Purchase Order

What a purchase order is

A purchase order is what you send a vendor to order goods or services: what you want, at what price and by when.

It is a commitment to buy, not yet a bill. When the vendor's bill arrives you convert the order into a purchase, so nothing has to be typed twice.

Find your way round the list

Open Purchases & Expenses in the sidebar and choose Purchase Orders. Before your first order the page shows a short introduction with a Create First Purchase Order button. After that it opens on Overview, with your orders listed newest first.

• Create Purchase Order opens a blank order. The arrow beside it also offers Scan Purchase Order and Bulk Scan Purchase Orders, which read an order in from a file.
• The tabs are Overview, Active (the list on its own) and Deleted (deleted orders, which can be restored). Scanned Documents and Tag-wise Report open their own pages.
• Filters narrows the page by Status, Vendor, Contact and Date Range. Purchase Order Summary under it counts the orders and drafts that match.
• The Convert PO column has a Convert to Purchase link on every open order.
• In the Email Vendor column, (Send) beside Not Sent opens the email form for that order.
• Each row ends with icons for Quick Preview, Open in New Tab, Edit and Duplicate, and a ⋯ menu with everything else.

Create a purchase order

Click Create Purchase Order. The page that opens is the order itself: you fill it in where it will print. Your own business is Order By, on the left.

1. 1Check the Purchase Order No and P.O. Date. The next number in your series is filled in, with the last one used shown as Last No.
2. 2Due Date is set for you from Default Due Date in Business Settings. Change it, click the gear beside it to set it in days, or remove it with the ×.
3. 3Under Order To, pick the vendor from Select Vendor By Bill, or click Add New Vendor to create one without leaving the page.
4. 4Add what you are ordering in Item Name / SKU Id, with the quantity and rate. Add New Line adds another item and Add New Group adds a heading.
5. 5Click Add VAT above the items to choose the tax, and add discounts, charges, shipping details, terms or notes as the order needs.
6. 6Click Save & Continue to save the order and open its page. Save & Create New saves it and starts another, and Save As Draft keeps it as a draft.

• An order needs a number, a date, a vendor, a currency and at least one named item before it can be saved.
• The page is the one used for invoices, so the totals, shipping details, signature, terms, notes and attachments work the same way. The invoice guide describes each part.

Send it to the vendor

Saving opens the order on its own page, with the printed copy in the middle and the actions along the top.

• On the order page, Share holds Send Email, Send WhatsApp and the public link, and Download / Print holds Print and Download. In the list, the ⋯ menu of a row has Send Email, Send Whatsapp, Copy Purchase Order link and Download.
• Tick Mark Purchase Order Sent on the order page to set its status to Sent when you have sent it yourself.
• Customize Purchase Order Design on the order page changes the template, colour and font, letterhead and footer, page size and watermark.
• If you use approval workflows, Send for Approval puts the order on one before it goes out.

Turn the order into a purchase

When the vendor's bill arrives, the order becomes the purchase you pay.

1. 1Find the order in the list and click Convert to Purchase in its Convert PO column. The same entry is in the ⋯ menu on the order page.
2. 2A new purchase opens, filled in from the order, with the same vendor.
3. 3Add the vendor's own invoice number, check the figures against the bill, and save the purchase.
4. 4The order then reads Converted.

Start from a sales document

If you are ordering what a client has just ordered from you, start from their document.

1. 1Open the ⋯ menu of a quotation, proforma invoice or invoice and choose Convert to Purchase Order.
2. 2KyDec opens a purchase order filled in with the same items.
3. 3Check Order To. It carries the party from the document you started with, so choose the vendor you are ordering from. Then click Save & Continue.

• A purchase order can also go the other way: its menu has Convert to Quotation, Convert to Proforma Invoice and Convert to Invoice.

Statuses and rules worth knowing

• An order is Draft when saved with Save As Draft and Created once saved in full. Sent is one you have marked as sent, Converted is one a document has been made from, and Cancelled is one you have cancelled.
• Only an open order can be cancelled. A draft is deleted instead. Revert reopens a cancelled order.
• A deleted order is kept under Deleted, where Restore brings it back and Delete Permanently removes it for good.
• Duplicate starts a new order with the same items, terms, tax and design. The vendor, number and dates are left for you to fill in.