Purchase Orders and Receiving

The lifecycle

A part runs low, someone raises a PO, an approver signs it off, the order goes to the supplier, and the goods are received into inventory. Receiving is the only step that moves stock. Find them under Purchase orders in the sidebar. A PO moves through fixed states; the page only offers the legal next step.

• Draft: add lines, pick a supplier and facility.
• Submitted: after Submit for approval. A PO number (PO-id) is stamped here.
• Approved: signed off, ready to place.
• Ordered: after Mark ordered. Receiving unlocks here.
• Partially received or Received: driven by what you receive, not by a button.

You can cancel from any state except received, which is terminal. Edits are only possible while draft or submitted; once approved it is frozen, so cancel and re-raise if the order was wrong.

Who can do what

• Raise, edit, submit: admins, supervisors, technicians, and inventory managers.
• Approve and mark ordered: admins only.
• Receive goods: admins, supervisors, and inventory managers.
• Cancel: an admin, or the person who raised it.

You cannot approve your own PO; a different admin must sign it off. Roles without cost visibility, such as technicians, see quantities and the supplier but not costs or totals.

The auto-approval threshold

Under Approval policy on the Purchase orders page, an admin sets an auto-approval threshold. A PO whose total is at or below it (exactly on it counts) moves straight from submitted to approved with no named approver, and the audit log records it as an auto-approval. Set it to 0 and every PO needs a human; that is the safe default if finance needs a name on every order.

Drafting from low stock

The Replenishment panel lists every active part at or below its reorder point, suggesting roughly twice the reorder point (minimum 1). One click drafts one PO with a line for every low part at its unit cost. Review it before submitting; it does not know your supplier minimums. Parts with no reorder point never appear. Set reorder points in parts and inventory.

Receiving

Receiving is per line, against POs in ordered or partially received status. Enter what arrived; over-receiving is clamped to the outstanding quantity, and each unit increments the linked part's on-hand quantity immediately. Once every line is complete the PO flips to received. Free-text lines with no linked part move no stock. Do not wait for the invoice to receive; your on-hand counts are wrong until you do. To track committed spend, see maintenance budgets.