Purchase Orders

Purchase Orders record what your company has committed to buy from a supplier — the items, quantities, costs, supplier, and terms. In ANTE, Purchase Orders are created and tracked through the Purchasing screen inside the Assets module.

Overview

A Purchase Order (PO) captures a supplier, line items with quantities and costs, tax and payment terms, and an optional delivery date. Once created, the PO tracks its whole life in one place: a main status (Draft, For approval, Approved, Sent to supplier, Closed, or Voided), plus separate Delivery and Payment chips.

Purchase Orders are workflow-driven. Creating one starts a Purchase Order process and opens a form (the Purchase Order step) where you enter the supplier, items, and terms. A PO can be started on its own, or it can flow out of an approved Purchase Request after canvassing and supplier selection. It can also be created directly from Documents — see Creating a Purchase Order from Documents.

Finding Purchase Orders

Open the Assets menu in the sidebar.
Click Purchasing.
On the Purchasing page, click the Purchase Orders tab.

The Purchasing page header also shows summary counter cards — Active Requests, Completed, Active Templates, and Pipeline Value — and a Procurement Pipeline strip (Supplier Outsourcing, Materials Approval, Canvassing, Supplier Selection, Purchase Order).

Purchasing Page Tabs

Tab	Contents
Purchase Requests	Purchase requests and their procurement workflows
Purchase Orders	The list of purchase orders
Documents	Item receipts tied to purchase orders and requests
Templates	Process templates for Purchase Request and Purchase Order workflows

Purchase Orders Table

Column	Description
PO Code	The purchase order reference code
Supplier	The supplier the order is placed with
Total Amount	The order total
Paid	Amount paid so far
Balance	Remaining amount due
Status	The order's main status (see below)
Delivery	Whether the goods have been received
Payment	Whether the order has been billed and paid
Created	Date the order was created

You can search the list by PO Code or Supplier, and filter by Delivery or Payment.

Purchase Order Status

Every purchase order shows one main status plus two small chips — one for Delivery and one for Payment. They appear on the list and on the order's detail page. Colour is used only for attention: a Voided order, or a delivery that is overdue.

Main status

Status	Meaning
Draft	The order form has been started but not submitted.
For approval	The order is waiting for approval.
Approved	The order has been issued.
Sent to supplier	Someone clicked Mark sent to supplier on the order, or goods have started arriving.
Closed	The goods are fully received and the order is fully paid.
Voided	The workflow that raised this order was cancelled while the order still had no payments, no recognized vendor bill, and no goods received, and the cancel's void cascade nullified it. An order that already has a payment, a bill, or received goods is left standing — it is listed as excluded in the cancel's warning.

Delivery chip — Not received, Partly received (shown with a count, for example "Partly received 1 of 3", meaning lines fully received out of lines on the order), or Fully received. The chip turns to the warning colour when the expected delivery date has passed and goods are still outstanding.

Payment chip — Not billed (no vendor bill recognized yet), Billed, Unpaid (on the list, where the bill state is not shown), Partly paid, or Paid.

On the list you can filter by Delivery (Open — not fully received, Not received, Partly received, Fully received) and by Payment (Unpaid, Partly paid, Paid).

Receiving Goods and Marking as Sent

Two buttons at the top of a purchase order's detail page move it along (each appears only when it applies and you have access):

Mark sent to supplier — click it once the order has been sent to the supplier. The status changes from Approved to Sent to supplier.
Receive goods — opens the Receive & QC form linked to this order, pre-filled with what is still outstanding. Submitting it stocks the goods and updates the order's Delivery chip. The same over-receipt limit (the Receive & QC tolerance) applies, so you cannot receive more than was ordered beyond it — unless the receipt is submitted with Accept extra and a reason (see Receive Goods and QC Approval Steps).

Goods received in the order's PO Lifecycle workflow (for orders raised from a Purchase Request) also count against the order, and receiving more than was ordered is refused there too.

