Purchase Orders

See, build, send, receive and track every purchase order (PO) you place with your vendors, including the EDI files that go back and forth.

What it's for

Purchase Orders is where you manage what you buy from your vendors. When an order comes in and is routed to a vendor, OrderPilot adds the item to that vendor's open PO. From this page you can:

• see every PO and where it stands (not sent yet, sent, accepted, received, paid)
• build a PO by hand
• send a PO to the vendor
• check stock in when the vendor's shipment arrives
• look at every EDI file exchanged with your vendors

EDI in plain words

EDI is the standard way stores and wholesalers swap business documents. Each document type has a number. You will see these numbers on this page:

Where to find it

In the left sidebar, open Purchasing › Purchase Orders.

You need the Purchasing permission to see this page. Admins and owners always have it.

The screen at a glance

The page has six tabs along the top: All, Piling, Sent / Acknowledged, Receive, Received and EDI logs. It opens on All.

PO statuses

Extra badges can appear next to the status:

• ✋ manual: a PO you built by hand. The automatic schedules will not touch it.
• 💰 Paid (date): the vendor's statement shows every invoice on this PO paid in full.
• ⏰ no 855: the PO was sent more than 24 hours ago and the vendor has not acknowledged it.

Hover over a status badge to see what the vendor said: how many units were acknowledged or rejected, and how many orders were accepted, partly accepted or rejected.

The All tab

• Vendor dropdown: show one vendor's POs.
• Status chips (Piling, Sent, Acked, Partial, Rejected, Received): each shows a count. Click one to filter. Click it again to clear.
• Columns: PO Number, Vendor, Lines, Orders (how many customer orders are on the PO), Total qty, $ Total, Status, Date (sent date, or created date if not sent) and Actions.
• Click any row to open the PO details.

The Piling tab

POs that are still collecting items. The note on the toolbar says it: items accumulate, send when ready. The tab label shows how many piling POs you have. You can filter by vendor and tick POs to delete several at once.

The Sent / Acknowledged tab

POs that have gone to the vendor, including acknowledged, partly acknowledged, rejected and partly received ones.

• By vendor (the default) groups POs into one card per vendor, with totals for POs, lines, units and dollars.
• List shows one table, with a Vendor filter.

The Receive tab

Check in what arrived from a vendor, by scanning or typing.

• The scan box takes a PO number, UPC, vendor SKU or catalog SKU. Press Enter.
• The shelf dropdown picks where received units land. Leave it on no shelf (count only) to only count them.
• Open POs waiting to be received lists POs with units still to come, with a progress bar (received / ordered). Click one to load its lines.
• Each PO shows its vendor's receiving mode: 810 auto or scan-to-close.

The Received tab

Fully received POs, with filters for vendor, paid / unpaid, a from / to date, and a $ minimum / maximum. ✕ Clear resets the filters. Use ‹ Prev and Next › to page through (100 per page).

In this tab the $ Total shows what the vendor actually billed on its invoices when that is known. Otherwise it is an estimate from current vendor costs. Hover the amount to see which one it is.

The EDI logs tab

Every EDI file sent or received. Use the type dropdown to show one kind (810, 832, 850, 855 or 856).

• Direction: ↑ Outbound means you sent it (your 850s). ↓ Inbound means the vendor sent it.
• Status: sent, downloaded or processed are normal. failed (in red) means the file did not go through. pending means it has not been handled yet.

The PO details window

Click any PO row to open it.

For each line you see:

• the catalog SKU and UPC
• Ordered, Acknowledged (accepted on the 855), Rejected, Invoiced (billed on the 810) and the $ amount
• the vendor's rejection reason, if any
• Orders on this line: each customer order, the customer name, units and its status. Click an order number to open it in a new tab.

Case-pack vendors: if a vendor sells by the case, an orange note explains it. The 850 asks for whole cases (for example, 1 case of 12 when you need 5 units). The vendor's acknowledged and invoiced counts come back in cases and are converted to units for you.

Buttons and actions

Receiving modes

Each vendor has one of two modes:

• 810 auto (invoice closes PO): the vendor's 810 invoices close the PO. Scanning here is optional and only counts units and fills shelves.
• Scan-to-close (warehouse closes PO): the PO closes only when your warehouse scans everything in.

Changing a vendor's mode saves at once.

How to send a piling PO

1. Open the Piling tab (or All).
2. Optional: click the PO to check its lines and quantities.
3. Click 📤 Submit or 📤 Send now on the row. Or open the PO and click 📤 Send PO (850), then confirm.
4. A message confirms the PO was sent. It moves to Sent / Acknowledged.

How to create a PO by hand

1. Click ＋ Create PO.
2. Pick the vendor and click Start PO →. OrderPilot creates the PO and shows its number at the bottom.
3. Type the quantity in the small box on the right.
4. Search the vendor's items by SKU, UPC or name (type at least 2 letters). Items marked OOS are out of stock at that vendor.
5. Click ＋ Add on an item. It appears under Lines on this PO. Click ✕ on a line to remove it.
6. Finish with one of: - ✋ Save & hold (submit later): keeps the PO as a piling PO marked manual. The schedules will not send it. You send it yourself later. - 📤 Submit now (send 850): confirms, then sends it to the vendor.

How to change a quantity on a piling PO

Use this when you found units in your own warehouse, so you need fewer from the vendor.

1. Open the piling PO.
2. Click ✎ next to the line's Ordered number.
3. In the New column, lower the count for each order you can fill yourself. The Not for an order (extra / stock) row is for extra units you are buying for stock.
4. Click Save.

The line's total updates. The vendor's invoice will then only be waited on for what is left. An order with nothing left on the PO becomes OK to ship right away; the message tells you how many.

How to receive a delivery on this page

1. Open the Receive tab.
2. Pick a shelf, or leave no shelf (count only).
3. Scan or type the PO number (or a UPC or SKU) and press Enter. You can also click a PO under Open POs waiting to be received.
4. Each open line shows ordered, received and left. The box is pre-filled with what is left.
5. Change the number if fewer arrived, then click ✓ Receive.
6. A message confirms the count and tells you if the PO's status changed.

Tip: for receiving a whole truck into several locations at once, use 📦 Receive on the All tab. It opens the Warehouse page's Receive a PO screen.

How to find a missing acknowledgment

1. On the All tab, look for the red ⏰ no 855 badge.
2. Open the EDI logs tab, choose 850 Purchase Order, and check that the PO's 850 shows sent, not failed.
3. Choose 855 PO Acknowledgement to see if anything came back from that vendor.

Tips and troubleshooting

• "Can't delete a PO that's already sent": only piling POs can be deleted. A sent PO may already be at the vendor.
• A PO says Partial ack: open it. The Rejected count and the red rejection reason show which lines the vendor turned down. The orders on those lines show as rejected. The Recovery page (Purchasing › Recovery) helps you send those orders to another vendor.
• Reset purchasing is a big step. It removes every piling PO for all vendors. Use 🗑 on a single PO if you only want to start one over.
• An EDI file shows failed: the vendor did not get it. Check the vendor's EDI connection settings, then send the PO again.
• Paid badge: it appears once the vendor's statement shows every invoice on the PO paid in full. Use the Paid / Unpaid filter on the Received tab to find POs still to pay.
• Floating "Monitor" button in the bottom-left corner: it appears when there is Recovery activity and shows how many rerouted orders are in flight, stuck or recovered. Click it to open the Recovery page.