Ordering stock with purchase orders
How to raise a purchase order with a supplier, add products and costs, submit it, and receive the delivery into a branch's stock.
A purchase order (PO) records what you ordered from a supplier, for which branch and at what cost. When the delivery arrives, receiving the PO adds the stock to that branch in one step and keeps your cost prices up to date.
How a purchase order moves
- Draft: you are still adding products. Nothing has happened to stock.
- Submitted: the order is final and sent to the supplier. No more products can be added.
- Received: the delivery has been booked in and the stock added.
Create the order
- Open Inventory → Purchase Orders and press New Purchase Order (or New PO on the Inventory dashboard).
- Choose the Supplier and the Receiving Branch, the branch the goods will be delivered to. The supplier must already be on your supplier list.
- Press Create Draft PO. The PO page opens with its number (for example PO-00001) and the status Draft.
Add the products
- On the Line Items tab, pick a Product. The list shows each product's current cost.
- Enter the Quantity. The Unit Cost is filled in with the product's current cost price; change it if the supplier has quoted a different price.
- Press Add Item. Repeat for each product. The Total PO Amount updates as you go.
Check the lines carefully: once added, a line cannot be changed or removed from the order.
Submit the order
When the list is complete, press Submit PO. The status changes to Submitted and the order is locked. The Overview tab shows the supplier, branch, who created it and the total.
Receive the delivery
When the goods arrive, open the PO and press Receive Stock. StyleDesk then:
- adds every line's quantity to the receiving branch's stock, shown as Purchase Received in each product's Stock Ledger;
- sets each product's Cost Price to the unit cost on this order, and adds a line to its Cost History with the supplier's name;
- marks the PO Received; the Receiving History tab shows when.
Receiving is all at once: there is no way to receive part of an order now and the rest later. If the supplier delivers fewer units than ordered, receive the order and then record the missing units with a Manual Decrease stock adjustment, with the PO number in the notes. For a large back-order it is cleaner to raise a separate PO for the items still to come.
Finding orders
The Purchase Orders list shows the PO Number, Supplier, Branch, Status, Total Amount and Created Date. Search by PO number or supplier, or filter by status. When a branch is selected at the top of the page, only that branch's orders are listed; switch to All Branches to see them all (see switching branch).
Owners and managers can create, submit and receive purchase orders. Receptionists can view them.