Who Can See Purchase Orders

With Assets → Purchasing access you can list purchase orders, open an order's details, and view its payment history. Treasury users can do the same with the Access permission on Treasury → Payables → Purchase Order (the read-only Treasury Viewer level has it). Creating an order, recording a payment or recognizing a vendor bill directly on an order needs the Update permission on Treasury → Payables → Purchase Order (Treasury Administrator and Treasury Manager). Someone without any of these can still open an order's details when they take part in its workflow, for example through the View Purchase Order dialog on a PO Lifecycle step task. Any other order is refused with "You do not have access to this purchase order".

Linked Request for Payment

Every purchase order automatically gets its own Request for Payment in Treasury — the payee is the order's supplier, the amount is the order total, and the PO number is recorded on the request. When Tax type is VAT, that total already includes the 12% VAT, so the request amount matches the supplier's VAT-inclusive invoice — not just the net cost of the goods. Nothing extra needs to be created here, and there is no separate "Create Payment" step on the order itself — paying it IS approving and releasing that request.

Once a request is linked, the order's detail page shows a View Payment Request button that jumps straight to it — if you have access to Request for Payment. If you don't, you instead see a read-only payment-status pill (Awaiting payment approval, Approved — awaiting release, Paid, Payment rejected, or Payment cancelled), so you can still see where payment stands without needing Treasury access. Releasing the request pays the order (moving its Payment chip toward Partly paid or Paid) and prevents the order from being paid twice. See Treasury → Payables → Request for Payment for how requests are approved and released.

When a Supplier Selection award splits across several suppliers, submitting the Purchase Order step generates one purchase order per supplier — and each of those orders automatically gets its own Request for Payment, the same way a single-supplier order does.

Common Tasks

Creating a Purchase Order

On the Purchasing page, open the Purchase Orders tab.
Click + New Order.
In the New Purchase Order dialog, select a Workflow template (a default Direct PO Creation template is preselected).
Click Start Order.
The Purchase Order form opens. Fill in the fields:
- Supplier (required) — choose the supplier from the list
- Delivery date — the expected delivery date
- Delivery terms (required) — Delivery or Pickup
- Tax type (required) — Value Added Tax (VAT 12%) or Non Taxable. If the workflow's Tax handling setting is fixed to one of these instead of Filer's choice, this field is pre-selected and locked, with a note that it's set by the workflow.
- Payment terms (required) — one of your company's purchase-side payment terms (set up in Treasury → Settings → Payment Terms). It starts on the supplier's own term, else the company default for purchases, and follows the supplier when you pick a different one
- Supplier address — optional; printed on the PO header
- Attention — optional; the vendor contact person
- Quotation ref. — optional; the supplier's quotation number
- Customer PO # and Our quotation — the customer's PO number and our quotation number(s) the order was quoted on. Filled from the Sales Order when the PO is made from an order, editable (type them on a standalone PO). They print on the PO as "Customer PO" and "Our quotation"; when left blank, the print takes them from the order.
Add line items in the items table. For each item set:
- Item — search for an existing item or create a new one
- Qty — quantity ordered
- UOM — optional unit of measure (for example pcs, MT, or box)
- Description — optional line description
- Unit price — unit cost
- Amount — calculated automatically (Qty × Unit price)
Use Add item to add more lines.
Add Notes for any special instructions to the supplier (optional).
Review the Subtotal, VAT (12%) (shown when Tax type is VAT), and Total. This total — VAT-inclusive when Tax type is VAT — is what gets recorded as the order's Total Amount and what the linked Request for Payment will ask Treasury to release, so it matches the supplier's VAT-inclusive invoice.
Click Submit Purchase Order.

Ordering Only What Isn't in Stock

On a Purchase Order that belongs to an order, each line has Use from stock — what the line takes from stock — and its quantity is what the PO buys (ordered − used). A PO pre-filled from the Sales Order starts from what the order already holds: a line with 10 reserved of 15 shows use 10, buy 5. Click Use stock from warehouse in the strip above the lines to take everything that is free, or type a smaller number on any line — lowering it releases the difference when you submit (the order's History says the salesperson chose to buy instead), so stock is never both held and bought. The strip shows the same numbers: how many lines come from stock in full or in part, how many are bought, and how much more is free. A line wholly from stock is left off the PO; when every line is, the step closes with Nothing to buy — all from stock. See Using Stock from the Warehouse.

