Purchase Order Operations

In this help document, you’ll learn all the actions you can perform on the purchase orders in your organization.

The actions you can perform on purchase orders are classified into:

Management Actions

The management actions let you manage the lifecycle of a purchase order after they are created, helping you maintain accurate and up-to-date records.

Convert a Purchase Order to a Purchase Receive

Scenario: Patricia, Zylker’s Procurement Manager, creates a purchase order for various items required for Zylker and sends it to Bailey, her vendor. Once Bailey fulfills the order, she delivers the items to Patricia. To keep her inventory updated, Patricia needs to record the receipt of these items in Zoho ERP. Instead of creating a new purchase receive, she converts the purchase order she previously recorded for Bailey into a purchase receive in Zoho ERP.

When you receive the items from the purchase order or when your vendor issues an invoice (bill) for the items, you can convert the purchase order to a purchase receive. Here’s how:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the purchase order you want to convert into a purchase receive.
Click Receive at the top pane. You’ll be redirected to the New Purchase Receive page.
Enter the necessary details.
Click Save as Received if you’ve received the items. Click the dropdown and select Save as In Transit if the items are in transit.

A purchase receive will be created, and the status of the purchase order will be updated to Issued.

Convert a Purchase Order to a Bill

Scenario: Patricia, Zylker’s Procurement Manager, creates a purchase order with all the items required and sends it to Bailey, her vendor. Bailey accepts the purchase order and sends all the items to Patricia along with a bill. Patricia will have to record this bill into Zoho ERP. Instead of creating a new one, she converts the purchase order that she had already recorded for Bailey to a bill in Zoho ERP.

When you receive the items from the purchase order or when your vendor issues an invoice (bill) for the items, you can convert the purchase order to a bill. Here’s how:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the purchase order you want to convert into a bill.
Click Convert to Bill at the top. You’ll be redirected to the New Bill page.
Enter the necessary details.
Click Save.

A bill will be created, and the status of the purchase order will be updated to Issued.

Cancel a Purchase Order

If your vendor rejects the purchase order you sent, you can cancel it. Here’s how:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the purchase order you want to cancel.
Click the More icon at the top and select Mark as Canceled.
Click Confirm in the pop-up that appears.

Cancel Items in a Purchase Order

Scenario: Patricia, Zylker’s Procurement Manager, creates a purchase order with three items and sends it to Bailey, her vendor. Baileys confirms that two items are available and one item is out of stock. On receiving the two items, Patricia pays Baileys for the items received and modifies the purchase order accordingly. She cancels the unavailable item in the purchase order.

To cancel items in a purchase order:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the purchase order containing the items you want to cancel.
Click the More icon at the top and select Cancel Items.
Enter the Quantity to Cancel for the items you want to cancel.
Click Proceed.

Note:

In a partially billed purchase order, only items that are not billed can be canceled.
If your purchase order includes Service items, you can’t cancel them. You might encounter an error stating “No items are available for cancellation”.

Reopen a Canceled Purchase Order

You can reopen a canceled purchase order or the canceled items in a purchase order. Here’s how:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the purchase order you want to reopen.
Click the More icon at the top and select Reopen Canceled Items.
Click Proceed.

Delete Purchase Orders

To delete an individual purchase order:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the purchase order you want to delete.
Click the More icon in the top right corner and select Delete.
Confirm your action by clicking Delete again in the pop-up.

You can also delete multiple purchase orders. Here’s how:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Select the purchase orders you want to delete.
Click the More icon at the top and select Delete.
Confirm your action by clicking Delete again in the pop-up.

List View Actions

The list view actions let you organize and customize how purchase orders are displayed, making it easier to find and review the information you need.

Filter Purchase Orders

You can filter the purchase orders in your organization by their status or using custom views. Here’s how:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click All Purchase Orders at the top and select the required filter.

If you’ve created custom views or have custom views shared with you by other users, you can filter purchase orders using these custom views. You can find your own custom views under Created By Me and those shared with you under Shared With Me. Read our help document on custom views to learn more.

Sort Purchase Orders

You can sort purchase orders based on different columns or fields. Here’s how:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the column based on which you want to sort. The sorting will be in ascending or descending order, as indicated by the arrow next to the column.

You can also sort purchase orders using the following method:

Click the More icon in the top right corner.
Hover over Sort By and choose the option based on which you want to sort.

Rearrange Columns

You can rearrange the columns and fields displayed on the Purchase Orders List page and show or hide them.

To rearrange columns:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the Customize Columns icon next to the column names.
Rearrange the columns by dragging and dropping them according to your preference.
Click Save. The columns will be arranged as per your preference.

To show or hide fields:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the Customize Columns icon next to the column names.
Check a column name to show it on the Purchase Orders List page. Or, uncheck a column name to hide it.
Click Save.

Note: You’ll not be able to uncheck columns with the Lock icon next to them.

Refresh List

Sometimes, other users of your organization may create new purchase orders or modify existing ones. As a result, you may not have the latest list of purchase orders. You can refresh the purchase orders to get the updated list. Here’s how:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the More icon in the top right corner and select Refresh List.

The share actions let you use purchase order information outside Zoho ERP or share it with vendors when required.

Export Current View

If you’ve filtered purchase orders or rearranged, shown, or hidden columns, then you can export the current view. Here’s how:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the More icon in the top right corner.
Hover over Export and click Export Current View.
Choose the Export File Format. You can choose from CSV, XLS, and XLSV.
Enter the File Protection Password if you want to protect the export file.
Click Export.

Download a Purchase Order as a PDF

Here’s how you can download a purchase order as a PDF:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the purchase order you want to download as a PDF.
Click the PDF/Print button at the top pane and select PDF.
Click Save. The purchase order will be downloaded into your device.

Send a Purchase Order to a Vendor

Here’s how you can share purchase orders with your vendors:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the purchase order you want to send to your vendor.
Click Send Email. You’ll be redirected to the Email To page.
Verify the email’s details and click Send.

Export Purchase Orders

You can export purchase orders from your organization to use them in other applications or for record-keeping purposes. Zoho ERP lets you export either all purchase orders or only the purchase orders with the columns currently visible on the Purchase Orders List page. Read our help document exporting records to learn more.

Print a Purchase Order

Here’s how you can print a purchase order:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the purchase order you want to print.
Click the PDF/Print button at the top pane and select Print.
Click Print again in the page that appears.

Other Actions

Other actions include additional options that support reviewing, documenting, and maintaining records in this module.

Attach Files to a Purchase Order

You can attach files to a purchase order using the following methods:

Attach the files on your device
Attach files from cloud resources like Zoho Workdrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, One Drive, etc.

To attach files to a purchase order:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the purchase order to which you want to attach files.
Click Upload Files in the top right corner.
Click the dropdown next to Upload Your Files and select the preferred option.

Add Comments and View History

You can add comments to the purchase orders created in your organization. These comments will only be visible to other users of your organization, and it’ll not be visible to your vendors.

To add a comment to a purchase order:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar.
Click Purchase Orders from the Modules bar.
Click the purchase order to which you want to add comments.
Click Comments & History in the top right corner.
Enter the comment in the text box. You can also format the message using bold, italics, and underline.
If you want to mention users in your organization, press @ and enter the employee’s name or email address.
Click Add Comment.

All the comments added and the actions performed on the purchase order will be available in the All Comments & History section.