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Purchase orders let you formally request stock from your suppliers, track delivery status, and record what you paid and when. Suppliers are the contacts you buy from — you set them up once and reuse them across all your orders.
Both purchase orders and suppliers are managed in the Inventory section of the web admin. Staff need the Show Purchase Order permission to work with orders and the Show Supplier permission to manage supplier records.

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Managing suppliers

Before you can raise a purchase order, you need at least one supplier on file.
1

Open Suppliers

Go to Inventory > Suppliers in the left menu.
2

Add a supplier

Click Add Supplier and fill in the details:
3

Save

Click Save. The supplier is now available when creating inventory items and purchase orders.
To update a supplier, click the edit icon next to their name. To remove one, use the delete icon — you can only delete a supplier that has no purchase orders linked to it.

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Creating a purchase order

1

Open Purchase Orders

Go to Inventory > Purchase Orders.
2

Start a new order

Click New Purchase Order. A draft is created with an auto-generated PO number.
3

Fill in the order details

Complete the header fields:
4

Add items

For each item you want to order:
  1. Select the inventory item from the list.
  2. Enter the quantity you need.
  3. Enter the unit price you expect to pay.
The subtotal per line and the order total are calculated automatically.
5

Save the draft

Click Save to keep the PO in Draft status. You can return and edit it at any time while it is still a draft.

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Sending a purchase order to your supplier

Once the draft looks correct, you can send it.
1

Open the draft PO

From Inventory > Purchase Orders, click the PO you want to send.
2

Send to supplier

Click Send to Supplier. The system emails the supplier (using the email address on their record) and moves the PO status to Sent.
Once a PO is sent, it can no longer be edited. If you need to make changes, cancel it and create a new draft.

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Receiving stock against a purchase order

When your delivery arrives, mark the items as received to update your stock levels.
1

Open the sent PO

Find the PO in Inventory > Purchase Orders (filter by Sent status if needed) and click to open it.
2

Receive items

Click Receive. For each item, enter the quantity actually received. You do not have to receive everything at once — enter only what arrived today.
3

Confirm

Click Confirm Receipt. The stock levels for the received items update immediately.
  • If you received everything, the PO moves to Received.
  • If you received only part of the order, it moves to Partially Received and you can receive the rest later.
You can receive a partially delivered order multiple times until the full quantity is accounted for.

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Recording payments

Payments are recorded against an individual PO and do not need to match the total in a single transaction — you can record multiple partial payments over time.
1

Open the PO

From the purchase order detail page, scroll to the Payments section (or click Record Payment).
2

Enter payment details

3

Save the payment

Click Save. The payment appears in the payment history for that PO.

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Downloading a PDF copy

From any purchase order (any status), click Download PDF to get a formatted copy you can print or email manually.

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Cancelling a purchase order

If you no longer need an order, open it and click Cancel. The PO moves to Cancelled status and cannot be received or edited. Draft POs can also be deleted outright using the Delete option on the list.

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Purchase order statuses at a glance

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Filtering and searching orders

On the Inventory > Purchase Orders list you can:
  • Filter by status (draft / sent / received / partially received / cancelled)
  • Filter by supplier
  • Filter by date range
  • Search by PO number or supplier name

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Auto purchase orders from low-stock alerts

If the Allow Auto Purchase Order option is turned on in Inventory > Settings, oFatoura can automatically generate a draft purchase order when an item’s stock falls below its threshold quantity. The draft is created using the item’s preferred supplier and its configured reorder quantity. You still review and send the draft manually — nothing is sent to a supplier without your action.
Set a preferred supplier and a reorder quantity on each inventory item to get the most out of auto purchase orders. See Inventory Dashboard and Items for how to configure those fields.