Purchase orders - order from suppliers and receive against them

A purchase order (PO) is what you ask a supplier to deliver. AirQR numbers them (PO-0001, PO-0002 and so on, per business), lets you share them on WhatsApp, copy or print them, and keeps track of what has arrived. Owners and managers use purchase orders. There is no WhatsApp integration: sharing opens WhatsApp with the message ready to send.

Purchase orders are part of Inventory & recipe costing, included in the Growth plan and above, and in the free trial.

Create a purchase order

• From what is running low: open Inventory → Buying → Purchase orders. The card Running low lists a suggested order per supplier (the same as the order list on the Stock tab). Tap Create purchase order for one supplier, or Create all for one PO per supplier. Items with no supplier become an order without one.
• By hand: tap New purchase order, pick the supplier, add stock items (search by name or short code) and quantities in the unit you buy in, such as cases.

Owners and managers who can see costs also get an expected price per unit. It starts from the supplier's last price. Nobody else sees or stores prices on a PO, and prices are never put in the message you send.

You can set an expected date and a note. A draft or sent order with nothing received can be edited.

Share it

Open the order and use:

• Share on WhatsApp: opens a message to the supplier's WhatsApp number with the items and quantities.
• Copy message: copies the same text.
• Print: prints a clean page.

The first time you share, copy or print a draft it becomes Sent.

Receive against it

1. Open the order and tap Receive. This opens Stock-in, already filled in with the supplier and what is still to arrive.
2. Change each quantity to what actually arrived. Remove or add items if needed.
3. Add the invoice details and tap Save stock-in as usual.

AirQR adds what arrived to each line and updates the order:

• Sent: nothing received yet.
• Partly received: some lines are still short. Receive the rest later; the next Stock-in comes up with only what remains.
• Received: everything has arrived.

Extra items that were not on the order can be received too; they just don't count towards it. If a stock-in that was received against an order is voided, its quantities come off the order and it reopens.

Anyone who can receive stock (including inventory clerks) can receive a delivery against an order from Stock-in, so the person at the back door can tick off a delivery even though only owners and managers create and edit orders. Clerks never see prices.

Cancel an order

Open the order and tap Cancel order. A fully received order can't be cancelled. Cancelling a part-received order keeps what has been received and closes the rest.

Troubleshooting purchase orders

• Share on WhatsApp opens without a number: add the supplier's WhatsApp or phone number under Suppliers.
• Receive is not shown: the order is received or cancelled.
• This purchase order is for another outlet: switch to the outlet the order belongs to before receiving.