End-Customer Details on a Supplier's PO

A Purchase Order goes to the supplier, so it normally leaves out your customer's details. Mark the fields that describe the end customer (for example End User Name, Factory, Customer Material #) as End-customer detail in Settings → Documents → Purchase Order → Fields.

Whether a supplier sees them is set per supplier: tick Show end-customer details on POs on the supplier (off by default). On a single PO you can change it with Show end-customer details to the supplier above the form fields. When it's off, those fields are left off the PO's printout and Excel file, including saved print layouts; your own screens still show them. The choice is kept on the PO when it is submitted, so a re-print shows what the supplier was sent.

When a Supplier Selection splits the order between suppliers, each supplier gets its own PO: it shows only that supplier's lines, follows that supplier's setting, and the tick on the form applies to the supplier tab you are on. Print or export each supplier's PO from Documents — a print never puts two suppliers on one PO.

Creating a Purchase Order from a Purchase Request

A Purchase Order can be pre-filled from an upstream Purchase Request in two ways, depending on the workflow template:

Via Supplier Selection — when the workflow includes a Canvassing and Supplier Selection step, the awarded items and the winning supplier are carried into the PO automatically, and the Supplier field is locked (with a note that it was awarded by the Supplier Selection step) since the award already decided it. The costs from the Supplier Selection step are used as the starting PO cost.
Direct PO flow — when the workflow goes directly from Purchase Request to Purchase Order (no canvassing), the items and their estimated unit costs from the approved Purchase Request are pre-filled into the PO form. You can still adjust the cost before submitting.

In both cases a banner at the top of the form confirms how many items were pre-filled. Review the costs before submitting.

When Supplier Selection Splits the Award Across Suppliers

If Supplier Selection awarded the request's items to more than one supplier, the Purchase Order step renders one tab per winning supplier instead of a single form — each tab shows only that supplier's awarded items and its own Supplier field locked to the award. A banner above the tabs states how many suppliers won and confirms that submitting will generate that many purchase orders, one per supplier.

Fill in every tab's delivery date, terms, and any other details before submitting — each tab needs at least one line item, and the form blocks submission (switching you to the offending tab) until every one has some. Clicking Submit Purchase Order opens a confirmation dialog listing every purchase order about to be created — its supplier, items, and total — so you can confirm all of them at once or go back and keep editing.

Each resulting purchase order gets its own linked Request for Payment — see Linked Request for Payment above.

One Purchase Order for Several Requests

When several orders need the same item from the same supplier, buy it on one PO. On the Purchase Order form, click Pick from Purchase Requests. The list shows open request lines not yet on a PO, grouped by request with the order, customer and needed-by date. Each line shows Requested, On a PO so far (with the PO number) and Still to buy; Use starts at what is still to buy — less leaves the rest open on the request. Only lines for the PO's supplier and currency can be combined; the others are greyed with the reason.

Each PO line keeps its request line and the order it is for (From PR-… · line 1 · for OF-…).
Submitting checks again that nothing is bought twice — a line already bought elsewhere is refused with the PO that has it.
The PO goes on every order it buys for, and the view shows a For order column. Money is unchanged: one PO, one supplier payable.
A request fully bought this way has its own Issue Purchase Order step closed as Covered by PO-…; one bought in part keeps the step open and its form says how much is already on the PO.
The supplier's PDF prints the same item as one line with the total quantity (Documents → Purchase Order → Rules → Print same-item lines as one line, on by default).
Cancelling one of the orders never voids the shared PO: the cancel dialog asks whether to send its lines to the buyer to remove (default) or keep them as our stock. The order the PO was issued from can't be cancelled while other orders still buy on it.

Creating a Purchase Order from Documents

A purchase order can also be created on its own from Documents → Purchase Orders: click New Purchase Order and fill in the same Purchase Order form. This is available unless your company has set the Purchase Order type to Workflow only (in the document type's creation setting). Such an order always gets a document number and a currency — your company's main currency if you don't choose one. In the Documents list, a purchase order's row shows its delivery label (Not received, Partly received, or Fully received), and its status shows Voided or Closed when that happens.

