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Creating a purchase order

A purchase order (PO) formalises your commitment to a vendor and starts the procure-to-pay cycle. You create it in a few steps, add line items, then submit it for approval.

  1. From the purchase dashboard, choose Create PO. Your active business unit carries over from the dashboard.
  2. Select the supplier from the Vendor Master. If the vendor isn’t there yet, add a new vendor inline using the vendor form, once saved, it’s immediately selectable. A PO can’t be saved without a valid supplier.
  3. Choose a delivery/source address: from the vendor’s saved addresses, a map pin, or manual entry.
  4. Select the receiving warehouse (see below).
  5. Set the header details: expected date, payment and delivery terms, and currency.

The receiving warehouse decides where the goods receipt posts and which stock balance updates.

  • Pick it from a list of your active warehouses; it defaults to your organisation’s default warehouse.
  • For split receipts, you can override the warehouse per line.
  • Once a goods receipt exists against the order, the header warehouse is locked.
  • If your organisation has a single warehouse, this shows as a read-only value rather than a picker.
  • A PO records its transaction currency and the equivalent in your base currency, with an exchange rate.
  • Currency defaults to the vendor’s preferred currency (or your base currency if none). The exchange rate auto-populates and can be edited with permission.
  • The PO is auto-numbered using your configured series.
  • You can optionally create a PO from an accepted vendor quote, with the header pre-filled.
  1. Save the order, a valid PO (a supplier plus at least one line) saves as Draft with its unique PO number, and you land on the detail page. (You add line items separately, see Adding line items.)
  2. When ready, Submit the draft. It moves to Pending Approval and routes to the approver(s).
  3. You can discard a draft you no longer need.

Only users with purchase-create permission can create a PO, and every creation is audit-logged.