Purchase Orders

Manage your entire purchasing workflow — from creating purchase orders to tracking deliveries. Upload POs from CSV files or use AI to extract line items from any document format. Send POs directly to your supplier via Alfred (no PDF attachment hunting), let them confirm / reject / request changes on a private review page, and have everything route back into the same PO record. Supplier management — catalogs, costs, lead times, contacts — lives under Configurations › Suppliers (see the Suppliers guide).

Key Concepts

PO Statuses

Purchase orders flow through statuses: Draft → Submitted OR Pending Supplier Review → Confirmed → In Transit → Received → Cancelled. Each status update is tracked with timestamps. POs in any active status (Submitted / Pending Supplier Review / Confirmed / In Transit) are factored into inventory forecasts as inbound stock.

Send to Supplier (email)

From any draft, submitted, or pending-review PO, the Send to supplier action emails the PO directly to your supplier via Alfred. The Preview step renders exactly what the supplier will see before you commit. The PO flips to Pending Supplier Review and the supplier gets a private link to review, confirm, request changes, or reject — no PDF attachment to dig out of email threads. Reply-To is set to your account email so supplier replies (and status update notifications when they act) route directly to you, not to a no-reply void.

Supplier Review Page

The link in the email opens a private, branded review page (hosted on alfredcommerce.com, no Shopify login required). The supplier sees: your business letterhead, ship-to address, full line items with SKU/qty/unit cost, totals, and your personal note. They can: Confirm the order (PO auto-flips to Confirmed and you get a notification email), Request Changes with per-line revisions (quantity, unit cost, supplier SKU, remove line) and a freeform note, Reject the PO, OR just download a CSV/PDF copy for their records. Optionally they can include an estimated ship date that flows back to your PO.

Negotiating revisions

If the supplier requests changes, you'll get an email with their proposed revisions and notes. On the PO detail page in Alfred, a warning-toned panel shows each line revision (qty / unit cost / supplier SKU / remove) side-by-side with the original values. Two terminal actions: Accept all & confirm (applies every revision, flips to Confirmed, notifies the supplier with a link to the final PO), or Counter-revise & re-send (edit the PO in-app, click Re-send to start another round). The negotiation is capped at 3 cycles to keep things bounded — after that you must Accept or Cancel.

Smart Import (AI)

Upload any file — CSV, PDF, Excel, or image of a PO — and AI automatically extracts supplier info, line items, costs, and dates. Review and confirm the extracted data before creating the PO.

Supplier Catalogs

PO line items pre-fill from each supplier's product catalog — supplier SKU, unit cost, pack size, MOQ, lead time. The catalog lives on the supplier record (Configurations › Suppliers › click any supplier › Supplied Products card). Adding a variant to a PO automatically links it back to the supplier catalog so it shows up next time you order. See the Suppliers guide for managing catalogs in detail.

Credit Memos

Every PO detail page has a Credit Memo Due summary card that aggregates supplier credits owed from receive-session issues on that PO. From the Actions menu you can create a credit memo (pre-populated from credit-eligible issues) or a manual credit memo (you pick products + costs manually). Credit memos for the whole shop are listed under Orders & Credits › Credit Memos tab. See the Credit Memos doc for the full workflow.

How to Use

Create a Purchase Order

Click 'Create PO' and choose your method: manual entry, CSV upload, AI Smart Import, or from a Purchase Plan. Add line items with SKU, quantity, and cost. Assign a supplier and set the expected delivery date.

Send the PO to your supplier

Open the PO detail page and click the primary Send to supplier action (envelope icon). The modal pre-fills the recipient from your supplier's email, CCs your account email, and drafts a subject + body. Click Preview to see the exact email the supplier will receive — including your business letterhead, full line items, totals, and review CTA. Click Send when it looks right. The PO flips to Pending Supplier Review, you get the review link as a CC, and any supplier action (Confirm / Request Changes / Reject) will email you back. If the supplier doesn't respond, you can manually re-send from the More actions menu — the previous link is automatically invalidated.

Review supplier revisions

If the supplier requests changes, the PO detail page shows a warning-toned panel above the line items with every proposed change (line, field, from → to, supplier note). You can: Accept all & confirm (applies every change, finalizes the PO, supplier gets a confirmation email with a link to the final approved PO for their records), or Counter-revise & re-send (edit the PO in-app, then click Re-send — the modal pre-fills with your last subject/body so you don't have to retype). The negotiation is capped at 3 cycles.

Upload an Existing PO

Click 'Upload Existing PO' and choose CSV Template (structured format) or Smart Import (any file). For CSV, map your columns to the required fields. For Smart Import, upload your file and review the AI-extracted data.

Tips & Best Practices

✓Use Smart Import for supplier invoices and PO confirmations in any format — AI handles the field mapping.
✓Link POs to purchase plans for traceability — you can track which plan generated each order.
✓Set estimated delivery dates on POs so the forecast engine accounts for when stock will arrive.
✓When using Send to supplier, always use the Preview step before clicking Send — the email is sent immediately and the prior link is auto-revoked on each new send.
✓Set your business entity (legal name + mailing address) on the PO before sending — it becomes the letterhead the supplier sees, so an unbranded shop subdomain doesn't show up where your company name should.
✓Re-sends pre-fill from the last send (To / CC / Reply-To / Subject / body note) — when you counter-revise, you only need to tweak what changed.