Purchase Order
Go to: Purchase → Purchase Order
A Purchase Order is the commitment: this supplier, these items, this quantity, this price, by this date. It is the only mandatory document in the purchase cycle, and it is the anchor everything downstream hangs off — receipts, invoices, and payments all trace back to it.
Approving a purchase order moves no stock and posts no accounting entry. It records what you have promised to buy. Stock arrives with the GRN; the payable appears with the Purchase Invoice.
Where the items come from
Unlike a GRN, a purchase order can be typed from scratch. It can also pull rows from three sources:
| Source | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Purchase Request | An internal need was raised and approved |
| Supplier Quotation | You compared offers and picked a winner — the quotation becomes Linked, even on a partial order |
| Sales Order | You are buying specifically to fulfil a customer order |
| Typed directly | Routine repeat buying where supplier and price are already known |
Header fields
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Number | Auto-generated document number |
| Supplier | Who you are ordering from |
| Posting Date | Date the order is raised |
| Required By | Date you need the goods — drives receipt expectations |
| Priority | Low / Medium / High |
| Currency / Exchange Rate | Currency of the order |
| Payment Term / Price Term | Commercial terms |
| Supplier Purchase Order | The supplier’s own reference for this order |
| Deliver To / Bill To | Addresses printed on the order |
| Contact Person / Supplier Info | Who to deal with |
| Terms and Conditions | Free text or a saved template |
| Has Advance Payment | Whether an advance is being paid against this order |
| Is Subcontracted | Marks this as a subcontracting order |
| Status | Derived — see Statuses |
Totals
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Total Amount | Sum of item lines before tax |
| Discount Type / Percentage / Amount | Order-level discount |
| Apply Discount After Tax | Whether the discount applies before or after tax |
| Taxes Total / Total Charges / Total Taxes and Charges | Tax and charge lines |
| Grand Total | The committed order value |
| Billed Amount | How much has been invoiced so far |
Item rows
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Item | What you are buying |
| Quantity | Quantity ordered |
| UOM / Conversion Factor | Purchase unit and factor to stock UOM |
| Price | Agreed unit rate |
| Tax Rate / Discount | Per-line tax and discount |
| Required By | Per-line need date |
| Received Quantity | Maintained automatically as GRNs are approved |
| Billed Quantity | Maintained automatically as invoices are posted |
Check the Conversion Factor when ordering in a bulk unit such as cartons or bales. It converts the purchase unit to the item’s stock unit, and it flows through the GRN into the item’s cost rate — a wrong factor corrupts your valuation.
Creating a purchase order
Open the screen
Navigate to Purchase → Purchase Order and click New.
Select the supplier
Currency, payment term, and addresses default from the supplier record.
Pull in items, or type them
Use Get Items to pull rows from a purchase request, supplier quotation, or sales order — or add item rows directly.
Set quantities, prices, and dates
Confirm quantity, unit, agreed price, and the Required By date.
Check taxes, discounts, and the grand total
Verify the committed value against what was quoted or negotiated.
Save, then approve
An approved order is what the receiving team can raise a GRN against.
Statuses
Purchase order status is derived, never chosen. ERPX totals the received and billed quantities across every order line and works it out:
| Received complete? | Billed complete? | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Completed |
| No | Yes | To Receive |
| Yes | No | To Bill |
| No | No | To Receive And Bill |
Plus Draft before approval and Cancelled if withdrawn.
There is no partially-received status. A partial receipt leaves the order at To Receive And Bill — the status only tells you which of the two obligations are still outstanding, not how far along they are. For actual progress, read the Received Quantity and Billed Quantity on the item rows, or use the Pending Purchase Order report.
“Complete” is measured against a configurable tolerance percentage, so a small over- or under-receipt still counts as complete rather than leaving an order open forever over a rounding difference.
What happens after approval
Approval also closes the documents this order came from:
| Upstream document | Becomes | On |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase Request | Ordered | Purchase order approval |
| Supplier Quotation | Linked | Purchase order creation |
This happens in full, regardless of quantity. Ordering 100 units against a request or quotation for 500 still marks the whole request Ordered and the whole quotation Linked. Neither status means the original need has been fully covered — if you order in stages, raise a separate request for the balance.
Then, downstream:
| Next step | Where | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Goods Received Note | Inventory | Moves stock in, updates Received Quantity |
| Purchase Invoice | Financials | Books the payable, updates Billed Quantity |
| Payment Entry | Financials | Settles the supplier balance |
For stock items the purchase invoice is raised from the GRN, not from the order. Invoicing straight off a purchase order is restricted to service items, which never enter stock and so have no GRN.
Subcontracting orders
Switching Is Subcontracted on marks the order as a subcontracting purchase: you supply raw materials to a vendor and buy back the processed output. The order then carries the warehouses used to send and receive that material, and a subcontracting order is created when the purchase order is approved. See Subcontracting.
Advance payments
Has Advance Payment flags an order where the supplier is paid before delivery. The advance is recorded in Financials and settled against the eventual purchase invoice, so the supplier balance stays correct throughout.
Amending and cancelling
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Still Draft | Edit freely |
| Approved, nothing received or billed | Cancel and raise a corrected order |
| Partly received | Do not cancel — receive what is coming and close the balance |
| Supplier cannot deliver the rest | Cancel the remaining balance so the order stops showing as outstanding |
Cancelling an order that was created from a supplier quotation returns that quotation to Approved, so it can be used again.
Reports
| Report | Answers |
|---|---|
| Pending Purchase Order | Orders with quantity still to receive |
| Purchase by Supplier | Spend per supplier |
| Purchase by Item | Spend per item |
| Procurement Tracker | Request through to order fulfilment |
| Purchase Order Analysis | Order values and billing progress by fiscal year |
| Delivery Schedule Report | Whether the supplier hit the dates they committed to |
Tips
- Put the supplier’s own reference in Supplier Purchase Order. It is the first thing they ask for when you chase a delivery.
- Set Required By honestly — it is what the Delivery Schedule measures supplier performance against.
- Approve orders before goods arrive. Receiving is blocked without an approved order behind it.
- Do not raise a new order to fix a price on an existing one; cancel and reissue so the audit trail stays clean.
- Watch Billed Amount against Grand Total to catch over-billing before payment.