Add a Purchase Order

Purchase Orders in Unleashed are transactions that allow you to receipt in stock from your Suppliers at an agreed price, that you can add further incurred costs to. They allow you to manage your supply chain efficiently, effectively and accurately. The prices and costs incurred from your Purchase Orders will contribute towards the Average Landed Costs (ALC) of your receipted goods and further your inventory's stock value.

Before adding a Purchase Order

To create a Purchase Order and subsequently receipt stock into your inventory, you first need to ensure you have setup the relevant Suppliers, Products and Warehouses in your Unleashed account. Use the quick links below for a guide on setting each of these up:

Purchase Order Permissions

The following permissions restrict some processing activities on Purchase Orders:

Complete Purchase Order
Purchase Order Approvals
Purchase Order Costing
Receipt Purchase

Account Owners have the authority to change permissions associated to roles.

Adding a Purchase Order

To create a Purchase Order without any additional costs (e.g. freight or labour costs) included, follow the below steps:

From the main menu, go to Purchases | Purchase Orders | Add Purchase.
Enter the Supplier Code in the field available, or use the magnifying glass icon to search for the Supplier.

If you have the BI Vision module enabled on your account, once the Supplier's selected a light bulb icon will appear next to the Supplier Name field. Hover over the light bulb icon to review your purchase history with this Supplier and their default contact details
Once the Supplier's allocated to the Purchase Order, complete the following details:
- Minimum Purchase: This will display if a minimum order value has been set up against the Supplier. If the order is placed and the total is less than the Supplier's minimum value, a warning message will appear.
- Supplier Reference: If the Supplier has advised their own reference number for your order, use the Supplier Reference field to keep a record of it. This detail will export to your integrated accounting provider upon receipt of the Purchase Order.
- Discount (%): Any percentage value applied to the Discount field will apply across all products added to the Purchase Order.
- Supplier Invoice Date: Either enter a date manually or choose one using the calendar icon. The Supplier Invoice Date chosen will be the date that exports to your integrated accounting provider upon receipt of the Purchase Order
- Tax Rate: The rate selected from the Tax Rate drop-down menu will apply in accordance to Unleashed's Tax Hierarchy. For more details, see What is the Tax Hierarchy?
- Warehouse: Select the Warehouse the good will be receipted in to from the drop-down menu.
- Exchange Rate: When the Supplier's currency is different to your account's base currency, the Exchange Rate field will initially populate with the currency rate advised in your settings. This field can be edited up until the Purchase Order is receipted. For more details, see Currency Rates.
- Delivery Address: The delivery address fields will auto-fil with your selected Warehouse's address. However, if the goods are being delivered direct to a Customer, search the customer's address via the Delivery Name's magnifying glass icon. For more details, see Manage Drop Ship Orders.
- Order Date: By default, the Purchase Order will populate with date the Purchase Order was initially created, but this can be amended at any time, prior to receipting.
- Delivery Date: By default, the Delivery Date will populate as the Order Date plus the Supplier's advised Lead Time (found in the Supplier's record). You can edit the Delivery Date at any time, but you also have the option to advise a Delivery Date per Order Line.
- Template: Select a Doc Designer template to print the Purchase Order against. The Supplier's default template will populate by default, otherwise the default selected in your Doc Designer settings will apply. For more details, see Doc Designer.
- Supplier EORI: If the International Commerce Code setting is enabled in your Company settings use the Supplier EORI field to advise the Supplier's EORI number. For more details, see Company Settings.
Add the products you want to order in the Order Lines tab by filling in the following fields:
- Product: Enter the product's code, description or base unit barcode to search and select the product. Alternatively, use the magnifying glass icon for an advanced search.
- Purchase Unit: If the product has alternate units of measure setup, the default purchasing unit allocated to the Supplier will populate in the drop-down menu. If no Supplier default is advised, the product's default purchasing unit will apply. This field can be edited to suit the Purchase Order's requirements, using the drop-down menu provided. For more details, see Multiple Units of Measure.
- Quantity: Advise the number of units to be ordered, based on the Purchasing Unit selected.
- Price: If a Supplier specific price is advised for the product or if there are any Quantity price breaks advised, the price field will automatically populate with it. If no default Supplier or Quantity price is provided, the product's default purchasing price will populate. Hover over the i icon to see a breakdown of the pricing structure that's been applied. The Price field can be edited to overwrite any pre-populated prices.
- Discount: Any discount applicable to the Order Line can be added here.
- Comments: Any details needing to be included for the ordered product can be added in the Comments field.
- Add: Once all the details are filled in, select Add to include it as an Order Line.
Once the product's added as an Order Line, you can make adjustments as necessary and further review the product:
- Product Code: Hover over the product record to see an overview of the product, including it's current Stock on Hand for the selected Warehouse.
- Delivery Date: Advise an alternate Delivery Date for the specific product if it differs from the order's Delivery Date. This is is especially useful when reviewing the Next Delivery date in the product's record and the Reorder Report.
- Bin icon: To remove an a product from the Order Lines, use the bin icon.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 to add further products to the Purchase Order.
Once all products have been added to the Purchase Order, select the green Place button. By placing the order, this updates Unleashed's calculations and reports to show that the products are on order.

