A purchase order is the written record of what you asked a supplier for — products, quantities, costs, and where it's going. Small merchants often skip formal POs ("I just email Dave at the mill"), and it works until it doesn't: a disputed invoice, a short shipment nobody notices, or reorder math that double-orders because nothing tracked what was already on the way. A real PO workflow fixes all three, and it's less work than the email-archaeology approach, not more.
Why POs earn their keep
- Incoming visibility feeds your reorder math. The suggested-quantity formula is order-up-to − available − incoming — and "incoming" only exists if open POs are tracked somewhere. No POs, no protection against double-ordering.
- Receiving needs something to receive against. When the boxes arrive, the PO is the checklist: what was supposed to come, at what cost. Without it, whatever's in the box becomes the truth.
- Disputes get settled by the paper. Short shipments and price disagreements surface weeks later; the PO with its costs and quantities is the record both sides work from.
The workflow, end to end
1. Start from suggestions, not a blank page. The best PO is drafted by your reorder list: everything at or below its reorder point, with suggested quantities already computed and rounded to pack sizes, grouped into one draft PO per supplier. Building by hand works too — pick the supplier and destination location, add lines — but suggestion-driven drafting is where the time savings live (how suggestions become POs).
2. Edit the draft freely. A draft is a proposal: add or remove lines, adjust quantities and costs, note the supplier's order number, add instructions for the supplier and internal notes for your team. Quantities are expressed in packs (3 cases), with the unit math shown alongside.
3. Send it. Mark the PO as ordered — the expected delivery date comes from the supplier's lead time — then get it to the supplier however they work: a formatted email with PDF attached, a printed PDF, or your own portal/EDI channel with the PO as the internal record.
4. Receive against it. When stock lands, receive line by line: expected vs. actually received, partials kept open for the balance. Receiving pushes the new stock (and per-receipt costs) back to Shopify so inventory value stays accurate.
The lifecycle at a glance
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Being composed — fully editable |
| Ordered | Sent to the supplier; goods on the way (counts as "incoming") |
| Partial | Some lines received; the rest outstanding |
| Received | Everything in; PO closed |
| Cancelled | Called off |
What this looks like in Stockwik
This whole loop is core Stockwik: one-click draft POs per supplier from the Reorder page, pack-aware lines, emailed or printable POs with your company details, and receiving that writes stock and costs back to Shopify (creating & editing POs). Open POs feed straight back into the suggestion math as incoming stock — closing the loop that spreadsheets never quite close.
FAQ
Does Shopify have purchase orders built in?
Shopify's admin has been adding basic PO records, but the planning loop — suggestions that draft the PO, pack-size math, receiving with cost updates, incoming feeding reorder suggestions — is app territory.
Should I create one PO per supplier or per product?
Per supplier. One order per vendor per cycle keeps shipping consolidated, hits MOQs more easily, and matches how the invoice will arrive.
What if I order through a supplier portal?
Keep the PO anyway as your internal record — mark it ordered and place the order in the portal. You still get incoming tracking and a receiving checklist.
