Creating and Managing Purchase Orders
Step-by-step guide to raising purchase orders in AskBiz POS — adding items, setting quantities, sending to suppliers, and marking deliveries as received to update stock.
Key Takeaways
- A purchase order in AskBiz updates your stock automatically when you mark it as received — no manual stock adjustment needed.
- You can send the PO directly to your supplier as a PDF from within AskBiz.
- Partial deliveries are supported — mark only the items that arrived and the PO stays open for the remainder.
Starting a purchase order
Go to POS > Operations > Retail > Purchase Orders. Click New Purchase Order. Select the Supplier from the dropdown — this pulls in the supplier's contact details and payment terms automatically. Set the Expected Delivery Date (useful for planning and for flagging overdue orders). Add an optional Reference number (e.g. your internal PO number or the supplier's quote number) and any Notes for the supplier.
Adding items to the order
Click Add Item and search for products from your catalogue. For each item, enter the quantity you're ordering and confirm the cost price — AskBiz pre-fills this from the product record but you can override it if the supplier has given you a different price for this order. The order total updates as you add lines. If you link products to suppliers (see the Suppliers article), AskBiz suggests low-stock items from that supplier automatically when you create a PO, saving you from manually checking what needs reordering.
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Start for free →Sending the order to your supplier
Once you're satisfied with the order, click Send to Supplier. AskBiz generates a professional PDF purchase order document with your business details, the supplier's details, all line items with quantities and prices, and the total. You can review the PDF before sending. Click Send and AskBiz emails it directly to the supplier's email address on their record. The PO status changes from Draft to Sent. Alternatively, download the PDF and send it yourself if you prefer.
Receiving stock against the purchase order
When your delivery arrives, go to the purchase order and click Receive Stock. A receiving screen shows each line item. Enter the quantity actually received — if the supplier sent 48 units but you ordered 50, enter 48. Click Confirm Receipt. AskBiz immediately adds the received quantities to your live stock counts. The PO status changes to Received (if fully delivered) or Partially Received (if some items are outstanding). Partially received POs stay open so you can receive the remaining items when they arrive.
Monitoring outstanding orders
The Purchase Orders list shows all POs with their status at a glance: Draft, Sent, Partially Received, Received, or Cancelled. Filter by status to see what's currently in transit. If a delivery is late, click the PO and check the Expected Delivery Date — orders past their expected date are highlighted. You can contact the supplier directly from the PO page using their stored contact details. For businesses with multiple branches, each branch's POs are filtered by the Branch dropdown at the top.