Skip to main content
All CollectionsPurchasesPurchase Orders
How to use and create Purchase orders?
How to use and create Purchase orders?
Nidhis A D avatar
Written by Nidhis A D
Updated over 2 months ago

What are Purchase Orders?

Purchase orders are documents created when placing an order with vendors or suppliers. This document includes the details on the items that are to be purchased, such as the types of products, quantity and price. The inventory of your products is pushed to the online stores as soon as you receive them in Sumtracker.

Create Purchase Orders

Head over to the Purchase Orders section from the sidebar and click on "New Purchase Order." Select the supplier for the PO from the Pop-up window and click on “Create Purchase Order.”

To input more order details, click on “Order details“ and add in the necessary information in the pop-up window. Use the tab key for quick navigation.

Click on Add Products and select the products to add to the purchase order.

You will then be able to add products and quantity you want to place an order for to the purchase order and the price information.

Creating a purchase order (Draft state) does not have any effect on the inventory. The change in the inventory will only be seen when you receive the products in the purchase order.

Purchase Order Fields Explained

Field

Description

Supplier

Choose and select the supplier you want to create a purchase order for

Warehouse

The warehouse where the inventory will be added.

Currency Conversion Rate

If your supplier trades in a different currency, it will be converted to the currency in your account. It is automatically filled when creating a purchase order in a different currency. You can change it manually if needed. Formula: Landed cost (in your currency) = Currency conversion rate * Landed cost in Purchase currency.

Billing Address

The billing address for the purchase order, by default will be the selected warehouse address. Can be changed if needed.

Shipping Address

The destination address for the products, by default will be the selected warehouse address. Can be changed if needed.

Reference

Add notes/references to uniquely identify the purchase order.

Ship By Date

The date by when this order is due to be shipped by your supplier.

Payment Terms

Automatically picked from Supplier details but can be changed directly in the purchase order as well.

Tracking Details

Include shipping and tracking details here for easy access.

Total Quantity

Total quantity of products ordered, calculated by summing all quantities in the purchase order.

Subtotal

Sum of all line totals in the purchase order without tax. Formula: Subtotal = summation of (price + shipping fee) * quantity of all lines.

Total Tax

Total tax = summation of (tax rate * price) * quantity for all lines.

Shipping Fee

Shipping fee for the entire purchase order, added separately over the shipping fee for each product.

Duties and Charges

Any additional charges on the purchase order.

Total Amount

Total amount = summation of line totals + shipping fee (in the Totals section) + Duties and Charges.


Purchase Order Statuses Explained

Status

Description

Draft

Automatically assigned when creating a new purchase order. No Inventory changes in this status.

Incoming

Adds the quantity as "incoming" to the product's stock. Can undo the incoming status whenever needed, even after receiving products partially.

Closed

Automatically closed once all products are received. Can be manually closed at any time and undone if needed.

Cancelled

You can mark the purchase order as cancelled. The inventory changes related to this PO will be reverted back. Learn More


Adding or Removing products

To add or remove products from a purchase order, make sure that the purchase order is in Draft status. If a product is already received, it cannot be edited. Once you’ve made sure of these, you can add, edit or delete products in the purchase order.

Add products individually

To add products, click "Add Products" to open the product selection window. You can search and select products using various filters, including Supplier SKU, overbooked products, below alert threshold, and more.

To display products exclusively from the selected supplier, toggle on the "Supplier" button in the product selection window.

Add bundle components

Bundles cannot be added to a Purchase order directly, but you can add all the components that make up the bundle at once easily. For adding bundle components, click the "Add Products" button and select "Add Bundle Components" from the dropdown. Search and add the bundle and quantity, and the components' quantities will be calculated automatically based on the bundle quantity. Then simply click on Add products and you will see that all the components have been added to the purchase order.

Add products using Barcode

If your products have barcodes in Sumtracker, use the "Scan" option in the Purchase order to add products by scanning their barcodes. This is useful for quickly adding multiple products without manually searching for each one. Learn more.