If you're not ready to Place the order, select the Save button's Parked option.
Whilst in Placed status, you can still add to, remove or edit the existing Order Lines. You can also allocate custom Purchase Order statuses to your Placed order, from the Save menu, to provide further context to the progress of your orders. For more details, see Purchase Order Statuses.
If you have no additional costs to allocate to the Purchase Order, leave the Cost Lines section blank. Otherwise, head to the next section; Adding a Purchase Order with Cost Lines.
once the stock has been delivered you can then receipt the Purchase Order. For more details, see Receipt a Purchase Order.

Header Delivery Date vs Order line Delivery Date

All Delivery Dates Order Lines will initially be populated with the header's Delivery Date, However, if you know you'll be receiving your orders in parts, allocate a Delivery Date per Order Line, which will provide a more accurate view of your expected deliveries. See below for a breakdown of how the Delivery Dates will behave when used on a per Order Line basis:

When the Purchase Order's header Delivery Date is updated, it will overwrite all Delivery Dates applied per Order Line.
The Delivery Date per Order Line cannot be earlier than the Order Date.
If using Clone to replicate a Purchase Order, the Delivery Dates per Order Line in the new Purchase Order will default to the same date as the new header Delivery Date.
The Delivery Date per Order Line will not be editable on Completed orders but will be for all the other statuses, including Receipted.
The Delivery Date per Order Line is available in the lines grid component of the Doc Designer's Purchase Order templates.
If using the Import Purchase Order template to create the Purchase Order, the Delivery Date per Order Line option is available.
The following reports will display a the Order Line's Delivery Date in their Next Delivery/Delivery Date columns:
In View Purchases, the Delivery Date header displays the Purchase Order's header date.
In a product's record, under the Details tab, the On Purchase Qty will calculate how many units of the product are on Placed Purchase Orders. Hover over the calendar icon and this will display the product's Next Delivery date, based on the soonest Order Line Delivery Date.
For reports and the product's On Purchase Qty, the Next Delivery detail is only updated by Placed Purchase Orders. If the Purchase Order is in Parked status, it will not be included.
The Next Delivery date for reports and the On Purchase Qty in a product is advised from the Order Line of a Purchase Order.
If there is more than one Purchase Order placed for a product, the reports and On Purchase Qty Next Delivery date will populate the soonest Delivery Date.

Add Attachments

Include additional documentation and files to your Purchase Order using the Attachment tab.

We currently support uploading of the following file types: gif, png, jpg, jpeg, bmp, pdf, csv, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, webp
Individual files can be a maximum of 20 MB in size.
Entities can have a maximum of 50 files attached to them, and an individual file can be attached to 50 entities.

For more details on using Attachments in your transactions, see File Library.

