Creating and Managing Purchase Orders

Create purchase orders and send them to your vendors directly from within Goflow. Use Goflow to efficiently manage vendors, track vendor inventory and cost, and for selecting the best vendors to purchase from.

Follow the complete purchasing workflow, or use only the steps that fit your business needs:

• Manage vendors - Keep your vendor records organized, and manage vendor settings.
• Manage vendor products - Track current vendor quantity, vendor lead time, and vendor cost.
• Inventory Forecasting tool - Use Inventory Forecasting to identify products that need replenishment.
• Create purchase orders - Create one or multiple purchase orders.
• Submit purchase orders - Export, print, and email purchase orders to your vendors.
• Receive purchase orders - Process full or partial order receipts.
• Record Bills - Enter vendor bills for accurate cost tracking.
• Send to Accounting - Sync vendor bills with your accounting software.

Creating a Standard Purchase Order

Goflow supports three types of purchase orders:

• Standard – Standard purchase orders used for general inventory stocking.
• Dropship – Direct-to-customer purchases.
• PTO – Purchases linked to existing orders.

This article covers the standard purchase order process.

To create a single purchase order, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Purchasing › Purchase Orders.
2. Click New Purchase Order in the upper right corner.
3. Fill in the purchase order details.
4. Add products to purchase order, or load products from file.
5. Click the Save button to save the purchase order.

Filling Purchase Order Details

Below is an overview of the purchase order fields:

• Vendor – Select the vendor you are ordering from.
• PO Number – The unique purchase order number in your Goflow account. You can manually enter a PO number or let Goflow automatically generate one.
• Vendor PO Number – Optional The PO number as referenced by your vendor. This number does not need to be unique.
• Date – The date the purchase order is placed. You can set it to a past or future date. The PO date does not affect expected inventory. Any open purchase order is reflected in inventory reports as expected inventory, regardless of the PO date.
• Expected Date – Optional The anticipated date of receipt. This helps vendors plan their shipments. Expected date impacts inventory forecasting and inventory allocation for some channels.
• Warehouse – The warehouse where you expect to receive the inventory. The selected warehouse will display the incoming stock as expected inventory.
• Address – Select the shipping address where the vendor should send the shipment. Choose an existing address or click New Shipping Address to add a new one.
• Notes – Optional Drop a note for your vendor. Notes will appear on the purchase order PDF.
• Shipping Cost – Enter the amount charged by your vendor for shipping. Shipping cost does not affect inventory cost.
• Sales Tax – Enter any applicable sales tax collected by your vendor. Sales tax does not affect inventory cost.
• Shipping Method – For informational purposes only.

Adding Products to a Purchase Order

To add products individually on the page, start by entering the item number or by scanning the product identifier.

Below is an overview of the item fields in a purchase order:

• Item Number – The product item number. The item number prints on the purchase order PDF, unless the product is mapped to a vendor product, in which case the vendor item number prints instead.
• Name – The product name or description. The name is populated with the product’s purchase order name. If no purchase order name is set, it defaults to the product name.
• Quantity – The quantity being purchased. Click the clipboard icon for a quick review of current inventory levels.
• Unit of Measure – The unit in which the product is being purchased, such as each, or case. The default purchasing unit of measure is automatically selected, but you can select any unit configured on the product.
• Cost – The cost per unit of the selected measure. Cost is populated from the vendor product. If no vendor product cost is available, it defaults to the product default cost. When changing the vendor on a purchase order, Goflow will prompt you whether you wish to update the cost for all line items to match the new vendor's pricing.
• Total – The total line item cost.

When changing the unit of measure, the entered cost is cleared to allow you to adjust the cost to match the new unit of measure.

If ordering in a foreign currency, Goflow will apply an exchange rate and adjust the inventory cost accordingly.

To purchase the components of a group or kit product, click the + Add Group or Kit button, and enter the parent item number along with the desired quantity. Goflow calculates the required quantity of components and adds the necessary standard products to the purchase order.

You can also purchase kit parent products directly to use as kits or disassemble later. However, group parent products cannot be purchased directly.

Products marked as non-purchasable cannot be added to a purchase order.

You can add the same product multiple times to a purchase order, which is useful when purchasing at promotional prices with quantity limits or ordering in different units of measure.

