Products & Inventory

Purchase Orders: The Complete Guide

TL;DR

The purchase order feature in Shipsidekick enables you to manage inbound purchase orders, track supplier shipments, and receive inventory into your warehouse. This feature allows you to maintain visibility into inbound stock and synchronize receive operations that impact your inventory levels.

The purchase order feature operates independently of your orders, products, and inventory sync pipeline, giving you flexibility to enable or disable it based on your organization's needs.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Before you can use the purchase order feature, the following conditions must be met:

  • Your service connection must be enabled

  • Purchase order sync must be explicitly enabled in your service settings

  • Your organization must have completed an initial product synchronization

How Purchase Orders Are Synced

Purchase orders are automatically pulled on a scheduled basis. The system runs synchronization every 10 minutes, reconciles incoming purchase orders with your existing data, and applies updates to keep your purchase order information current. This automatic sync ensures you always have the latest purchase order status without manual intervention.

Creating and Managing Purchase Orders

Adding Products to a Purchase Order

When adding products to a purchase order, you can search by product name or barcode. If you can see the product in your products list but can't find it when adding to a purchase order, try searching by the product's barcode instead of the name. The search results in the add product dropdown are currently limited, so products with many variants may not all appear when searching by name.

Understanding Purchase Order Status

Purchase orders progress through a series of statuses that help you track their lifecycle:

  • Open Order — The initial status when a purchase order is created

  • Confirm Order — The purchase order has been confirmed and is ready for receiving

  • Start Receiving — You are beginning to receive items from the purchase order

  • Continue Receiving — You are receiving additional items or completing partial receipts

You can update the purchase order status in the top right corner of the specific purchase order page. Status is primarily a visual indicator and helps you track where each purchase order is in its lifecycle.

Receiving Inventory from Purchase Orders

Prerequisites for Receiving

To receive products from a purchase order, the purchase order must be in confirmed status first. If your purchase order is in a different status, you will need to update it to "Confirm Order" before you can proceed with receiving items.

Basic Receiving Process

Once your purchase order is in confirmed status, you can begin receiving inventory:

  1. Navigate to the specific purchase order page

  2. Update the purchase order status in the top right corner to "Start Receiving" to begin your first receipt

  3. Enter the quantity you are receiving for each line item

  4. Confirm the receipt to complete that batch of items

If you have additional items to receive from the same purchase order, you can progress to "Continue Receiving" status to receive the remaining quantities.

Receiving Purchase Orders with Multiple Lots and Expiration Dates

If your purchase order contains items with different lot numbers or expiration dates, you must receive them in separate chunks:

  1. First Receipt — Receive the quantity with the first lot number and expiration date. Complete this receipt.

  2. Second Receipt — Start a new receipt for the remaining quantity with the different lot number and expiration date.

Important: Different lots must go into different locations. Ensure your warehouse locations are set up to segregate inventory by lot and expiration date before you begin receiving.

Entering Lot Numbers and Expiration Dates

Lot numbers and expiration dates are entered during the receiving process after the purchase order is created and confirmed. You will be prompted to enter this information when you receive each batch of items.

If you would like the ability to pre-enter lot numbers and expiration dates during purchase order creation (rather than during receiving), you can submit a feature request to our support team. This capability would save time when you already have this information from suppliers.

Managing Purchase Order Status Changes

Reverting a Completed or Received Purchase Order

If you need to receive items from a purchase order that has already been marked as completed or received, you can revert it back to confirmed status:

  1. Cancel the purchase order

  2. Reopen the purchase order

This moves the purchase order back to confirmed status, making it ready to receive items again. Status changes work like a cycle—you can move through them as needed.

Viewing Purchase Order Charges

Accessing Purchase Order Invoices and Charges

To see what charges have been added to a purchase order:

  1. Navigate to the billing area

  2. Download the invoice for the purchase order

Any ad hoc fees and other charges added to the purchase order will be visible in the downloaded invoice document.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add the same SKU multiple times to a purchase order with different lot numbers or expiration dates?

This functionality may not be available in the standard interface. You'll need to check with support to confirm whether multiple line items of the same SKU with different lot dates can be added to a single purchase order, as this requires special handling. Contact our support team to discuss your specific use case and determine if this capability can be enabled for your account.

Can I pre-enter lot numbers and expiration dates when creating purchase orders?

Currently, lot numbers and expiration dates are entered during the receiving process after the purchase order is created and confirmed. However, this feature can be added to allow pre-loading lot and expiration information during purchase order creation, which would save time when you already have this information from suppliers. If you would benefit from this capability, you can submit a feature request to our support team.

How can I revert a purchase order from completed or received status back to confirmed so I can receive items?

You can cancel the purchase order and then reopen it to move it back to confirmed status. The status changes work like a cycle—you can move through them as needed. Status is primarily a visual indicator, and canceling then reopening will make the purchase order ready to receive again.

How can I see what charges have been added to a purchase order?

You can view purchase order charges by downloading the invoice from the billing area. Any ad hoc fees and other charges added to the purchase order will be visible in the downloaded invoice document.

Can a 'created by' field be added to purchase orders to track who created them?

Yes, this is a valid feature request that can be submitted as a ticket. Adding a 'created by' field would help track accountability for purchase orders left in draft or open status. If this tracking capability would be useful for your organization, contact support to submit this as a feature request.

Why can't I find certain products when trying to add them to a purchase order?

If you can see the product in your products list but can't find it when adding to a purchase order, try searching by the product's barcode instead of the name. The search results in the add product dropdown are currently limited, so products with many variants may not all appear when searching by name.

Where do I submit feature requests or report issues with purchase orders?

You can submit feature requests and report issues by contacting our support team. They can help you with questions about purchase order functionality, discuss custom requirements, and log tickets for new features or enhancements you'd like to see.

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