Raising a Purchase Order in Merchanter

What Is a Purchase Order?

A purchase order, or PO, is a formal document raised by a business when it needs to order goods or services from a supplier. It sets out what’s being requested, how much is required, the prices that have been agreed, and any delivery details. Within Merchanter, purchase orders play a key role in helping your team manage stock levels, maintain supplier relationships, and ensure all purchasing activity is recorded correctly for audit and finance purposes.

This guide will show you how to create a simple purchase order in Merchanter, from start to finish, including different ways to begin an order, how to add products, and how to make the most of the tools available to you.

Getting Started

Before you begin, make sure you’re logged in with a user account that has permission to raise purchase orders. Once you’re in the system, there are a few different ways you can start a new order, depending on what suits your workflow.

PO from New Button

The most direct way is to click the ‘New’ button at the top of the screen. From the dropdown menu, choose ‘Purchase Order’. This opens the Purchase Order Wizard, which will guide you through the creation process.

PO from Supplier Record

Another option is to start from a supplier’s record. You can do this by going into the Contacts menu and selecting Suppliers. Use the smart search to find the supplier you want, then double-click to open their details. At the top of their record, you’ll see a ‘New Purchase Order’ button. Clicking this opens the wizard with the supplier details already filled in.

PO from Basket

If you find some products you want to order, you can also begin from the basket. In the Products section, search for the items you need — for example, a glass hammer — and add them to your basket from the search with the Add to Basket button. Once all your items are in your basket, click on the icon from the header to open it, you’ll see an option for ‘New Draft Purchase Order’. This takes you to the PO wizard, lets you choose a supplier and automatically includes all the items from your basket in the new order.

Creating the Order 

For this example, we’ll continue by creating a new order from the main menu using the New button. After choosing Purchase Order, the wizard will ask you to select a supplier. You can use the quick search, either start typing their name to narrow down the list or pick from the last 10 suppliers used or you can click on Advanced Search to make use of filters and more detailed Smart search options.

Once you’ve selected the right supplier, there’s a field for entering a supplier reference if needed. When you’re ready, simply click Create Purchase Order, and the system will open the PO up on the Order Lines tab, where you can start building the order itself.

Adding Products

You’ll now be able to add products to your order. Clicking the ‘Add Product’ dropdown shows you a list of your ten most recently used products, or you can type to search for others. If the item you’re looking for doesn’t appear, click on Advanced Search to open a more detailed product search with filters, Smart Search, and the ability to multi-select items.

This screen makes it easy to build a full order quickly and accurately, especially when you’re working with large or varied product lists.

Once you have selected your product, the Quantity Entry box will pop up. You can now enter your required quantity. 

Extra Product Information

While adding items, the order line will show quantity ordered, Product description, Additional description, the cost price, total cost and an expected delivery date. You’ll notice the ellipsis to the right-hand side of the order line. If you click on this, other helpful tools are available. Most importantly, the Delete item button is in here. Click this if you would like to remove the product from the order. The View product button is also here clicking this will bring up a mini product overview, where you can see useful KPIs like Allocated and free stock, or on order stock quantities.  The KPIs are mini reports in themselves, If you click the ‘On Order’ KPI, it will take you to a table which lists all orders that make up the total on order stock, you can now review or chase any outstanding orders.

This gives you visibility over what’s already been requested and helps avoid duplicate orders or miscommunication with suppliers.

If needed, you can jump into the full product record by clicking the View Product button, but be aware that you will leave your PO by doing that.

Text Lines

As you build your purchase order in Merchanter, you’re not limited to just product lines. You also have the option to add text lines, which can be helpful for including notes, instructions, or additional context for your supplier. These might be used to specify delivery details, internal references, or other information that doesn’t relate to a specific stock item.

If you click the add text lines button to the right of the add products drop down you can freely type a text line. or select one from a list of standard text lines, if you have set some up. Text lines can be set to Internal Only so they won't print on any customer-facing documentation.

On-Costs in Purchase Orders

When working with purchase orders in Merchanter, you may also come across the term on-costs. These are any additional costs associated with buying a product that are not part of its base cost price — for example, freight charges, import duties, packaging fees, or handling costs.

Merchanter allows you to apply on-costs to a purchase order from the oncosts tab. This allows you to reflect the true ‘in-yard’ cost of a product. This helps ensure your margins are accurate and pricing decisions are based on the full cost of getting stock into your business, not just what you paid the supplier. 

Progressing the order

Any newly created PO starts out in the draft status. If you click the done button at this stage, the PO will be left in the draft status, no documentation or email generated. You can come back to the purchase order at a later time and click the edit button to make any changes or additions to quantity or prices. 

