Purchase orders are commercial documents issued by your company (as a buyer) of goods or services to a supplier (as a seller).
In most cases, purchase orders indicate the type, quantity, and agreed price for products or services that the supplier will provide to your company. Additionally, a purchase order will have a unique PO number which the supplier is expected to add to the eventual invoice that you receive.
Types of purchase orders
In the Payhawk system, employees who can create purchase requests are called requesters. As a requester, you can create:
One-time purchase orders - Purchase orders for a specific set of deliveries that are needed for the time being. When the goods or services are delivered, the purchase order will be closed.
Recurring purchase orders - Purchase orders for goods or services your company needs periodically, for example, each month.
Notes on purchase orders
Payhawk administrators at your company may have defined settings for purchase orders that affect your process as a requester:
Not all employees at your company can submit purchase order requests.
Some of the deliveries may be set to require a receipt note.
Discrepancy rules are defined to address situations where the supplier's invoice exceeds the purchase order amount or the received quantity of items differs from what was ordered. In such cases, authorized people within your company may request additional information to resolve the issue.
Lifecycle of purchase orders for employees
Each purchase order in Payhawk goes through different stages. To create a purchase order, employees submit a purchase order request first which has to be approved according to the pre-defined approval workflows at the company. When the purchase request has been approved, the purchase order is automatically created and can be sent to the supplier, requesting the delivery of goods or services.
Payhawk administrators can additionally configure each step in the purchase order lifecycle at your company and the different people in your company may be assigned various roles. For example, purchase orders may not need to go through an approval process.
To learn more about the specifics of the purchase order lifecycle and what actions are available under each tab, see the overview article on purchase orders for accountants.
Matching purchase order line items with different invoices or invoice lines
When you create purchase order requests, you add the goods or services you request as purchase order line items and specify their net unit prices. Then, you create the expenses related to that purchase order and add the expense documents.
If you have a purchase order with a single line item, Payhawk will automatically match the linked invoice to it.
If you have a purchase order with a single line item and an invoice with 2 or more lines, Payhawk will automatically match the invoice to the purchase order.
If you have a purchase order with 2 or more line items and an invoice with a single line, you will need to select which purchase order item to match.
If you have a purchase order and an invoice with an equal number of line items, you need to split the invoice into items. You can use the quick Split into [number] line items action to automatically match the corresponding items from the purchase order and the invoice, and add the invoice items' amounts and categorizations.
If you have a purchase order and an invoice with a different number of line items, you will need to manually match the purchase order items to the respective invoice lines.
Useful resources