Purchase orders

A purchase order records what you have agreed to buy from a vendor: the items, the quantities, the prices and the warehouse the goods go to. A buyer drafts it and submits it; someone with authority approves it. Only an approved order can be received, and the vendor’s bill is then drawn from what was received, at the order’s prices.

Create a purchase order

1. Go to Purchase ‣ Purchasing ‣ Purchase orders and click New order.
2. Pick the Vendor. The currency, payment term and posting profile fill in from the vendor, so check them rather than retype them.
3. Check the Date. The exchange rate and the vendor’s prices are read at this date.
4. Pick the Warehouse the goods are delivered to, so the receipt knows where to put them.
5. On the Lines tab, pick the item in Item / description and enter the Qty. Click Add line for each further item.
6. Click Save draft.

The order is saved as Draft with its own number, and opens so you can check it. Nothing has changed in stock or in the books.

Field	What it sets
Subsidiary	The company that buys, and whose number range the order takes. It cannot change once saved.
Vendor	Who you buy from.
Date	The order’s date. The exchange rate and the price list are read at this date.
Currency and Exchange rate	The currency you buy in. The rate starts at the rate on file for the date.
Payment term	The term the vendor’s bills for this order fall due on.
Warehouse	Where the goods are received.

Each line is priced from the vendor’s price list: the listed price shows faintly in Unit price, and the order uses it unless you type the price the vendor quoted. See How a line’s price is found. Disc. % and Disc. amount give a line discount, and Tax group sets the tax. Under the lines, Document discount percent or Document discount amount takes a discount off the whole order.

The Posting profile tab shows Use default, which means the vendor’s profile. The Notes tab holds Vendor notes and Internal notes. Neither is printed on the order.

Note

A purchase order is for goods you receive into stock. A service line cannot be billed from the order on screen, and an order holding one never closes. Enter services you buy on a bill of their own.

While the order is a draft, click Edit to change it and Save draft again. To start a new order from this one, for example for a weekly delivery, click Clone.

Submit an order for approval

Submit the order once it is complete, so it can be approved.

1. Open the draft order from Purchase ‣ Purchasing ‣ Purchase orders.
2. Click Submit, then Submit in the dialog.

The order shows Submitted. It can no longer be edited; if something is wrong, cancel it and raise a new one.

Approve an order

Approval commits you to the purchase and opens the order for receiving.

1. Open the submitted order.
2. Check the vendor, the lines and the total.
3. Click Approve, then Approve in the dialog.

The order shows Approved, and Receive now appears on it for whoever receives goods.

Example

At a family-owned furniture importer, the two buyers can create and submit orders but hold only the Edit level on Purchase Orders. The finance manager holds Approve. Each morning she opens the workspace, clicks Submitted under Needs attention, and approves or cancels each order before it reaches the supplier.

Print the order for the vendor

Once the order is approved, send it to the vendor so they deliver what you agreed.

1. Open the order.
2. Click Print (the printer button at the top of the order).

Axon Suite prepares the order as a PDF, with the vendor, the delivery warehouse, the lines, the prices and the totals. Send it to the vendor from your own email: Axon Suite does not email orders, and the order does not record that it was sent.

Receive and bill an order

Receiving and billing happen in their own modules, each starting from the order.

1. When the goods arrive, open the approved order and click Receive. A receipt opens with one line for each item still to arrive. Continue in Receive a purchase order.
2. When the vendor’s invoice arrives, bill the receipt in Payables. See Bill the goods received on a purchase order.

As goods arrive, the order shows Partially received, then Received, and the Received column on each line shows how much has come in. Its Related tab lists each receipt and bill.

How an order closes

An order closes itself when the bill that completes it posts: all its goods are received, and every receipt of it is billed. It then shows Closed. There is no button to close an order by hand.

Caution

An order that is only partly received cannot be closed or cancelled. If the vendor will never send the rest, the order stays Partially received, counts as Outstanding, and keeps the vendor from being archived.

Send goods back to the vendor

When goods turn out damaged or wrong after they were received and billed, send them back with a debit note against the bill: posting it takes the goods out of the warehouse and lowers what you owe. See Debit a bill. The goods sent back appear in Inventory as a vendor return.

The purchase order does not change: it still shows the returned goods as received. If the vendor sends replacements, raise a new order for them.

Cancel an order

Cancel an order you no longer want, at any point before goods arrive against it.

1. Open the order with the status Draft, Submitted or Approved.
2. Click Cancel order, then Cancel order in the dialog.

The order shows Cancelled and cannot be reopened. If you printed it for the vendor, tell them it is withdrawn.

Status	Meaning
Draft	Saved, not yet submitted. You can edit or cancel it.
Submitted	Waiting for approval. You can approve or cancel it.
Approved	Committed; ready to receive. You can still cancel it.
Partially received	Some of the goods have arrived.
Received	Every stocked line has arrived in full; waiting for its bills.
Closed	Received and billed in full.
Cancelled	Withdrawn before any goods arrived.

Messages you may meet

Message	What to do
The purchase order is not in a status that allows this.	The order has moved on since you opened it: reload it and check its status. An order with goods received cannot be cancelled.
The line states no unit price and no list answers for it, so it cannot be priced.	The item is not on the vendor’s price list. Add it, or type the Unit price. See Vendor prices.
This price list is not in effect on the document’s date.	The vendor’s price list does not cover the order’s Date. Update the list’s dates, or give the vendor a current one.
No exchange rate from USD to SAR for 2026-03-12.	Record the rate for that date in Currencies, then save again.
A concurrent create took this order number; retry to draw a fresh one.	Someone saved an order at the same moment. Click Save draft again.