A purchase order (PO) is your paper trail from order → tracking → receiving.
It records what you asked for and what you paid, and later becomes the
receiving screen that stocks the goods in. Every PO gets a sequential
reference like PO-0000042 per pharmacy.
Open the form
Sidebar: Procurement → New Order. The form works very much like Stock In: pick items from a picker, they appear as a list below, you fill in the details, then submit.
Build the order
- Pick a supplier at the top. Use the supplier picker — you can add a new supplier inline if the one you need isn't there.
- Add products from the product picker. Each selection appears as a line in the list underneath, pre-filled with your last cost for that product (if RxShelf has one).
- Adjust each line — set the quantity you're ordering and confirm the unit cost.
- Order total updates live at the bottom as you change quantities and costs.
- Expected date (optional) and Notes (optional) — anything to remember about this order.
- Click Create order.
The PO is created in draft state and gets a PO-NNNNNNN reference. You
land on the PO detail page.
Send the order
Draft is a real state — the PO isn't marked as sent to the supplier automatically. On the PO detail page, click Mark as sent once you've actually delivered it (print, email, WhatsApp — however you communicate with suppliers). Status flips from draft to sent and the PO becomes read-only.
Status lifecycle
| Status | What it means | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Editing — not sent yet. | Edit, mark as sent, or cancel. |
| Sent | You've marked it as sent to the supplier. | Receive, or cancel. Not editable. |
| Partial | Some (but not all) items have been received. | Receive more, or manually close as final. |
| Received | Everything on the PO has been received. | Read-only. Reached automatically on full receipt, or manually via Close order from partial (locks a short delivery as final). |
| Cancelled | Cancelled from draft or sent — before any goods were received. | Read-only. |
Editing an order
Edits are only allowed while the PO is in draft. Once you've marked it sent, the line items and supplier are locked — you can only receive or cancel from that point.
Suppliers
Suppliers are managed under Procurement → Suppliers. Add, edit, or deactivate — they're never hard-deleted so historical batches always show the vendor who supplied them.