Purchase Orders

Purchase orders are contracts placed with vendors for the purchase of materials or service. Purchase order records contain general information about the purchase including the requestor, when items are required, the vendor, and more.

Details about each item or service are entered and maintained on purchase order line items. Your system configuration determines which stock items, services, and other types of items can be added as line items, how tax rates are handled for each line item, and so on.

Additional processing and record actions on the purchase order allows you to print the purchase order record, create a new revision, create a shipping memo, issue the purchase order to the vendor, expedite the purchase order, complete a Revision to the PO, and submit the purchase order for approval. After the purchase order is approved within your organization and issued to the vendor, next steps involve waiting for the items to be received, receiving items into the system, and creating invoices for purchase order line items. Refer to About Receiving for more information.

When changes are made to the purchase order, the document may or may not need to re-enter the approval process depending on your business practices and system settings. Your system may also be set so that the purchase order will transition directly to the approved or issued state, for instance, if the order was created by batch stock reorder. Note that only certain fields can be edited on an issued purchase order. If further updates are needed, such as changes that affect the pricing or quantity ordered, you have to create a new revision and resubmit to the vendor. Refer to Understanding Purchasing for more information.

Purchase orders affect the On Order quantity for stock.