What Is a Purchase Order?
A Purchase Order (often shortened to "PO") is the order you send to a supplier when you want to buy stock. It lists the products you want, how many of each, and the price you agreed to pay.
In ninoPOS a purchase order goes through three simple stages before it is finished:
- Create the order — choose the supplier, add the products, quantities and costs.
- Approve the order — a manager checks it and sends it to the supplier.
- Receive the goods — when the stock arrives, you record what came in, and ninoPOS adds it to your stock automatically.
Creating a purchase order does not add anything to your stock. Stock only goes up when you receive the goods (Step 3 below). This keeps your stock numbers honest — they match what has actually arrived in your store or warehouse.
Where to Find Purchase Orders
Open the left-hand menu and click Inventory. In the list that opens, click Purchase Orders.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ SIDEBAR MENU │ │ │ │ 📦 Products & Services │ │ 📦 Inventory ←── Click to open │ │ ├── Overview │ │ ├── Products │ │ ├── Stock Levels │ │ ├── Stock Adjustments │ │ ├── Stock Transfers │ │ ├── Purchase Orders ←── Click here │ │ ├── Low Stock Alerts │ │ └── Inventory Reports │ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The Purchase Orders page shows a summary at the top (Total POs, Pending, Approved, and Total Value), then a table of every order with its PO number, supplier, store, dates, total, a receiving progress bar, and status.
Creating, approving, and receiving purchase orders is a Manager (and above) task. If you are signed in as a cashier or a viewer, these actions will be refused with a permission error. Ask the account owner or a manager to change your role if you need access.
Before You Start
Two things must already exist before you create your first purchase order:
- A supplier — the business you are buying from. You can add one while creating the PO (see Step 1), or set them up first. See Adding a Supplier.
- A destination warehouse — the place the stock will arrive. Every store gets one warehouse automatically, so most businesses already have one.
Step-by-Step: Creating a Purchase Order
On the Purchase Orders page, click the "+ New PO" button in the top right corner. This opens the New Purchase Order form.
The top section is called Order Details. Fill in these fields:
You must choose a Supplier, a Destination Warehouse, and an Order Date. If any is missing, ninoPOS will show a message and will not create the order.
Scroll to the Order Items section. Click "Add Item" to add a line, then search for the product by name or SKU and select it. Repeat for every product on the order.
You can also click "Scan" to use your phone or device camera to scan a product barcode — the matching product is added as a line automatically.
For each line you can set:
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Product * | The item you are buying. Search and select it. |
| Qty | How many you are ordering. Use the − and + buttons or type a number. |
| Unit Cost | What you pay the supplier per item. If the product already has a cost price saved, it fills in for you — change it if needed. |
| Disc % | Any discount the supplier gives on that line, as a percentage. Leave at 0 if none. |
| Tax % | Any tax added to that line, as a percentage. Leave at 0 if none. |
| Total | Worked out for you: (Qty × Unit Cost) − discount + tax. |
As you add lines, ninoPOS shows the running Subtotal, Discount, Tax and Total at the bottom of the section.
Made a mistake? Click the red trash icon at the end of a line to remove it. You need at least one line with a product and a quantity above zero before you can save.
When everything looks right, click "Create Purchase Order" at the bottom of the form. ninoPOS saves the order, gives it a PO number, and opens its details page.
The new order starts as a Draft. Remember: nothing has been added to your stock yet — that happens when you receive the goods.
Step-by-Step: Approving a Purchase Order
A Draft order must be approved before you can receive goods against it. Approving is a manager's way of saying "yes, send this to the supplier."
On the Purchase Orders list, find the order and click the ⋯ (three dots) at the end of its row, then choose "View Details". You can also click "Approve Order" straight from that menu.
On the order's details page you will see a yellow reminder: "This order must be approved before items can be received." Click the green "Approve" button at the top right.
The status changes from Draft to Sent, and the "Receive Items" button appears. The order is now ready for goods to arrive.
Yes. As long as an order is not fully received, you can Cancel it using the red Cancel button. A cancelled order can't be brought back to life, so cancel only when you're sure.
Step-by-Step: Receiving Goods
This is the important step where your stock actually goes up. Do this when the supplier's delivery arrives.
