Purchase Order Automation

Two ways in, one screen

From Expenses → Purchases, New Purchase offers Process document or enter manually:

• Process a document — upload or pull a supplier invoice and AI extracts the supplier, dates and line items. See Document Intake.
• Enter PO details manually — build the order yourself when you are ordering ahead of any paperwork.

Both routes end on the same page with the same pricing and tax controls. Work in progress saves as you go — Draft saved automatically — and unfinished orders sit under Drafts.

Common Tasks

How to Create a Purchase Order Manually (new PO, raise purchase order, order stock)

Use this when you are ordering ahead of receiving any supplier paperwork.

Required permission: Purchase order create

1. Go to Expenses → Purchases in the left sidebar
2. Click New Purchase and choose Enter PO details manually
3. Choose the supplier, or create one if this is a new relationship
4. Click Add Item to open the catalogue picker and choose products — rows land straight in the table
5. For each line set the Product & Unit, the quantity and the unit cost
6. Check the tax treatment on each line
7. Set payment terms such as Net 30 if they apply
8. When the footer reads Ready to create, click Create Purchase

Result: The purchase order is created and can be sent to the supplier. Stock does not move yet — that happens on receipt.

Note: A line showing No price or No tax will block creation. The footer tells you what is outstanding rather than failing silently on submit.

How to Add a Product That Does Not Exist Yet (new product on PO, create product while ordering, product not in catalogue)

You do not have to leave the purchase to set up a product.

Required permission: Purchase order create, product create

1. While building the purchase, click New Product beside Add Item
2. Fill in the product drawer — what it is, how it is packaged, and the money
3. Save the product
4. It is added to the purchase as a line

Result: The product exists in your catalogue and is on the order, without interrupting what you were doing.

Note: Set the packaging correctly at this point — how many units are in a case, and which unit you sell in. Getting it wrong here propagates into stock counts, recipe costs and reorder figures.

How to Receive Goods (goods receipt, delivery arrived, receive stock, book in delivery)

Receiving is what actually moves stock and books the cost. Record what arrived, not what was ordered.

Required permission: Purchase order receive

1. Go to Expenses → Purchases and open the purchase order
2. Choose Receive Goods
3. For each line under Line Items, enter the quantity in Receiving. The Variance column shows the difference against what was ordered
4. Record Lot/Expiry where the product is tracked by batch
5. Review the Accounting Impact panel
6. Confirm the receipt

Result: Stock increases by the quantities you received, the cost is booked, and the product’s average cost is updated.

Note: You cannot receive more than was ordered. If the supplier over-delivered, amend the order first, then receive.

How to Receive a Partial Delivery (short delivery, part shipment, partial receipt, backorder)

Suppliers often deliver in instalments. Receive what came and leave the rest open.

1. Open the purchase order and choose Receive Goods
2. Enter only the quantities that actually arrived
3. Leave the remaining lines at zero
4. Confirm the receipt

Result: Stock increases only by what arrived. The order stays open for the balance and can be received again when the rest turns up.

Note: Record the shortfall accurately. A delivery marked complete when it was short becomes an unexplained stock loss weeks later at a count.

How to Review Kitchen Ingredients on a Delivery (kitchen review, ingredient matching on receipt, link ingredients)

When a delivery includes items your recipes use, receipt is the moment to confirm how they map to kitchen ingredients.

1. Receive the goods as usual
2. Open the kitchen review for the receipt
3. Confirm or correct the ingredient each product is matched to
4. Check the unit conversion between the purchase unit and the recipe unit

Result: Recipes using those ingredients pick up the cost from this delivery, so food costs reflect what you just paid.

Note: Only confirm matches you are sure of. A confirmed wrong match produces a plausible but incorrect recipe cost, which is harder to spot than no cost at all. See Kitchen Stock.

How to Add or Change the Supplier Invoice Number (invoice reference, supplier invoice number, add invoice ref)

Add the supplier's own invoice number to a purchase without reopening the whole order.

1. Open the purchase order
2. Click the invoice reference pill in the header
3. Enter the supplier’s invoice number
4. Save

Result: The reference is stored against the purchase. A confirmation reads Invoice reference added or Invoice reference updated.

Note: Worth doing consistently — it is how you match a purchase to a supplier statement when reconciling what you owe.

How to Update Selling Prices When Costs Change (reprice, cost increase, margin, update price on delivery)

A delivery is when you learn your new cost. Check the effect on margin while the invoice is in front of you.

1. Open the purchase and review the line pricing
2. Compare the new unit cost against the current selling price and the resulting margin
3. Where margin is no longer acceptable, update the selling price from the pricing panel
4. Complete the purchase

Result: Stock is received at the new cost and any prices you changed are updated at the same time.

Note: Replenish → Price Watch is the other half of this — it surfaces cost movements across all suppliers rather than one delivery at a time. See Replenish.

How to Delete a Purchase Order (cancel purchase, delete PO, reverse purchase)

Remove a purchase raised in error.

Required permission: Purchase order delete (manager level)

1. Go to Expenses → Purchases and open the purchase order
2. Delete it and confirm

Result: The purchase is removed and any accounting it created is reversed, so the ledger does not keep a cost for a purchase that no longer exists.

Note: If goods were already received against it, the stock movement is reversed too. Check the product’s stock afterwards to confirm it landed where you expect.

How to Find a Past Purchase (purchase history, find PO, search purchases)

Filter the purchases list to what you are looking for.

1. Go to Expenses → Purchases
2. Filter by supplier, status, category or project
3. Adjust the date range — the default window does not cover all time
4. Use All time if the purchase is older than the current window

Result: The list narrows to matching purchases.

Note: If a purchase seems missing, widen the date range before assuming it was deleted — the list is date-bounded by default.

Purchase order or expense bill?

The distinction decides whether stock moves and when the cost hits your profit and loss:

• Purchase order — you are buying thingsthat go on a shelf. The cost is capitalised into inventory and reaches the profit and loss when the item is sold or consumed.
• Expense bill — you are buying a service or an overhead. The cost hits the profit and loss immediately. See Expense Management.

One supplier document can contain both — a stock delivery with a delivery charge. Processing it through the workbench handles the mix.