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Purchase orders

Order approved material from a vendor, get the order approved at the right level, issue it to the vendor and track delivery — cancel or short-close when plans change.

Where
  1. Projects
  2. open a project
  3. Procurement
Who
  • Company Admin
  • Procurement Manager

A purchase order (PO) buys the "to buy" part of approved material requests. It is approved at a level set by its value, and only when it is issued to the vendor does it count against the request and the project's committed cost.

📷 Screenshot spot — the Purchase orders panel on a project's Procurement tab with one issued order open, showing the Approval line (tier and threshold), Subtotal, GST and Total, and the Send, Receive goods and Short-close buttons

Save as static/img/screenshots/procurement-purchase-orders.png and replace this box with ![Purchase orders](/img/screenshots/procurement-purchase-orders.png)

Raise a purchase order​

  1. Open the project and go to the Procurement tab.
  2. In the Purchase orders panel, click Raise PO.
  3. Choose the Vendor. Only active vendors are offered; blacklisted vendors and subcontractors never appear.
  4. Enter a Title, and check the PO date (today by default) and Expected delivery.
  5. Fill Payment terms in days, or leave it blank to use the vendor's own terms. Add a Delivery address, Terms and Notes as needed.
  6. Under Approved indent lines pending order, tick the lines you are buying. Each comes in with its full Pending order quantity.
  7. To buy something with no request behind it — a replacement for something broken on site this morning — use Or add a material with no indent behind it.
  8. In Order lines, adjust the Quantity, enter the Rate, and change GST % only if this supply differs from the material's usual rate (blank uses the material's rate).
  9. Click Save as draft. The app works out the subtotal, GST and total.

POs are numbered across the company, for example PO/26-27/0012. While an order is a draft, Edit lines lets you change its lines; click Save lines when done.

The rule that matters

A line raised against a request can be for at most that line's To order quantity — what was approved to buy, less what is already on order. The check runs when you save and again at the moment the order is issued. Two draft orders for the same line can exist side by side, but the second one to be issued is refused. That is what stops the same material being bought twice.

Submit and approve​

  1. Open the draft and click Submit for approval. An order with no lines, or one that totals zero, is refused — price its lines first.
  2. On submission, the order's total (including GST) is compared with your company's purchase order approval threshold:
    • at or below the threshold — a Procurement Manager may approve it;
    • above it — only the Company Admin may.
  3. The approver opens the order and clicks Approve (a note is optional), or Reject with a reason. Rejecting sends the order back to Draft for the buyer to fix the price, vendor or quantity.

The threshold and the approval level are written onto the order when it is submitted, and shown on it as Approval — for example "company admin (threshold ₹1,00,000)". Changing the company's threshold later does not change orders already submitted. A rejected order is assessed again when it is resubmitted, so an order renegotiated below the threshold no longer needs the Company Admin.

The threshold is set by the Company Admin in the Financial conventions step of company setup. Its default is ₹0, which sends every order to the Company Admin. Changing it after setup is not in the app yet. See Setting up your company.

A Procurement Manager looking at an order above the threshold sees Approve greyed out, with the note that a company admin must approve it.

Issue it to the vendor​

  1. Open the approved order and click Issue to vendor.
  2. Click Send to send it. Choose This device (your phone's share sheet, WhatsApp or mail app), Email, WhatsApp or Zoho Books.

Issuing is the moment that counts: the request lines' Ordered quantity moves, and the order value, without GST, becomes committed cost on the project. GST is recoverable, so it is not a project cost.

The email or WhatsApp message carries the order's summary — title, order date, deliver-by date, delivery address, payment terms and, if you can see rates, the order value. It does not carry the line list, and there is no printable PO in the app yet. Email and WhatsApp work once your company has set them up in Integrations.

How a purchase order moves​

DraftPending approvalApprovedIssuedClosed
Any status before ClosedCancelled
StatusWhat it meansWho moves it on
DraftBeing prepared; lines can be editedProcurement Manager submits it
Pending approvalWaiting at the level its value requiresProcurement Manager or Company Admin approves or rejects
ApprovedApproved, not yet sentProcurement Manager issues it
IssuedSent to the vendor; goods can be received against itStore Keeper receives goods; closes itself when everything has arrived
ClosedFully received, or short-closed—
CancelledCalled off, with a reason—

When the last outstanding quantity is received, the order closes itself, with a decision note such as "Fully received on GRN/26-27/0041."

Cancel or short-close an order​

Cancel works at any status before Closed and needs a reason — the vendor may already have been told, and someone will ask why it went away. Cancelling an issued order gives its undelivered balance back to the material request, so it can be ordered again, and takes it off the project's committed cost. Anything already received stays received.

Short-close is for an issued order where the balance will never arrive. The order becomes Closed and the balance is written off. Short-closing does not give the balance back to the request — if the site still needs that material, use Cancel instead.

What each role sees​

RoleSees
Procurement Manager, Company AdminEverything, and can raise, send and cancel orders
Project Manager, QS / Estimator, AccountantOrders with rates and values
Site Engineer, Store KeeperOrders with quantities only — no Value column, no rates

The Delivery column shows received once a receipt has been posted against the order, and overdue in red when an issued order is past its expected delivery date with nothing received. The On order figure at the top of the tab totals submitted and live orders, for roles that can see values.