Purchase Orders
Purchase orders help you decide what to buy, record what was ordered, and book stock in safely when goods arrive.
Recommended flow
Select a supplier, review supplier items, check stock and recent sales, then enter quantities manually or use forecast suggestions.
Use the stock column, 7/14/30 day sales figures, suggested quantities, MOQ values and any bulk-sale warnings to sanity-check the order.
Drafts are safe to edit. Marking sent records that the order has been placed with the supplier but does not book stock in.
Enter the quantity actually received. TrueSKU records stock movements and keeps the purchase-order context for audit/history.
Create PO screen
The Create PO screen is designed for fast buyer workflow. You can scroll through a supplier catalogue, tab down the quantity boxes, and enter order quantities while keeping buying data visible.
| Column / area | What it means |
|---|---|
| Stock | Current linked SKU stock at the time the page was loaded. Unlinked supplier items do not show SKU stock. |
| Sales 7 / 14 / 30 | Recent sales totals from cached SKU stats. These help the buyer judge normal demand. |
| Bulk-sale warning | Shown when a large portion of recent sales appears to come from a single sale/order. Treat the forecast with caution. |
| Suggested quantity | Forecast-based suggested order quantity, using SKU stats and current stock. It is a starting point, not an instruction. |
| Qty | The quantity you actually want to order. You can tab down the Qty inputs for quick entry. |
| Unit cost | The supplier item cost used for this PO line. Double-click to adjust the line price where enabled. |
Autofill and forecast suggestions
The Autofill panel contains separate tools for bulk quantity entry and forecast-based suggestions.
- Apply quantity sets all currently filtered supplier items to the same quantity.
- Apply MOQ quantities sets filtered items to their minimum order quantity, falling back to 1 where no MOQ is set.
- Use forecast suggestions uses SKU stats, sales velocity, stock, on-order quantity, projection days, demand multiplier, MOQ and pack rounding.
Linked and unlinked supplier items
A supplier item can be linked to a SKU, or it can exist as an unlinked purchase option.
- Linked supplier item: receiving stock updates the linked SKU and can feed listing/channel stock control.
- Unlinked supplier item: receiving stock updates supplier-item stock only. It will not update SKU/listing stock until linked.
Partial deliveries
If only part of an order arrives, receive the quantity actually delivered. TrueSKU keeps the remaining quantity outstanding so you can receive the rest later.
Receiving deliveries
Use the Receive Delivery screen when goods arrive. Enter the delivered quantities, confirm who checked the delivery, and record any extra items if needed.
Delivery history
Every delivery you book in is recorded on the purchase order as its own entry, so a part-received order shows exactly what arrived and when. Open the purchase order and look for the Deliveries section: each delivery shows the date and time, who booked it in, whether it was booked on desktop, a phone, the warehouse app or the API, the delivery reference, the number of units, and the items and quantities in it.
On the Purchase Orders list, any order with deliveries shows a "N deliveries" link under its received quantity. Click it to open the same history directly under that row, without leaving the list.
Each delivery keeps its own delivery note. Booking in a second delivery without a photo no longer replaces the first delivery's note - download each one from its own row.
When more arrives than you ordered
If you enter a quantity higher than what is still outstanding on a line (the supplier sent 12 against 10 ordered, say), TrueSKU does not hide the difference. The Receive screen, on desktop and on a phone, shows an amber over-delivery notice with the extra number before you book anything in. If you go ahead, the ordered quantity is received against the line as normal and the surplus is added to stock as well, marked as an over-delivery. If you do not want the surplus, lower the number before you book.
Over-deliveries are flagged afterwards too: the line on the purchase order shows +2 over, and the delivery in the Deliveries section is labelled Over-delivery. The order's own received total still stops at the quantity ordered, so an order with one line over and another line short stays open until the short line arrives. The surplus is valued at that line's price.
Items that were never on the order at all are still added with Add extra (desktop) or Item not on PO (phone). Over-delivery covers extra units of an item that is on the order and still has something outstanding.
Receiving into a warehouse
If you use multiple warehouses, a purchase order can be given a Receive into warehouse, and both receive screens (desktop and phone) offer a Receive into choice that defaults to it, or to your default warehouse. The delivery is added to that warehouse's stock.
Receiving from a phone
Deliveries can also be received by scanning barcodes on a phone instead of typing quantities on desktop - useful when goods are being unpacked in the warehouse. See Warehouse App for setup, including giving warehouse staff a scan-only login that doesn't use a paid seat. On the review screen you can also tap Take or choose a photo to attach a photo of the delivery note; it is stored with that delivery, just like a file uploaded on desktop.
API note
The API currently documents listing and receiving purchase orders. Creating purchase orders through the API should remain service-backed before being exposed as a full public workflow.