Purchase orders

A purchase order lists the products, prices, and quantities for an order that a business places with a supplier.

Purchase orders also help track details such as incoming inventory counts, inventory costs, payment terms, and estimated times of arrival. Tracking this information helps you set customer expectations for item availability, and informs decisions about restocking and moving inventory between locations.

Create a purchase order

When you create a purchase order, you can save it as a draft to work on later, or mark it as Ordered. After you mark a purchase order as Ordered, your incoming inventory is updated for each of the products on the purchase order.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
2. Click Create purchase order.
3. Select the supplier and the destination for the purchase order. If you need to add a new supplier, then refer to Add a supplier. If you need to add a location, then refer to Create and modify locations.
4. In the Add products section, enter or select the products and variants that you want to order from the supplier, and then click Add.
5. For each product, add the following information:
   • quantity
   • supplier's SKU (optional)
   • individual product cost (optional)
   • any tax percentages (optional)
6. Optional: In the Shipment details section, enter the following:
   • a date in the Estimated arrival field
   • the Tracking number for that shipment
   • the Shipping carrier. The shipping carrier might automatically be selected based on the tracking number that you created, but can be manually adjusted.
7. Optional: Enter the following details in the Additional details section:
   • a reference number
   • a note to the supplier
   • any tags to the purchase order
8. Click Save as draft. Your purchase order is now in a draft status.
9. To indicate that the purchase order was approved by your supplier, click Mark as ordered.

Add a supplier

After you add a supplier, they are listed in the Select supplier drop-down menu.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
2. Click Create purchase order.
3. In the Supplier section, click the Select supplier drop-down menu.
4. Click Create new supplier.
5. Enter the supplier's details, and then click Save.

Edit a supplier's details

When you edit the details of a supplier in a purchase order, the details of the supplier are updated in all existing purchase orders.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
2. Click Create purchase order or click the name of an existing purchase order.
3. In the Supplier section, click the Select supplier drop-down menu, and then choose the supplier.
4. Click View details.
5. Click Edit supplier details.
6. Make any changes to the supplier's details, then click Save.
7. If you created a new purchase order, then you can delete the draft purchase order.

Edit a purchase order

You can edit most fields of a purchase order at any time, even after you have marked it as Ordered. You can’t delete a product from a purchase order that you have already received inventory for. You can't change the supplier or destination after a purchase order has been marked as Ordered.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
2. Click the name of the purchase order.
3. If you've marked the purchase order as Ordered, then click Edit.
4. Make your changes.
5. Click Save.

Download a purchase order as a PDF

You can save your purchase order as a PDF to submit to your supplier.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
2. Click the name of the purchase order.
3. In some statuses or devices, you might need to click More actions.
4. Click Export PDF.

Mark inventory as received

After you receive the physical products, you can mark the inventory as received in your Shopify admin. This updates your available inventory levels based on what was received. You can mark inventory as received only after a purchase order is marked as Ordered.

For example, suppose you had 10 products as incoming inventory. If you mark 5 as received, then they would become available inventory in your store, and there would still be 5 as incoming inventory.

If you receive damaged items, then you can mark the order as partially received by rejecting the amount of inventory that was damaged. Any rejected inventory is removed from the incoming inventory.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
2. Click the name of the purchase order.
3. Click Receive inventory.
4. For each product, enter the inventory that was received and not received.
5. Click Save.

Adjust the received inventory

You can adjust the received or partially-received inventory on a purchase order. For example, suppose you received inventory but later found that two products were never shipped. You can update the inventory with a negative number, which adjusts the inventory levels and changes the purchase order's status to Partially received.

For example, if you received 10 products but discovered one was missing, then you would enter -1 in the Accepted column for that product.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
2. Click the name of the purchase order.
3. Click Receive inventory.
4. Next to each product, enter the amount of inventory that you need to adjust in the Accepted or Rejected column. If you need to reduce the number of inventory you had received, then enter a negative number.
5. Click Save.

Manage purchase orders

After you are finished with a purchase order, there are different actions you can take depending on the current status of the order:

• If the purchase order is marked as Ordered, then you can close the order. Closing a purchase order before you've fully received the inventory removes the amount of unreceived products from your incoming inventory.
• If the purchase order is still a draft, then you can delete the purchase order.

Delete a purchase order

You can delete a purchase order while it's still a draft. If a purchase order is marked as Ordered, then you need to close it instead.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders
2. Click the name of the draft purchase order.
3. Click Delete.
4. In the confirmation dialog, click Delete Purchase Order.

Close a purchase order

You can close any purchase order after marking it as Ordered. If a purchase order is still a draft, then you need to delete it instead.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
2. Click the name of the purchase order.
3. Click Close.

Calculate inventory

If you enable Shopify to track your inventory, then make sure that you understand how items are counted and tracked when you receive them on a purchase order. The number of incoming items varies based on the items that you’ve received (regardless of whether you mark them as Accepted or Rejected).

For an example, suppose that you have a purchase order with 10 items.

If you ordered 10 items, received 7 of them, and marked 4 as Accepted and 3 as Rejected, then there will be 3 incoming items for that product. This is because you've indicated that although 3 of the items that you received weren't in the condition that you expected (the 3 that you marked as Rejected), you still received 7 of the items that you ordered.