Adding Products to a Purchase Order in Bulk

Make your purchase calculations in a spreadsheet, and use a CSV upload to import products to the purchase order.

To import products from a CSV file, follow these steps:

1. Open the purchase order.
2. Click the upload icon in the upper right corner, and then select Load from File.
3. Review the Columns tab to learn about required and optional file headers.
4. Go to the Upload tab, click Choose File, and upload your CSV file.

The upload file must include at least one of the following product aliases: Item Number, Vendor Item Number, or Product Identifier. All other headers are optional. If quantity is missing, you can add it later on the purchase order page. If the cost is left blank, it defaults to the vendor product cost. If no vendor product cost is available, it falls back to the product default cost.

Unlike manual entry, if the unit of measure is left empty in the upload file, it will default to Eaches, even if the product has a different default purchasing unit of measure.

Ensure that the spreadsheet columns are formatted as text to maintain UPC integrity and prevent automatic formatting errors.

Managing Purchase Orders

You can modify a purchase order at any time. Follow the steps below to update purchase order details, or to add, remove, or edit line items:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Purchasing › Purchase Orders.
2. Select and open the purchase order you want to edit.

The vendor, warehouse, and ship-to address cannot be changed on purchase orders with recorded receipts.

To update purchase order details:

1. Click the pencil icon next to the relevant section.
2. Make your updates.
3. Click the Save button within the section to apply the changes.

To edit purchase order products:

1. Click the pencil icon to the right of the line item.
2. Update the quantity, unit of measure, or cost as needed.
3. Click the inline save button to apply the changes.

Quantities cannot be reduced below the quantity already received.

The item number cannot be changed. To update it, delete the existing product and add a new one. To delete a line item, click the X icon, and confirm the deletion. You can add new products to the purchase order either individually or in bulk.

Exporting a Purchase Order

Goflow offers standard export templates for both top-level purchase order details and line-level details.

For greater flexibility, you can create custom exports tailored to your business needs. Custom exports let you specify which data fields to include and customize the export headers.

Canceling a Purchase Order

If you decide not to proceed with a purchase order, you can cancel it. To cancel a single purchase order, edit its status and set it to Canceled.

To cancel multiple purchase orders in bulk, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar menu, go to Purchasing › Purchase Orders.
2. Select the purchase orders you want to cancel.
3. Click Actions › Change Purchase Order Status.
4. Choose Close or Cancel, then click Save.

Cloning a Purchase Order

If you need to place a repeat purchase, you can quickly create a new purchase order by cloning an existing one. Follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar menu, go to Purchasing › Purchase Orders.
2. Open an existing purchase order, regardless of its status.
3. In the upper-right corner, click the three-dot menu and select Clone Purchase Order.
4. Modify the purchase order details or purchase order products as needed.
5. Click Save to create the new purchase order.

The following fields are not cloned: PO number, Vendor PO number, Date, and Expected Date.

Printing a Purchase Order

To print a PDF copy of a purchase order, click the down arrow icon in the upper-right corner of the purchase order, and then select Export to PDF.

Customize the print template to include your company logo, billing address, and your contact information by following these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Settings › Documents.
2. Select and open the document of type PurchaseOrder; It will open in design mode.

Add a Logo

1. Locate the image element for the logo in the upper-left corner of the template.
2. Double-click the element to open the image upload modal.
3. Drag and drop your logo image, or click the folder icon to browse for the file on your local drive.
4. Click OK to save.

To ensure your logo fits within the available space, resize it before uploading. For the best fit, set the image to a maximum width of 300 pixels and a maximum height of 100 pixels.

Add a Billing Address

1. Below the logo, locate the Billing Address title, followed by a text box.
2. Double-click the text box element to edit it.
3. Enter your company name, address, and contact information.
4. Click OK to save.

Save the Template

1. Go to File › Save.
2. Click Save again when prompted in the file name modal.

To preserve formatting and structure, do not modify other elements of the purchase order design.

Submitting a Purchase Order to the Vendor

To send your vendor a PDF copy of a purchase order, click the down arrow icon in the upper-right corner of the purchase order, and select Email from the dropdown menu.

Sending emails requires that your email settings are configured. To set up your email, go to Settings › Profile › SMTP Settings.