Create a purchase order

How-to guide Who can do this: Tenant Owner, Tenant Admin, Tenant Supervisor

Raise a purchase order on the web for a vehicle and store, add priced line items, and save it as a draft. You then send the draft to the merchant by confirming it.

Before you start#

Role: Tenant Owner, Tenant Admin or Tenant Supervisor. Tenant Accountants and merchant users can view purchase orders but not create them.
Plan: your tenant's subscription plan must include purchase orders. Without it, the Purchase Orders menu entry is hidden.
Store and prices: the merchant must have a store your tenant can buy from, with current prices for non-fuel SKUs. Which stores you can see is explained on Which stores tenants and drivers can see.
Funds: your wallet must be able to cover the order total, because a purchase order reserves its total from the moment it is saved. See Order funds holds and expiry.
Where: in the sidebar, under Operations, open Purchase Orders.

What a purchase order holds is described on Purchase orders.

Steps#

On the Purchase Orders list, click Add Purchase Order. The New Purchase Order page opens, and the order is always created for your own tenant.
Under Order Details, choose the Store that will supply the order. The merchant is filled in from the store; you never choose it separately.
Optionally choose the Vehicle and the Driver the order is for, and type a Description. The lists show your tenant's active vehicles and drivers.
Under Line Items, choose a SKU on the first row. The list shows only non-fuel SKUs with a current price at the chosen store, and stays empty until a store is chosen.
Check the Unit Price. It is filled in from the store's price list and cannot be typed over.
Enter the Qty, and optionally a Description for the line.
Click Save as Draft. To leave without saving, click Cancel. The line and order totals are worked out when the order is saved; check them on the order page.

To order more than one item, save the draft first, then add the other lines by editing it: Edit or delete a draft purchase order.

If you change the Store after choosing a SKU, the line is re-checked and re-priced for the new store straight away, without a confirmation. If the new store does not price that SKU, the line is removed. Check the line before saving. How prices are chosen is on Purchase order pricing.

What happens next#

The order page opens with "Purchase order created successfully." The order is in Draft, with an order number starting PO-. It also appears on your Purchase Orders list.
The order total is reserved in your tenant's wallet straight away. If you chose a driver who uses the Driver App, they receive a "Hold placed on your wallet" notification.
The draft does not appear on the merchant's purchase order list, and the merchant is not told about it. See Who sees and is notified about an order.
To send the order to the merchant, use the confirm action on the order page. The prices are checked again and the order moves to Pending. Step by step: Confirm or cancel a purchase order.
While the order is a draft, Tenant Owners, Admins and Supervisors can still edit it, and Tenant Owners and Admins can delete it. See Edit or delete a draft purchase order.
The reservation lasts six hours by default. If it runs out before the order completes, the order becomes Expired and must be re-confirmed. See Re-confirm an expired order.
The creation is written to the order's audit log.

Rules and limits#

A purchase order needs at least one line item, and every line needs a SKU.
One order is placed at one store. Fuel is bought with refuel orders, not purchase orders.
When you save, the server looks up each line's price at the store again and ignores the price the page sent.
The quantity must be at least 1. Fractions such as 1.5 are accepted.
Each line's total is its quantity × the store's current unit price. When a price excludes VAT, VAT is added on top. The order page shows the Subtotal, VAT and Total. See Purchase orders.
The save is all or nothing. If your wallet cannot cover the total, no order is created.
A tenant that pays this merchant through a B2B-Direct credit account reserves nothing at creation.
An order created on the web always starts as Draft, not confirmed by the tenant.

If something goes wrong#

Message or symptom	Cause	Fix
"No store currently sells purchasable goods. Ask the merchant to publish a price list." The Store list and Save as Draft are disabled	No store your tenant can buy from has priced non-fuel goods.	Ask the merchant to publish a price list.
"This store has no available SKUs with valid prices."	The chosen store prices no non-fuel SKU.	Choose another store.
The SKU list is empty	No store is chosen yet.	Choose the Store first.
"This field is required." under SKU	A row has no SKU.	Choose a SKU or remove the row.
"[SKU name]: price no longer available."	The SKU lost its price at the store after you chose it.	Remove the line, or choose another SKU or store.
"Insufficient wallet balance (cash + credit)"	The wallet and credit line cannot cover the total.	Top up the wallet, or reduce the order. See Resolve an order refused for insufficient funds.
"Insufficient funds: credit line is past its repayment deadline" (or "credit exhausted and past repayment deadline")	The credit line is overdue and cash alone does not cover the total.	Repay the credit line, or top up the wallet.
"No active wallet found for tenant and currency; cannot reserve the order's cost."	Your tenant has no active wallet in the order's currency.	Contact the platform team to set up the wallet.
Purchase Orders or Add Purchase Order is missing	Your role cannot create purchase orders, or your plan does not include them.	Ask your Tenant Owner.