Adding Cost Lines to a Purchase Order

If you've incurred any further charges as a result of placing your Purchase Order, such as; freight costs, labor, storage etc you can account for them in the Cost Lines section of your Purchase Order. Costs can be added to a Purchase Order at any time prior to the order being completed and for any Supplier, meaning you can generate a single PO with multiple Supplier costs in various currencies. If the costs are added after the Purchase Order after it has been receipted, the additional costs will be applied to the receipted goods as a Recost.

To add Cost Lines to a Purchase Order, see the below steps:

Complete steps 1 to 6 in the above Adding a Purchase Order with No Cost Lines section. Once the Purchase Order is in either a Parked, Placed or Receipted status, Cost Lines can be added.
In the Cost Lines section, below the Order Lines tab, complete the following fields:
- Supplier: Search for the Supplier the additional costs have been charged from. This does not need to be the same Supplier as for the Order Lines. Use the magnifying glass icon to search the Supplier if you can't find them by entering their Code or Name.
- Cost: The total cost charged from the Supplier, for this Purchase Order
- Distribution Method: Select from the drop-down menu, how you'd like the Cost to be distributed between your Order Lines. By default, the pre-populated option is determined by the method selected in your Supplier's record. If no default's advised, it will populate with your account's default, in the Company Settings. For more details, see Company Settings. However, you can edit this selection per Cost Line, as long as the Order Lines are using the Base Unit of Measure as the Purchasing Unit. The options available are:
  - Value
  - Base Quantity
  - Weight: requires products having a weight to be used effectively.
  - Volume: requires products having width, height and depth dimensions to be used effectively.
- Taxable: Tick the checkbox if tax applies to the cost being added. This field will default based on the Supplier's default tax setting but can be edited per Cost Line.
- Exchange Rate: If the Supplier's currency differs from your account's base currency, the Exchange Rate will populate based on the rate advised in your System settings. But this can be edited per Purchase Order.
- Cost Date: The date the cost is due to be invoiced for. This date is what will export to your integrated accounting provider for the cost, upon receipt or complete.
- Reference: If the Supplier has advised an invoice reference number for the additional cost, add it in the Reference field. This will also be included on the export of the cost to your integrated accounting provider.
- Comments: Advise any additional detail necessary for the cost in the Comment field.
- Add: Once all the fields are filled in, select Add to apply the Cost to your Purchase Order.
You can add multiple Cost Lines to the Purchase Order to account for each incurred charge, repeat step 2 per cost line required.
When the costs have been added, it's value will be distributed amongst your Order Lines based on the Distribution Method selected. The cost that's proportioned per Order Line will be shown in the Costing Total column, in your account's base currency.

NOTE: The total Cost across all Cost Lines must match the sum total of the Order Lines' Costing Totals. Bear in mind that the Cost Lines will display the Cost in the Supplier's currency.
You can edit how the costs have been distributed across your Order Lines by selecting each Costing Total field.

If manually editing the Costing Totals, make sure to match the Cost Lines total with the total of the Costing Totals. If they do not match, an orange exclamation point icon show, warning that the costs don't match and will need to be corrected. Click the orange icon to re-advise the costs using the Distribution method.

Distribution Method Explained

The Distribution Method that applies in the Purchase Order's Cost Lines is determined by the following hierarchy:
- If the Supplier has a distribution method selected in it's record, it will be applied to the Supplier's Purchase Order (not the Cost Line's Supplier).
- If the Supplier doesn't have a distribution method selected, the method chosen in your Company Settings will apply instead.
- If products on order don't have dimensions (height, depth, length, weight) advised, the Value distribution method will be applied.
- If none of the above options can be used, the Base Quantity method will be applied.
If you wish to change the cost line to be distributed by Weight or Volume, based on changes to Company or Supplier defaults, you will need to delete the relevant PO Cost lines and re-add them.
The Distribution Method column in the Purchase Order's Cost Line grid will be blank on Purchase Orders that were created prior to the release of Purchase Order Cost Distribution Method (28th August 2023).
Prior to the release, costs were distributed by value, or order quantity if no value present. Any changes to these Purchase Order lines (adding new or editing existing) will trigger the costs to be recalculated, resulting in the distribution method column being populated with Value or Quantity.

