A Purchase Order (PO) is a commitment to buy from a supplier. It is the procurement counterpart of a Sales Order: it records what you intend to buy before the supplier bills you. A PO does not hit the General Ledger — it is a planning and control document. When goods arrive and the supplier sends a bill, you convert the PO into a Bill.
Plan availability: Purchase Orders depend on your subscription. If you don't see them in your menu, your plan may not include them — see Subscriptions & billing, or ask your workspace owner.
Step by step
Create a purchase order
- Open AP (Purchases) ▸ Purchase Orders and click New Purchase Order.
- Pick the Supplier (archived suppliers do not appear).
- The PO number comes from your numbering sequence — see Settings.
- Set the Order date and an optional Expected date.
- Add line items: product/service, description, quantity, unit price, tax.
- Save as draft, or Save and submit if approvals are on.
Approve a purchase order
PO approvals depend on your plan and settings. When they are enabled for your organization, a PO must be Approved before it can be received or converted. Only users allowed to approve purchases will see the Approve action; pending POs appear in their approval queue.
Receive goods
PO receiving depends on your plan and settings. When it is enabled, use Receive PO to record partial or full receipts against the PO. Receiving updates the received quantity on each line and, for stocked items, can feed Inventory.
Convert to a bill
When the supplier's invoice arrives, use Create Bill to convert the PO to a Bill. The bill inherits the supplier, lines, and amounts; you then post and pay it normally. If 3-way matching is enabled for your organization, the bill is checked against the PO and the recorded receipt before posting.
What posts to the GL
A PO is procurement, not accounting — it never writes a journal at any stage:
| Stage | Journal? |
|---|---|
| Draft / Pending Approval / Approved | No journal |
| Receive PO (partial or full) | No journal — only the received-quantity counters update |
| Create Bill | A draft bill is created — still no journal |
| Post that bill | Journal posted (see Bills — How the journal looks) |
This is why a PO does not need a period to be open, does not age in AP, and does not surface on financial reports. It is a planning and control document. The cost only hits the books when the supplier's bill is actually posted.
With 3-way matching enabled: converting a PO to a bill verifies that the bill's quantities and amounts match the PO and the goods receipt before posting is allowed. Mismatches block posting until you reconcile them.
Lifecycle
Draft ──Submit (approvals on)──▶ Pending Approval ──Approve──▶ Approved
Approved ──Receive PO──▶ Partially Received / Received
Approved / Received ──Create Bill──▶ Bill
Common mistakes
- "3-way match blocked the bill." With 3-way matching enabled, the bill's quantities and amounts must match the PO and the recorded goods receipt before posting. Open the bill side-by-side with the PO + receipt to find the variance — fix either side, then re-post.
- Partial receipt then convert. Converting a PO with only a partial goods receipt creates a bill for the received quantities only. The PO stays open for the remainder until you receive (or close) it.
- Cancelled PO with received goods. You cannot cancel a PO that has received stock — the inventory has already moved. Convert to a bill for the received portion first, then cancel the remainder.
- Currency drift. A PO carries the supplier's currency. When converting to a bill, the bill takes the rate at the bill date, not the PO date — see Multi-currency.
Behaviour and rules
- No GL impact. A PO never posts journal entries. Only the resulting Bill does.
- Plan-dependent. Purchase Orders — and the optional approvals, receiving, and 3-way matching steps — depend on your subscription plan and your organization's settings. If a step described here is missing, ask your workspace administrator.