Open the approved order's details page and click the "Receive Items" button. A green Receive Items panel opens showing every product on the order.
For each product the panel shows the Pending quantity (how many are still expected). Fill in:
- Receive Qty — how many of this item arrived. It is pre-filled with the full pending amount; change it if fewer came.
- Reject Qty — how many arrived damaged or wrong and you are sending back / not accepting. Leave at 0 if all are good.
Only the accepted quantity (Receive Qty minus Reject Qty) is added to your stock. Rejected items are recorded separately as damaged stock so your losses are tracked.
Depending on how a product is set up, extra boxes may appear when you enter a receive quantity:
- New selling price (optional) — if the cost changed, you can re-price the product right here. Leave it blank to keep the current price.
- Serial / IMEI numbers — for tracked items like phones, type one serial per line.
- Batch / Lot number and Expiry date — for products with expiry tracking, so ninoPOS can warn you before they expire.
You can add Receipt Notes (for example "partial delivery, rest coming Friday"). Then click the green "Confirm Receipt" button.
ninoPOS now:
- Adds the accepted quantities to your chosen warehouse — your stock goes up.
- Creates a goods-received record (a GRN) you can look back at.
- Updates the order's status and its progress bar.
Stock has to go somewhere. If the order has no destination warehouse, the Confirm Receipt button stays disabled and a warning appears. Go back and edit the PO to add a warehouse first.
Partial Deliveries
Suppliers often send an order in more than one delivery. ninoPOS handles this easily.
If you receive fewer items than were ordered, the order's status becomes Partial. The rest stays "pending". When the next delivery arrives, open the order again, click "Receive Items", and enter what came this time. You can do this as many times as needed.
Once every item has been fully received, the order becomes Received (also called Fulfilled) and no more can be received against it. The progress bar on the list — for example 2/3 — tells you how many lines are complete at a glance.
Each time you receive goods, ninoPOS records it with its own GRN number, date, quantity and value. Scroll to the bottom of an order's details page to see the full Receipt history — handy for checking exactly when each part of a delivery arrived.
The Purchase Order Life-cycle
Here is the full journey of an order and what each status means:
CREATE APPROVE RECEIVE GOODS
│ │ │
▼ ▼ ▼
┌────────┐ → ┌────────┐ → ┌──────────┐ → ┌────────────┐
│ DRAFT │ │ SENT │ │ PARTIAL │ │ RECEIVED │
└────────┘ └────────┘ └──────────┘ └────────────┘
(needs (waiting on (some items (all items in;
approval) the supplier) received) order complete)
At any point before it is fully received:
┌────────────┐
│ CANCELLED │ ← use the Cancel button (cannot be undone)
└────────────┘
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | The order has been created but not yet approved. Nothing has changed in your stock. |
| Pending | Waiting for a manager's approval (you may see this on orders created automatically, such as low-stock reorders). |
| Sent | Approved and sent to the supplier. Ready to receive goods. |
| Acknowledged | The supplier has confirmed the order. Still ready to receive. |
| Partial | Some items received, some still expected. You can receive again. |
| Received | Every item has arrived. The order is complete. |
| Cancelled | The order was stopped and will not be received. Cannot be undone. |
Finding and Filtering Orders
On the Purchase Orders page you can:
- Search by PO number or supplier name using the search box.
- Filter by status — pick from All Status, Draft, Pending Approval, Approved, Partial, Received, or Cancelled.
- Sort the table by clicking the PO Number, Order Date, Total, or Status column headings.
- Export the list to a spreadsheet with the Export button.
Common Questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| My stock didn't change after I created a PO. Why? | That's normal. Stock only goes up when you receive the goods, not when you create the order. |
| The Receive Items button is missing. | The order must be approved first. Click Approve, then the button appears. |
| I can't click Confirm Receipt. | The order needs a destination warehouse. Edit the PO to add one, then receive. |
| I get a permission error when I create, approve, or receive. | Purchase orders are a Manager-level task. Ask an owner or manager to give you access. |
| Only half the delivery arrived. | Receive what came now — the order becomes Partial. Receive the rest when it arrives. |