Creating Purchase Orders

Before you attempt to create a purchase order, please ensure that you have created vendor profiles and assigned products to vendors. You can learn more about vendor profiles here. 

Things to know:

• The ability to create purchase orders is governed by the "Manage Purchase Orders" access control setting.
• Once the "Allow Updating Cost of PO (Purchase Order) After Submission" setting is enabled, you can update the cost of a purchase order after it has been submitted, as long as the purchase order status has not yet changed to "Completed." 
• When the "Allow Updating Cost of PO After Submission" setting is enabled, you can edit the following columns:
  • In the "Ordered" status: cost and shipping fee
  • In the "Checked-In" status: cost-related columns (cost, vendor discount, net cost, price, % margin), as well as add to retail, add to back bar, damaged/defective, and notes.
  • In the "Completed" status, all cost-related columns (cost, vendor discount, net cost, price, % margin) will be visible but not editable.
• When the "Allow Updating Cost of PO After Submission" setting is disabled:
  • In the "Ordered" status, only the shipping fee column can be edited
  • In the "Checked-In" status, you can edit the Add to Retail, Add to Back Bar, Damaged/Defective, and Notes columns. The vendor discount, net cost, price, and % margin columns will not be displayed, and the cost column will be visible but not editable.
  • In the "Completed" status, cost-related columns (cost, vendor discount, net cost, price, % margin) will be visible but not editable.
    
• If access control to product quantity/price/cost is blocked, a '-' will be shown instead of the value.
• When creating a purchase order, each product displays an inventory forecast chart and a forecast icon.
  • Inventory Forecast Chart
    • The chart appears next to each product.
    • It will be inactive if the product has no forecast data or was not auto-generated by forecast.
    • Clicking the chart icon opens a modal showing the Forecast Data Chart, which includes:
    • Training Data (Blue): Historical usage data used to train the forecasting model.
    • Forecast Data (Orange): Predicted demand for the selected date range.
  • Forecast Icon
  • Clicking the icon opens a modal displaying the product’s historical consumption over the past 30, 60, and 90 days.
  • Data is displayed even if there was no consumption during those periods.
  • Staff can quickly review details such as timeframes, total consumption, and average weekly usage.
  • This provides valuable insights to support better inventory decisions.
• If you have more than 1,000 vendors, only the first 1,000 will appear in the vendor dropdown list when creating a purchase order.
• Once a purchase order is submitted, it can be exported as a CSV, printed, or emailed to the vendor.
• Fractional quantities can be added to purchase orders, allowing you to specify quantities using decimals instead of whole numbers. This feature is controlled by the "Enable Fractional Quantities" setting. When enabled, you can enter fractional quantities while the purchase order is in the draft or check-in status.

• Draft purchase orders will display the following information:

  • Quantity on Hand: Shows the current stock level in retail inventory

  • Max: Indicates the desired maximum stock level for optimal inventory management, used to calculate the reorder quantity.

• You can filter the Purchase Orders page by location, status, and vendor to help narrow down your view. Below is a breakdown of how each filter works:
  • Location Filter:
  • You can only filter by one location at a time. 
  • Use this to view purchase orders associated with a specific location.
  • Status Filter:
  • You can filter by a specific status or choose to view all statuses. The available options are:
  • All Statuses
  • Draft
  • Requested
  • Ordered
  • Checking In
  • Completed
  • Canceled
  • Vendor Filter: 
  • You can filter by a specific vendor, or choose to view purchase orders from all vendors. This helps quickly find orders associated with a particular supplier.

• For purchase orders in draft status, you can edit the min and max stock levels for a product, and the changes will be updated immediately on the inventory page.
  

To create a purchase order:

1. Navigate to POS > Inventory
2. Select Purchase Orders from the left panel 
3. Click the Create Purchase Order button in the upper right corner 
4. Choose a supplier from the Vendor list, then select Next
5. Add products to your purchase order 
   • Option 1: To add products, expand the product library at the bottom left of the page. Search for a product by using the product name, SKUs or barcode, then select the Product Name. (Important: If you choose Auto Generate PO after searching, it will override your search terms.)
   • Option 2: Auto-Generate Purchase Orders - Automatically create draft purchase orders using one of the following methods:
   • By Max Quantity: Compares the current stock levels to the maximum quantity set for each SKU at the selected location. A draft purchase order is generated to replenish stock up to the max quantity. Learn more here.
   • By Forecast: Uses predictive analytics based on seasonality, business trends, and SKU popularity to estimate demand and generate a draft purchase order accordingly. Learn more here.

      

6. Once the products are added, you can:
   • View vendor details, including the vendor name and account number.
   • Add a Purchase Order (PO) ID and Invoice ID.
   • Select the order date (by default, it’s set to the current date, but you can change it to a past or future date).
   • Choose the payment method if multiple options are configured.
   • Select the location where the products will be delivered.
   • Review all products in the purchase order, along with SKU numbers, vendor IDs, and current stock levels.
   • Click the forecast chart or icon next to a product to view detailed data such as historical usage, predicted demand, and past consumption, helping staff make informed inventory decisions.
   • Edit the minimum or maximum stock levels by clicking on the current value and entering a new one.
   • Adjust the quantity to specify how much you will order from the vendor.
   • Update the cost field to reflect the amount you will pay the vendor for the product.
   • View the subtotal of the purchase order before adding any shipping fees.
   • Add a shipping fee, representing the shipping cost charged by the vendor.
   • See the overall total of the purchase order.
   • Add a note if needed.
   • Remove items from the purchase order by clicking the trash icon next to each product.

     
     

7. You can submit the purchase order or save it as a draft 

Once submitted, you can export it as an excel or a PDF, print it, or email the PO to the vendor.

    Related Articles:

• Email / Print / Export Purchase Order
• Receiving Purchase Orders 
• Purchase Order Auto Generate Feature and Searching for Products
• Searching for Products When Creating Purchase Orders
• Exporting Purchase Order
• Importing Purchase Orders via CSV File (Ingest Data)