Raise a purchase order

Agree items, quantities and prices with a supplier before the goods ship, send the order like an invoice, then turn it into a bill on arrival.

Basic
This is available on Steady Startup

A purchase order is a document you send a supplier before you buy: this is what we want, in these quantities, at these prices. It isn't a payment and it isn't a bill — it pins down the deal before the goods ship, so there's no argument later about what was agreed.

You don't need one for a till-slip purchase. Raise one when you order stock ahead of delivery, when prices were negotiated, or when a supplier wants your order in writing. And when the delivery lands, stub turns the order into a bill for you, line by line, so what you owe always matches what actually arrived.

Raise a purchase order

  1. Click Expenses in the sidebar.
  2. Click Create → Purchase Order. (Or press N, then O.)
  3. Pick the supplier at the top, or add a new one.
  4. Set the date.
  5. Click Add item and enter what you are ordering, with quantities and agreed prices.

You can also start from the supplier under Suppliers, or from a stock item you are running low on — open the item under Products & Services and click Stock → Purchase Order.

Send it

Sending works just like an invoice: click Send, check the address, tweak the message, and deliver it by email, PDF or WhatsApp, or copy its private Link so your supplier can view and download it without a login. Click Preview to see the email before it goes. The ··· menu also has View, to see the order the way your supplier will, and Download for a PDF.

Record the supplier's answer

On the Status panel of the order, click Mark as accepted. To record a no, open the ··· next to that button and click Mark as rejected. The panel then shows Purchase order accepted on <date> — click Status to change it later.

Turn it into a bill

This is where the purchase order earns its keep. Once the goods arrive:

  1. Open the accepted purchase order.
  2. Click Bill on the Status panel.
  3. Check each line. Change the Quantity or Price on anything that arrived differently from what you ordered, remove any line that did not arrive at all, and add a line if something extra did.
  4. Click Create. stub creates the bill and opens it for you.

The bill is built from what you confirmed, so what you owe matches what you actually received — not what the supplier hoped to send.

Tip: If only part of an order arrived, bill for what came and keep the rest on order.

Last updated 23 Oct 2026