Overview
Purchase Orders (POs) in Shelflife help you track incoming inventory from your suppliers. While Shelflife doesn't send POs directly to suppliers, it gives you a clear system for tracking what you've ordered, when it's expected, and when it arrives.
Creating a purchase order
There are several ways to create a PO:
- From the Purchase Orders page — Click "Create purchase order"
- From the Inventory Dashboard — Click "Order" on a product row for a quick single-item order
- Bulk from the Dashboard — Select multiple products and click "Create purchase order"
When creating a PO, you'll fill in:
- Supplier — Select from your saved suppliers
- Expected delivery date — Auto-fills based on supplier lead time if configured
- Notes — Optional notes for your reference
- Line items — Products, quantities, and optionally unit prices
Purchase order statuses
Each PO moves through a workflow:
- Draft — Just created, not yet confirmed with the supplier
- Ordered — Confirmed and placed with the supplier
- In Transit / Partially Received — Some items from the order have arrived
- Received — All items have arrived and stock is accounted for
- Cancelled — Order was cancelled
Managing a purchase order
Click on any PO to view its details. From there you can:
- Mark as Ordered — Move a draft to ordered status
- Mark as Partially Received — Record that some items have arrived
- Mark as Received — Record that all items have arrived
- Cancel — Cancel the order
- Archive — Move completed or cancelled orders out of your active view
- Delete — Remove draft orders entirely
Viewing purchase orders
Use the tabs to filter by status: All, Draft, Ordered, In Transit, Received, Cancelled, or Archived.
Each PO in the list shows the PO number, supplier, number of items, total value (if prices were entered), expected delivery date, and current status.