities are allowed where the unit supports them (e.g. 0.5 KG); units that only come whole will tell you "Whole … only".
   • Unit — the ordering unit of measure. It defaults to the item's purchase-default unit; if you pick a non-base unit, a subtext shows the base equivalent (e.g. "10 CASE = 240 EACH").
   • Unit Price — the cost you owe the supplier. It fills in from what you have agreed with this vendor, and grey text under the line says where the figure came from. See Where a Purchase-Order Cost Comes From. If nothing is on file the field stays empty and you type the cost — it is never guessed from the item's selling price.
6. Remove a line with the × at its right edge.
7. Check the Order Summary card on the right — line count and the order Total update live.
8. Save from the amber bar at the bottom. The order is created as a Draft with today's date, and you're taken to its detail page to submit it for approval.

Catch-weight itemsCopy Anchor Link

For items sold by measured weight (e.g. crates of fresh produce), the line shows an expected weight subtext — quantity × the unit's nominal weight, such as "50 CRATE ≈ 1,000 kg expected". This is a planning figure only; the actual stocked quantity is the weight measured at goods receipt.