Raise and Send a Purchase Order
Updated 24 Sep 2026
A purchase order records what you've asked a supplier for, and follows it from draft to sent, received and matched to the supplier's invoice. Each order takes the next PO number when it's created.
Raise the Order
- Go to Sales & Money → Purchase Orders and choose New PO. You can also start one from a job's Purchasing tab with Raise PO, which fills in the job and its site, or with New PO on a supplier's page, which fills in the supplier.
- Choose what the order is for: Job Purchase, Stock Purchase, Project Purchase or Subcontractor Order, then the job, project or subcontractor it belongs to. A Subcontractor Order takes the Subcontractor and the Job, and raising it puts the subcontractor on that job, so they can log hours against the order in their portal.
- Choose the Supplier. Only active suppliers are listed.
- Set Deliver To (the warehouse, a site, a technician, the customer, or pick up from the supplier), the Expected Delivery date, and any delivery address, contact and instructions.
- Choose Create Draft PO. The order opens as a draft.
Add What You're Ordering
In the Items panel, enter each line's description, the supplier's SKU, the quantity and the unit cost ex GST, choose GST or GST Free, then choose Add Line. The total and GST work themselves out.
Lines can be added or removed only while the order is a draft. Once it has gone to the supplier, its lines are fixed.
When an Order Needs Approval
Your business can set a raise limit for each staff role: the most someone in that role can order without approval. An order whose total, including GST, is over your raise limit has to be approved before it goes to the supplier. If your business hasn't set any limits, orders don't need approval.
- Choose Send for Approval, which takes the place of Send Order on an order over your limit. Like Send Order, it needs at least one line.
- The order moves to Awaiting Approval, with the reason: its total and the raise limit it's over.
- Once it's approved, it moves to To Send. Open it and send it to the supplier as below.
An admin can approve any order, and a staff member whose approve limit covers the total can approve an order they can open. The approver chooses Approve or Reject on the order, or on its card at the top of Purchase Orders, and can leave a note that's kept with the decision.
A rejected order goes back to draft, marked rejected, with the approver's note. Change what's needed, then choose Send for Approval again.
Set the Approval Limits
An admin sets the limits with Approval Limits on Purchase Orders. Each role has a raise limit, where 0 means no limit, and an approve limit, the most it can approve, where 0 means it can't approve at all. Admins can always approve.
Send It to the Supplier
- Choose Send Order. It stays greyed out until the order has at least one line.
- Check the recipients, subject and message. Leave the PDF option ticked to include a link to the purchase order PDF.
- Send it. The order's status becomes Submitted, and if it's a Job Purchase, its job moves to Awaiting Parts. A Subcontractor Order leaves its job where it is.
If the supplier takes orders through their own portal and it's set up on their page, Submit to Portal appears in the same window.
When the supplier confirms the order, choose Mark Confirmed. If the goods turn up first, Receive Goods is there beside it; see Receive Goods and Match the Supplier's Invoice.
Find an Order
- The tabs sort orders by where they stand: Awaiting Approval, To Send, Draft, Ordered, Receiving, Received, To Match and Closed, with All for every order.
- The counts under the title pick out orders awaiting approval, orders that are late (the expected delivery date has passed and goods are still to come) and orders with lines on backorder.
- Search looks at the PO number, supplier, job, customer, project, subcontractor and supplier invoice number.
Cancel an Order
Choose More, then Cancel Order. An order can be cancelled only while nothing on it has been received. If it has already gone to the supplier, Deployr doesn't tell them, so let them know yourself. Only an admin can reopen a cancelled order.
Office and dispatch staff see and work on every purchase order; a technician sees only the ones they raised. Purchase orders need the Commercial plan; see When a Save Says It Isn't on Your Plan.
More in Purchasing and Stock
- Receive Goods and Match the Supplier's InvoiceRecord each delivery against its purchase order, then enter the supplier's invoice, check it against the order and approve it for payment.
- Import a Supplier's Price ListBring a supplier's price list into a price book, update the costs of items you already have, and decide which new prices to pass on.
- Set Up Stock Locations and Move StockSet up your warehouse and vans as stock locations, add parts, move stock between them and reorder what runs low.
- Count Stock With a StocktakeCount what's on the shelf at one location and post the differences, without losing anything that moved while you counted.
- See What's on a Van and Request PartsTechnicians see their own van's shelves and ask the warehouse for parts; the office can open any van.