Purchase Order Approval Process

This step is available if you have enabled the Require Approval for Purchase Orders setting in your Company Configuration.

You also have the option to nominate a Purchase Order Total that, if reached, will require approval.

Determine which of your users have approval privileges for Purchase Orders by granting or restricting the Purchase Order Approval permission in their User Role. Head to the Role Permission page within the Settings | Security menu and select the Role that you want to update. Within the Purchases section use the padlock icon either grant or restrict access to Purchase Order Approvals:

Approval Process

When a user's role restricts them from approving a Purchase Order, they will have the option to create and update existing Purchase Orders, but the Purchase Order will be given an Unapproved status. Follow the below steps for the recommended process for Purchase Order approvals:

An approval restricted user can create a Purchase Order, entering the Supplier details, Order Lines, Attachments and Cost Lines as appropriate. They will only be allowed to Delete, Clone or Save the Purchase Order at this stage.
If a Purchase Order value has been set, Users that are restricted will only require approval if the total of the order exceeds the limit - example:
Users with approval will then be able to Approve the order, as appropriate.
- Purchase Orders can be approved individually, within the Purchase Order's page:
- Or they can be approved in bulk in View Purchases or in the Supplier's Purchases tab:
- Tick the checkbox in the View Purchases or Supplier's Purchase tab to select the Purchases for approval.
- Hover over the Action Cog header and select Approve Orders if they're due to be progressed or Delete if not.
  - Approve Order: If approved, the Purchase Order will update to Parked status.
  - Delete: Closes the Purchase Order in Deleted status, so that it cannot be processed further.
If Approved, the Approval restricted users will be able to save the Purchase Order in Parked, Costed, or Placed status and can make further edits, as needed. Please Note: only edits to Parked Purchase Orders will revert the Purchase Order back to Unapproved status. Placed Purchased Orders will not revert back to unapproved as the order is considered already sent to the supplier.
- Edits made to the overall discount rate, quantity, price, or line level discount rates will change the Purchase Order to Unapproved and you will need to get it Approved to proceed further.
Once the Purchase Order's Placed, the next step is to receipt the goods. For more details, see Receipt a Purchase Order.

Auto-Disassembly

If you have a Bill of Materials (BOM) for a product and it is marked as Can Auto-Disassemble, then upon completing a Purchase Order for the product it will be broken down into its component quantities. This is ideal for buying in bundled products that are sold or used separately.

When you select Receipt on a Purchase Order, any assembled product with Can Auto-Disassemble enabled in it's BOM will show an orange exclamation point icon. This is to remind you that the receipted product will be disassembled upon completion:
Update the Receipt Quantity field per order line, as appropriate and then select Split Complete or Complete.
NOTE: You cannot select Receipt for products that are due to auto-disassemble.
When the Purchase Order is Complete, the Receipt Quantity field will show a green tick icon for disassembled products.

The assembled product's current Average Landed Cost (post Purchase Order) will be used as the Disassembly's value, to be distributed amongst the components.
Click on the green tick icon to navigate to the Disassembly that was completed, when the product was receipted.

The Purchase Order's number will be included in the Disassembly's Comments field, for reference.

For more details, see Disassemble a product.

Managing Prepayments or Deposits made in local currency

Making prepayments on a purchase order is useful if you have a supplier that requires a deposit or complete prepayment before they fulfill it. This information needs to be recorded somewhere. We recommend using the Comments field on your purchase order to do this. For example, you may want to write a comment like this one; "50% deposit paid on this date via TT Receipt Number: 12345"

You make the prepayment/deposit in your accounting provider, and then to be later reconciled to the Unleashed Purchase Invoice. Refer to your Accounting Provider Support for more information on how to make prepayment/deposit in your accounting provider.

Prepayments may not be supported in foreign currency within your accounting provider.

Additionally, you can decide on your Purchase Order template whether you want this information displayed to the local Supplier or simply just add it as a Payment Term. Unleashed only sends completed transactions to your Accounting provider in the currency that the purchase order is in.

Add Purchase Order Tutorial Video

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