Viewing a Purchase Order

On the Purchase Orders tab, click the order's row.
If the order's workflow is still running, a tracking dialog opens instead — the same interactive view used for Purchase Requests — showing the current fulfillment step (acknowledgement, delivery, receiving/QC) so you can act on it right away without leaving the list.
Once the workflow is completed or cancelled — or the order has no linked workflow at all (an older order) — the row instead opens the Purchase Order Details page, showing:
- Overview — PO code, supplier, created date, the main status with its Delivery and Payment chips, and the Total, Paid, and Balance amounts
- The payment affordance (top right) — a View Payment Request button, or a read-only payment-status pill if you don't have access to Request for Payment; see Linked Request for Payment above
- A Workflow card — a read-only timeline of the order's process (instance code, template name, a Completed or Cancelled flag, and each step's name, status icon, and assignee), shown only when the order carries a linked workflow
- Order Information — PO Code, Supplier, Tax Type, Payment Terms, Delivery Terms, Delivery Date, Notes, and Status
- The Mark sent to supplier and Receive goods buttons (top right, when they apply) — see Receiving Goods and Marking as Sent
- Order Items — item name, description, quantity, unit price, and line total, with the order total. When Tax type is VAT, the order total includes 12% VAT on top of the item lines, so it reads higher than their sum — matching the supplier's VAT-inclusive invoice, the amount the linked Request for Payment releases.
- Payment History — recorded payments showing date, fund account, amount, and fee

Tips

Select a supplier before submitting — a supplier is required. If you try to submit without one, the form will show an error and block submission until a supplier is selected.
Set the right terms — Delivery terms, Tax type, and Payment terms are all required and appear on the order details.
Check the totals — confirm the Subtotal and VAT before submitting; the line totals update as you change quantity and cost. The Total is recorded as the order's Total Amount VAT-inclusive, so it's also what Treasury will release.
Track payment — the Paid and Balance figures and the Payment chip update as payments are recorded against the order.
View the order from a fulfillment task — once a Purchase Order is issued, ANTE tracks it through acknowledgement, delivery, and receiving/QC as tasks. Opening one of these tasks shows a View Purchase Order button with a read-only snapshot (supplier, items, totals, and payment status), so you don't have to leave the task to check what you're acting on.
Receiving pulls the order's items automatically — the receiving/QC step is pre-filled with the Purchase Order's items and quantities, so whoever receives the goods only needs to enter what was actually received and its inspection result. If the order came from a split award, each line also names its delivering supplier so a receipt covering several purchase orders at once still shows who shipped what.
Passing QC stocks the goods — once the receiving/QC step's result is approved (the workflow's Stocked step), ANTE automatically posts the received lines into inventory. Only lines marked Pass are stocked, at the quantity actually received — lines still Pending or marked Fail are not. Stock lands in the order's warehouse, or the company's main warehouse if the order has none set.

Purchase Request — create and process purchase requests
Suppliers — manage supplier information
Request for Payment — the approval trail every order's payment goes through

How It Connects

Set up first

Suppliers — every order is placed with a supplier from the directory.
Item Master — order lines are items from the catalog.

Gets its data from

Purchase Request — an approved request can flow into an order.
Canvassing — supplier selection decides which supplier gets each item.

Feeds into

Treasury → Request for Payment — payment requests pay the order; Paid and Balance here follow them.
Treasury → Purchase Orders — the same orders are paid and billed from Treasury.
Warehouse Detail — received goods are stocked into a warehouse.

Purchase Orders#

Overview#

Finding Purchase Orders#

Purchasing Page Tabs#

Purchase Orders Table#

Purchase Order Status#

Receiving Goods and Marking as Sent#

Who Can See Purchase Orders#

Linked Request for Payment#

Common Tasks#

Creating a Purchase Order#

Ordering Only What Isn't in Stock#

End-Customer Details on a Supplier's PO#

Creating a Purchase Order from a Purchase Request#

When Supplier Selection Splits the Award Across Suppliers#

One Purchase Order for Several Requests#

Creating a Purchase Order from Documents#

Viewing a Purchase Order#

Tips#

Related Pages#

How It Connects#