A purchase order (PO) is a document used in the purchasing process, serving as a buyer's request to a seller (supplier) to order goods or services.
Purchase orders not only help estimate expenses but also formalize the intent to purchase, providing a binding agreement between the buyer and the supplier in many countries.
By integrating purchase orders with budgets and expenses, Productive ensures a simplified purchasing process, accurate expense tracking, and compliance with financial procedures.
Extra Context
In Productive, purchase orders are tied to expenses in budgets.
When you issue and finalize a purchase order, it is added as an expense to your services in the budget.
This functionality is particularly useful for forecasting expenses and maintaining accurate financial records.
Creating purchase orders is available on the Ultimate subscription plan.
Accessing Purchase Orders
By default, Admins, Profitability Managers (both restricted and unrestricted), and Managers (restricted and unrestricted) can access purchase orders.
If needed, you can customize this in Settings > Permission sets by adjusting two specific permissions:
Add, edit and delete purchase orders
View purchase orders on budgets where user is a member
You can adjust these permissions to create a custom permission set and assign it to specific users.
For example, if you want a team member to see purchase orders but not make changes, assign them the View permission only. On the other hand, if someone is responsible for managing vendor relations, you'll likely want to grant them full access to create and edit purchase orders.
Enabling Purchase Orders for Your Organization
To start using purchase orders in Productive, head over to Settings > Purchase Orders and enable the feature for your organization.
Once enabled, Purchase Orders will appear as an option in the Financials menu and as a new "Purchase orders" tab in all your budgets.
Creating a Purchase Order
Open the Budget: Navigate to the budget where you want to create the purchase order and select the Purchase orders tab.
Create a New Purchase Order: Click on the "+Purchase order" button.
Select Vendor, Currency, and the document template: Choose the vendor providing the service (from your client’s list) and set the currency for the expenses. The document template defines how the exported and sent purchase order will look including its layout, displayed details, and color scheme.
Select Services: Choose the services to be included in the purchase order.
Note: If no services are available in the list, you'll need to set a new service line item for the expenses to your budget and set the tracking unit for the service to "Piece".
👉 Find out more about setting up different tracking options here.
Enter Expenses: For each selected service, enter the expense description, quantity, and price.
Save changes to finalize the purchase order draft. The status of the purchase order and associated expenses will initially be "Draft".
When you finalize the purchase order, all expenses linked to it will also be finalized. This action converts the draft expenses into actual expenses, impacting the budget.
Unlinking and Deleting Expenses from Purchase Orders
To edit a purchase order:
Open the purchase order and click the three dots next to the expense line item.
Choose to Unlink or Delete the expense.
Unlinking keeps the expense in the budget but removes it from the purchase order (note that Sent purchase orders cannot be unlinked, to link such orders, first mark them as Unsent).
Deleting removes the expense from both the purchase order and the budget.
Duplicating and Deleting a Purchase Order
You can duplicate or delete a purchase order by clicking the three dots in the upper right corner of the purchase order screen. Deleting a purchase order will also delete all related items unless they are unlinked first.
Marking a Purchase Order as Sent
Click on the "Mark as Sent" button to set the sent date for the purchase order.
This action updates the status to "Sent" and changes the payment status to "Not received". Note that sent purchase orders cannot be edited.
Sending the Purchase Order
Select the "Send to vendor" option in the upper right to send the purchase order directly from Productive.
Alternatively, download the purchase order PDF by opening the Purchase order PDF dropdown in the upper left.
The email body can be customized by clicking "Edit", and the purchase order PDF can be adjusted to your liking in the Document templates settings.
Managing Bills
Bills indicate the receipt of items ordered through a purchase order. To create a bill:
Select the Bills menu while viewing your purchase order and click on "+Bill".
Enter the date, due date, bill number, description, and quantity of items received.
The purchase order payment status will be updated accordingly.
Purchase Order Numbering Scheme
To customize the purchase order numbering scheme, go to Settings > General > Numbering Scheme and enter the desired sequence.
This customization helps in maintaining organized and easily trackable records. Find out more about customizing your numbering schemes here.
Viewing Purchase Orders in the Reports
To review and manage purchase-related data in one place, go to the Reports tab, select From scratch, and choose one of several available data sources.
Expenses — gives you a complete view of all costs, including those linked to purchase orders.
Purchase Orders — lets you analyze purchase order details directly, such as vendors, statuses, and total ordered amounts.
Bills — provides an overview of all bills across multiple purchase orders, helping you monitor received goods or services and outstanding payments in one report.
These options allow you to track the full purchasing cycle—from order creation to billing—without having to navigate between individual budgets or purchase orders.