Purchase Orders

Purchase orders are the records you use to request, approve, and track purchases in OpsOS. They hold the supplier, line items, approval status, and settlement progress for each purchase.

Where purchase orders fit

Area	How purchase orders are used
Suppliers	Every purchase order is linked to a supplier.
Approval Groups	Draft purchase orders are submitted to an approval group for sign-off.
Templated Lines	Saved templated lines can be added while you build a purchase order.
Ready to Pay	Approved purchase orders move into Ready to Pay for invoicing and settlement.

Purchase order statuses

Every purchase order moves through a set of statuses as it progresses from creation to settlement.

Status	What it means
Draft	Created but not yet submitted. Freely editable.
Submitted	Sent for approval. Awaiting sign-off from the approval group.
Approved	All required approvals received. Locked — no further edits to the PO.
Partially paid	At least one invoice has been recorded. Some lines are still outstanding.
Paid	All lines settled. Fully closed.
Adjusted	A paid or approved PO that has been corrected after the fact.
Rejected	An approver rejected it. Unlocked — can be edited and resubmitted, or deleted.
Deleted	Soft-deleted. Hidden but not permanently removed.

Create a purchase order

Go to Purchasing → Purchase Orders.
Click Create Purchase Order.
Check the date at the top of the form.
Choose the supplier.
If the supplier does not exist yet, click Quick Add Supplier and create it from the form.
Add the Supplier Contact if you need it.
Fill in any extra header details you need, such as the Cost Centre field, Payment Type, Payment Terms, and Company.
Enter the PO Title.
Add a Description if your approvers or accounts team need more context.
Under Line Items, click + Add Line or + Add Templated Line.
For each line, enter the item, quantity, cost, and any notes.
Turn on Order? for lines that still need to be ordered from the supplier.
If Inventory is active and the purchase is going into stock, turn on Stock? for that line.
Click Create Purchase Order.

Auto-created purchase orders from Planner shifts

If your tenant has Auto-create a purchase order when a shift is created turned on in Planner or Purchasing settings, OpsOS can create draft POs for worker shifts automatically.

When this happens:

The PO is linked to the shift.
The supplier comes from the assigned worker's linked supplier record.
The PO starts in Draft.
The initial amount comes from the shift rate override if one was entered, otherwise the worker's default Planner compensation rate.

Find a purchase order

Go to Purchasing → Purchase Orders.
Use the list and filters to find the purchase order.
Click the row to open Purchase Order Overview.

Submit a purchase order for approval

Open the record you want to submit.
Choose the Approval Group if the action bar shows one.
Click Submit For Approval.

Approve or reject a submitted purchase order

Go to Purchasing → Approvals.
Open the purchase order you need to review.
Click Approve to sign it off.
Click Reject if it should not go ahead.
If you reject it, enter the reason and confirm.

Edit a purchase order

Open the purchase order.
Click Edit.
Update the details you need to change.
Save the changes.

Delete or restore a purchase order

Open the purchase order.
Click Delete if it is still in Draft or Rejected.
Confirm the change.
If you need it back and you have access to deleted purchase orders, open it from Deleted POs and click Restore to Draft.

Things to know

A purchase order must have at least one line before it can be submitted.
Draft and rejected purchase orders are the normal editable states.
Once a purchase order is fully approved, it is locked for normal editing.
Deleted purchase orders are hidden rather than removed completely.
Deleted purchase orders stay out of normal PO lists by default and only appear in the deleted archive view.
Auto-created shift POs still follow the normal approval flow. OpsOS creates the draft only; approval and invoicing still happen in Purchasing.