Add products using CSV upload

For adding a large number of products in Bulk, use the CSV upload feature. Learn more.

Removing a product from the purchase order

To remove a product from the purchase order, simply click on the trash icon located beside the product to remove the product from the purchase order.

Exporting products added to Purchase Orders

You can also export the list of products added to the purchase orders. To export it in CSV format, from the Purchase order, click on the 3 dots at the top right corner and select the 'Export' option.

A CSV file with all the information related to the products in the purchase order will be exported.

Purchase Order Sharing options

Email Purchase Orders

You can share, print or email purchase orders to your supplier directly from Sumtracker. Emails are by default sent to the email ID stored in the supplier details. If there is no email ID stored in the supplier information, you can enter in the recipient’s email ID. The purchase order will be sent as an attachment in the email.

If the supplier replies to the email, their response will be directed to the email address of the Sumtracker user who sent the purchase order.

Share Purchase Orders

You can print the purchase order as well or directly share the link to the purchase order. Any one with the link can access the purchase order online.

After adding the products and necessary details, click on the three dots at the top right corner. From the dropdown, select "Share." This will copy the purchase order link to your clipboard, which you can then share with anyone.

Print Purchase Orders

To print the purchase order, click on print icon at top right corner and a print preview screen will be opened where you can then go ahead and print it.

Print Settings

You can manage some of the details that gets printed in the purchase order.

  • The next purchase order document number, the purchase order number that will get assigned to the next purchase order that is created.

  • Purchase order Prefix: a fixed prefix for your purchase order documents for future purchase orders. You can set it to match your existing workflow. By default, it is PO (PO2345) you can change it to look like ACMEPO2345.

  • You can control whether to print the following: Product barcode, Purchase order line notes, Product and variant name, SKU, Supplier SKU, Price, Product images.

  • You can also add/edit footer terms.

To access these settings, click on Print settings from the More options drop down.

Receiving Products in Purchase Orders

Products can only be received if the purchase order is in the Incoming state. To mark the purchase order as Incoming, click on 'Mark Incoming' within the purchase order.

You have the option to receive products either fully or partially.

Receive all products

You can receive all the items orders in a single shipment. Once you have received the products, a receive note will be generated. Learn more.

To ‘Receive all Products’:

  • Click on ‘Receive Products' in the purchase order

  • Select 'Receive all Products’.

All the products will be marked as received and the purchase order will be closed.

Receive products partially

You can receive some products and receive the rest at a later point. Learn More

  • Click on ‘Receive Products' in the purchase order

  • Select ‘Receive Products Partially’. A new receive note will be created

  • Add the products you’ve received by clicking on ‘Add products'.

  • Add in the quantity that you’ve received

  • Click on 'Mark as Received'.

In this case, every time you receive a shipment of products, a new receive note is created. You can view all receive notes associated with the purchase order by clicking on 'Receive Products' within the purchase order.

Cancelling a Purchase Order

No inventory changes occur when cancelling a draft purchase order. For incoming purchase orders, the incoming quantity will revert back when the purchase order is cancelled. You can cancel a purchase order only when it is in the Draft or Incoming state. If it is in the incoming state, no products should have been received, which means no Receive notes should be marked as received.

To cancel the purchase order, click the dropdown arrow in the 'Mark Incoming' button and select 'Mark Cancelled.'

How to Undo Mark Incoming?

When you undo incoming, the incoming quantity reduces.

If there are any received notes created, you need to first ‘Undo Mark as Received’ and delete the receive note before you can Undo Mark Incoming.

Once you’ve made sure of this, you can undo incoming.

To Undo Mark Incoming:

  • Click on the dropdown arrow in the ‘Mark Closed’ button in the PO

  • Then click on ‘Undo Mark Incoming’.

Deleting a Purchase Order

To delete a purchase order, make sure it is in the draft state. If you have received products in the purchase order, undo all the received notes against this purchase order and revert the purchase order to the draft status by clicking on Undo incoming.

Then click on the 3 dots at the top right corner of the purchase order and click on Delete from the dropdown menu.


Did this answer your question?