Creating and managing purchase orders
You can create purchase orders in your Shopify admin to record the commercial agreements that you make with your suppliers. Purchase orders list the products, prices, and quantities for an order, and help you track inventory costs, payment terms, and supplier information. You can save a purchase order as a draft to work on later, or mark it as Ordered after your supplier confirms the order.
After you mark a purchase order as Ordered, you can create an inventory transfer for your purchase order to track the movement of goods into your store. The purchase order records the commercial agreement, and the linked inventory transfer records the actual movement. Inventory changes from supplier transfers are also tracked in your inventory adjustment history.
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Before you start
Before you create a purchase order, you need to complete the following tasks:
- Set up suppliers in your Shopify admin.
- Create and configure locations for receiving inventory.
- Activate inventory tracking for the products that you want to order.
Purchase order status
Purchase orders have two statuses that reflect their current state. Receiving, partial receipt, completion, and closure are tracked on the linked inventory transfer instead.
- Draft: The purchase order is being created or reviewed. You can edit all details and add or remove products.
- Ordered: The purchase order has been submitted to the supplier. You can now create an inventory transfer for your purchase order to track the inventory movement.
Create a purchase order
You can create a purchase order from your Shopify admin. A purchase order includes a supplier, a destination location, products, payment terms, and a cost summary.
After you save your purchase order as a draft, you can export it as a PDF to submit to your supplier for review and approval. This allows your supplier to review the order details, pricing, and terms.
After your supplier confirms the order details, you can mark the purchase order as ordered and then create an inventory transfer to track the inventory movement.
When you add a product, some details can be auto-filled. If you've ordered the product from the selected supplier before, then the Supplier SKU, Cost, and Tax values are auto-filled from your previous purchase orders with that supplier. If you've used multiple costs before, then you can select a previous cost from the drop-down menu, or enter a custom value. If there's no previous purchase order for the product, then the Cost defaults to the cost per item that's set on the product variant. You can edit any auto-filled value. If a product doesn't have a supplier SKU on file, then the variant's SKU is used by default.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
Click Create purchase order.
Select a supplier:
- To select an existing supplier, click the supplier.
- To create a new supplier, click Create new supplier, enter the supplier details, and then click Save.
Optional: Select a destination location. You can save a purchase order as a draft without a destination, and add one later before you mark it as ordered. If you need to add a destination location, then refer to Create and modify locations.
Add products to the purchase order. You can only add products that already exist in your Shopify store. Use one of the following methods:
- To add products manually, in the Add products field, search for products, or click Browse to select products and variants from a list. To narrow the list to products that you've ordered from the selected supplier before, click Recently purchased and select a time range. Select the variants that you want to order, and then click Add to purchase order.
- To add products in bulk, import products using a CSV file.
- To add products with a barcode scanner, scan each product that you want to add. On mobile or tablet, you can also tap the barcode symbol above Add products to use your device's camera scanner. Your scanner needs to be configured in keyboard mode.
For each product, enter the following details:
- Quantity
- Supplier SKU (optional)
- Cost and tax percentage (optional)
Optional: In the Purchase order details section, enter a reference number or a note to the supplier.
Optional: In the Purchasing information section, adjust the Payment terms and Supplier currency settings. The currency defaults to the supplier's currency, and you can change it using the currency selector.
Optional: In the Tags section, add any tags for the purchase order.
In the Cost summary section, review the order total. If the supplier currency is different from your store's currency, then the cost summary also displays the converted total in your store's currency.
Click Save as draft.
Import products to a purchase order using a CSV file
You can bulk import products to a new or existing purchase order using a CSV file. The purchase order CSV file contains information that uniquely identifies products and product variants, and the quantities that you want to order. You can identify each variant by SKU, by barcode, or by both. You can download and view a sample CSV file to use as a template.
The CSV file can include optional cost and tax values for each line item. You can enter these values in the CSV, or add them on the purchase order after you import.
If the CSV contains a variant that's already on the purchase order, then that row doesn't import and is displayed as an error. To update quantities for existing line items, edit them directly on the purchase order.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
Click Create purchase order or click an existing purchase order.
Click Import, and then click Add file.
Select the CSV file that you want to upload.
Click Import products.
Mark a purchase order as ordered
After your supplier confirms the order, you can mark the purchase order as Ordered. Marking a purchase order as ordered can't be reversed.
You can still edit most purchase order information after you mark it as ordered, including products, costs, and supplier details.
After you mark a purchase order as Ordered, you can create an inventory transfer for your purchase order to track the inventory movement from your supplier.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
Click the draft purchase order that you want to mark as ordered.
Click Mark as ordered, and then click Mark as ordered again to confirm.
Edit a purchase order
You can edit any details of a purchase order at any time, including after you mark it as Ordered. The supplier, destination, products, and costs can all be changed at any time. The linked inventory transfer, however, can't have its origin or destination changed after it reaches the Ready to ship status.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
Click the purchase order that you want to edit.
If you've marked the purchase order as Ordered, then click Edit.
Make your changes.
Click Save.
Download a purchase order as a PDF
You can save your purchase order as a PDF to submit to your supplier or keep for your records.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
Click the purchase order that you want to download a PDF for.
Click More actions.
Click Export PDF.
Archive a purchase order
You can archive a purchase order to remove it from your active list while keeping a record of it. Archived purchase orders are displayed as grayed out on your purchase orders list, and an Archived badge is displayed next to the status badge on the purchase order details page. Archiving a purchase order doesn't close or cancel the linked inventory transfer.
Previously closed purchase orders are now displayed as archived. Purchase order and inventory transfer statuses are tracked separately.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
Click the purchase order that you want to archive.
Click More actions.
Click Archive.
To unarchive a purchase order, follow the same steps and click Unarchive instead of Archive.
Delete a purchase order
You can delete a purchase order while it's still a draft. If a purchase order is marked as Ordered, then you need to archive it instead.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Products > Purchase orders.
Click the draft purchase order that you want to delete.
Click Delete.
In the confirmation dialog, click Delete Purchase Order.