Purchase Order Workflow

Overview

Sellercloud’s procurement management tool allows you to create Purchase Orders, process them, manage purchased goods, and automatically update inventory costs. This article will guide you through the key steps of the purchase order lifecycle.

To learn more about advanced PO features available in Sellercloud, refer to Managing POs: Additional Functions.

Sellercloud lets you order units from your vendors by creating Purchase Orders, which update inventory and product costs once processed. You can fully manage all aspects of your POs, including receiving, shipping, and payment management.

Manage a Purchase Order

The Purchase Order workflow launches once a new Purchase Order is created in the system. During PO creation and throughout its lifecycle, you may need to change PO general information or scope details on purchased items. Sellercloud allows you to make edits to a Purchase Order at any point. The change history for each product will be logged and displayed under the respective product’s Change Log toolbar.

Create a Purchase Order

To create a new Purchase Order, follow the steps below.

1. Go to the Create New Purchase Order page by using any of the below paths.
   – Purchasing > Create New Purchase Order.
   – Purchasing > Manage POs > click the plus icon in the bottom right corner.
   – Purchasing > Vendors > Manage Vendors > Vendor > Toolbox > Purchase Orders > click the plus icon in the upper right corner of the Purchase Orders panel.
2. Specify the appropriate Company and Vendor names. Alternatively, to create a new Vendor, refer to the instructions in Managing Vendors.
3. Optional: Select the Receiving Warehouse where the purchased items will be delivered.
4. Optional: Indicate the Payment Terms within which this PO must be completed. Click the arrow to proceed to adding products.
5. Click the Expected Delivery box, and select the estimated date of product arrival.
6. You can log offers from vendors without actually buying them by creating a Purchase Order and selecting Vendor Offer as Purchase Order Type.
7. Click Add Products. For details, refer to the header below.
8. Click Address to proceed. Provide all required information on the address the purchased items will be shipped to. Alternatively, select the previously saved address data in the Saved Addresses dropdown list.
9. Once completed, click the green flag icon.

Import Purchase Orders

You can also add multiple Purchase Orders at once using the Import Purchase Orders option. To do that, follow the steps below.

1. Access Purchasing > Tools > Import Purchase Info.
2. Select the Import Purchase Orders option.
3. To download a sample template, click the download icon on the Import Purchase Orders panel header.
4. Complete the columns. Save.
5. Return to the Import Purchase Orders panel. Select the appropriate file. Fill in the required fields.
6. Optional: You can use an individually customized plugin for import. Contact the Support Team to request this plugin.
7. Select the Create New PO Numbers checkbox to allow the system apply the numbering to the newly added POs.
8. Select the Create As Credit Memo checkbox to mark the newly added Orders as Credit Memos.
9. Click Import.
10. The import will be submitted to the Queued Job. Once processed, the new Purchase Orders will appear on the Manage POs page.

Add Products to a Purchase Order

When adding products to a Purchase Order using the wizard, follow the steps below.

1. At the second step of the PO creation wizard, click Add Products.
2. Optionally, you can click the SKU List Mode toggle button on the top right and then quickly search for products by entering one per row. You can also enter the quantity and unit price. Then click Search, and once the products show up, check the boxes to select them and click Add & Close.
   
3. Without SKU List Mode enabled, you can just search for products and specify the Unit Price and Quantity.
4. Check the boxes next to products to select them and then click Add & Close.
5. Specify information on ordered quantities, price, and discounts.
6. Alternatively, you can add products via file upload. To do that, click the Upload Products icon in the upper right of the Products panel (see figure below).

To get more information about adding products to Purchase Orders, refer to Add Products to PO.

Approve and Email a PO to Vendor

The next step in the PO workflow is to notify your vendor about purchased products.

When PO approval is configured to be required, the relevant notification will appear once you try to email an unapproved Purchase Order. To approve a PO, follow the steps below.

1. Go to Purchasing > Manage POs.
2. Select the appropriate Purchase Order.
3. In the upper right, click Actions, and select the Approve Purchase Order option.

To email an approved Purchase Order to your Vendor, follow the steps below.

1. Go to Purchasing > Manage POs.
2. Select the appropriate Purchase Order.
3. In the upper right, click Actions, and select the Send PO via Email.
4. On the General panel, specify the Vendor Email, Subject, Sender Name, and Sender Email.
5. You can opt to use a pre-configured email template, or to compose a message on your own.
6. Once the email is completed, click Send.

Update PO Shipping Details

In response, the vendor will let you know about the shipping data updated. To make the relevant changes in Sellercloud, follow the steps described below.

1. Access Purchasing > Manage POs.
2. Open the appropriate Purchase Order.
3. In the upper-right corner of the selected PO, click Actions and select Updating Shipping. For more instructions on updating shipping data on a PO, refer to Purchase Order – Shipment details.
4. Alternatively, the PO Shipping data can be updated with receiving Shipping Containers which include purchased items from the requested Purchase Order.

To get detailed instructions on how to receive shipments in containers with multiple POs, refer to Managing Shipping Containers.

Receive a Purchase Order

The next-to-last step in the PO workflow is to receive purchased items. To log a complete or partial shipment on a PO, follow the steps and instructions below.

1.  Access Purchasing > Manage POs.
2. Open the appropriate Purchase Order.
3. In the upper-right corner of the selected PO, click Actions, and select either Receive Whole PO to log all purchased items delivery or Receive Shipment to receive a part of a Purchase Order. For more instructions of how to make receives, refer to Receive a Purchase Order.

Cancel or Delete PO

In some cases, when the Vendor cannot ship the products or you no longer need them, you have the option to Cancel or completely Delete a PO. You can do this in bulk by selecting POs in the Manage POs page > Actions > Delete/Change Status. You can also go open the Actions menu on the Purchase Order Details page and click Delete PO/Cancel PO.

If the PO is linked to a Sales Order as part of the Dropship workflow, you will be prompted to confirm you want to break that link. If you do so, the Order’s Dropship status will automatically change to None. This safeguard is present when updating a single PO and performing the bulk actions.

Update PO Status

You can update PO Status individually by opening the PO and navigating to the Statuses Panel, or in-bulk by selecting multiple POs and choosing the Change Status action from the Action Menu.

Payment Status

You can pay for purchased products before or after shipping the items. To record an outgoing payment, select Make Payment from the PO’s Actions menu.

You can manually add a payment to a Purchase Order or apply your previous payments to that vendor for the requested purchase order. For more information on managing vendor invoices, refer to Manage Vendor Invoices.

Once paid, the vendor will send you an Invoice. Then, you can mark your Purchase Order as Paid and close it. To close a PO, select the Close option from the PO’s Actions menu.

General Status

A purchase order can have different statuses, each with its own definition. Refer to the descriptions provided below for further information regarding each status:

• Saved
  • The PO is saved and is awaiting further action.
• Cancelled
  • POs with the status canceled will not be shipped by the supplier.
• Completed
  • The PO has been shipped, received, and invoiced.
• Ordered
  • This status indicates that the PO is awaiting shipment.
• Pending
  • The PO is created but not approved or processed yet.
• Received
  • The PO is received from the supplier and is ready to be processed. This can include items being received into inventory.