Purchase orders

Create purchase-order drafts, open them, and receive stock against outstanding lines.

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Use Inventory → Purchase orders to manage supplier replenishment, supplier issue, goods receipt, and short-closing outstanding supplier commitments.

Flow

  1. Create a draft purchase order header.
  2. Add one or more stock lines with ordered quantity, optional unit cost, and a tax code. Draft and open lines can be saved individually or selected in bulk and deleted while they remain unreceived and not short-closed.
  3. Open the purchase order once the draft is ready.
  4. Record supplier issue from the purchase order detail page when the order is sent to the supplier, then print the supplier-facing purchase order output.
  5. Receive stock against one outstanding line at a time.
  6. Short-close outstanding lines with a reason when the supplier will not deliver the remaining quantity.
  7. Let the purchase order move to Partially delivered or Delivered.

Draft headers use the reusable supplier picker so active suppliers can be searched by supplier code, name, contact details, or postcode. Leave currency blank to use the selected supplier’s default currency when one is configured; otherwise ChannelWeave uses the account inventory valuation currency as the explicit starting value. Every saved purchase order has a three-letter currency code. When a stock item is picked for a draft line, ChannelWeave pre-fills the unit cost from the stock item’s current cost price so it can be reviewed before the line is added.

Purchase-order amounts always show their explicit currency code and use that currency's ISO minor units. JPY displays without a fabricated decimal part; the other currently supported currencies display two decimal places. ChannelWeave does not infer an exchange rate from the supplier country.

Purchase-order line quantities are entered in the stock item’s purchase unit. ChannelWeave stores the entered purchase unit on the line and converts the quantity into the stock item’s base unit for goods receipt, stock history, warehouse balances, and valuation.

The conversion rate is the stock valuation currency value for one unit of the purchase-order currency. For example, if your account values stock in GBP and the purchase order is in USD, 0.790000 means 1 USD = 0.79 GBP. Goods receipts keep the supplier unit cost, supplier currency, conversion rate, and converted valuation unit cost for later valuation and costing reports.

When the purchase-order and inventory valuation currencies match, ChannelWeave fixes the conversion rate at 1. When they differ, you must enter a positive conversion rate explicitly before the draft can be saved. ChannelWeave does not fetch a live rate or silently assume that different currencies are equal.

Statuses

Purchase orders use these statuses:

  • Draft: header and lines can still be edited
  • Open: ready for supplier issue, line amendments, and receiving, but nothing has been received yet
  • Partially delivered: some stock has been received, but lines remain outstanding
  • Delivered: all lines are complete by receipt or short-close, or the order was explicitly closed as delivered
  • Cancelled: the order was cancelled before completion

Rules

  • Supplier details, including address country, are snapshotted onto the purchase order so historic documents stay stable
  • Before supplier issue, printable purchase-order previews use the current account identity from Settings. The first supplier issue captures that purchaser name, address including country, email, and telephone on the purchase order so later account-detail changes do not rewrite the issued output.
  • Purchase-order numbers are unique within each customer account and display in the same padded style as sales orders, for example PO-000001
  • Line tax uses active account-managed codes from Settings → Tax codes. No tax code calculates zero line tax without a selected code or rate.
  • Line edits default to Keep recorded tax. Quantity or cost changes retain the recorded rate, including inactive codes and lines without a code. Explicitly selecting a code applies its current account rate instead.
  • Purchase-order totals are recalculated from line net, tax, and gross amounts whenever lines are added, edited, or removed
  • The order screen and printed purchase order use Tax and Tax total.
  • Over-receipt is blocked
  • Receiving reuses the warehouse receipt flow and links each goods receipt line back to the purchase-order line that was received
  • Short-closing is line-level, requires a reason, and removes that line’s remaining quantity from outstanding inbound quantity
  • Receipt history and activity history are shown on the purchase order detail page
  • Mark delivered is available only when no receivable quantity remains

Permissions

Purchase-order actions are protected separately so operational roles can be scoped precisely:

  • View purchase orders
  • Create draft purchase orders
  • Edit draft headers and eligible lines
  • Open a draft for operational use
  • Issue an order to the supplier and view printable supplier output
  • Receive goods against outstanding lines
  • Close outstanding lines and mark completed orders delivered
  • Cancel draft or open purchase orders

An Admin can combine these capabilities in a role to match each person's job.