Once you’re happy with the PO content, clicking the Confirm Purchase Order button will move it from Draft to On Order status, and we will receive a Confirm Purchase Order Popup in this window. You can amend or set the Supplier, Supplier reference, Buyer and Department. There is also a fulfilment section where you can set your required Supply Date. Add delivery instructions for the supplier, set your required delivery address and an order summary field that is a text box for a short note if required. You may now click Cancel to go back to your draft order or Confirm Purchase Order, which will open the document generation wizard popup. You can preview a copy of the PO documentation, print and or email out the documents and customise the email if required by clicking on the Pencil icon. You can skip the creation of these documents with the Skip document issue button or progress with the issue documents button. it will take the system a short while to generate your documents, which will be available in the Documents Tab.

Editing an On Order Purchase

Once your supplier has received the order, it’s common that adjustments may be required, for example, due to stock shortages or pricing changes.

To make changes, locate the relevant purchase order via the search or from your ‘recents’ list and open it in Edit mode. You can now adjust quantities or pricing as needed. When these edits are confirmed with the Done button, Merchanter will prompt you to regenerate and reissue the document. The system will automatically log these updates in the activity timeline for full traceability.

At this point, the order remains in the On Order state and is visible within the product's on-order figures. 

Receiving Goods Against a Purchase Order

Once your goods arrive, it’s time to receive them into stock. Open the original PO and click the Receive Goods button at the bottom right of the screen. This launches the Receive Goods Wizard, where you confirm key details such as the receiving depot, delivery date, and a goods received reference number (GRN). (Note: The GRN is a required field). You can now click Cancel to go to back or Confirm. 

Next is the receive goods screen, which allows for accurate recording of the quantities received. If you’ve received fewer items than expected or the item has been completely missed from the order, you can choose whether to cancel the remaining balance or create a back order for the outstanding goods.

If you're using location-based stock control, you can also specify where the stock should go, and if you use labelling, you’ll have the option to print labels at this stage. Once confirmed with the confirm receipt button, the PO moves into a Received state, all stock movements are updated, and any back order is automatically generated if required. You’ll see details of the back order both in the PO header and under the original order lines. The document generation wizard will also pop up for the back orders documentation.

Back orders are linked to the original PO and can be accessed directly from the order, both from the header and the product line view.

Completing a Purchase Order

Once the goods have been received and the supplier invoice has been issued, you can progress the PO to its final state by clicking Complete Order.

You’ll be prompted to enter the invoice date and reference. Confirming this marks the PO as Complete. If this action was taken in error, there is a Back Out Completed Order option, allowing you to reverse the status and continue processing.

There is also an option to create a Goods Return, which will be covered separately in another training session.

Other Tabs Within a Purchase Order

Once your purchase order has been created, Merchanter provides additional tabs that help you manage and understand your order beyond just the product lines. These tabs hold supporting information and offer a more complete view of your transaction.

The Header tab contains key summary details about your purchase order. This includes supplier information, expected and actual delivery dates, and any back order references. When a back order is created, the header will also show a link back to the original or “parent” order, making it easy to navigate between related documents. This tab provides a clear snapshot of where your order stands at a glance. Most of these fields can be edited if required through the life of the order.

On-costs can also be applied to a purchase order. These are additional charges that sit outside of the direct cost of the goods themselves—such as freight, handling, or insurance—and they contribute to the true landed cost of stock. Entering on-costs accurately ensures your margin and pricing calculations are correct further downstream. Although not shown in detail in this session, they form a crucial part of more advanced purchasing workflows and are often configured as part of your system setup.

Within the Documents tab, you’ll find all files that have been issued as part of the process. Clicking the small “eye” icon allows you to view a copy of the purchase order, which you can download or print as needed. This is particularly useful when preparing to send the document to your supplier, or if you need a hard copy for your records.

The Notes tab will allow you to add a note with attachment against the order if required. See: Using System Notes in Merchanter 

The Activity Timeline captures every update made to the order—whether it’s a change in quantity, a price adjustment, or the issuing of documents. This creates a reliable log that shows who made which changes and when, supporting better internal communication and accountability.

Understanding Purchase Order Statuses

Throughout its lifecycle, a purchase order will move through several key statuses:

Draft: The order is being prepared but not yet sent.

On Order: The order has been issued and is awaiting fulfilment.

Received: The goods (or part of them) have been recorded as delivered.

Complete: The PO has been invoiced and finalised.

Back orders can be generated where only part of the order is received and the remainder is still expected. These orders follow the same process and can be tracked independently while remaining linked to the original.

Pre-Allocating Stock

One very useful feature within Merchanter is the ability to pre-allocate stock directly from a purchase order to a sales order. This ensures that the stock being ordered is reserved for a particular customer as soon as it arrives.

Although we won’t cover this feature in depth here, it’s worth noting that it can save time and reduce the chance of stock being mistakenly sold elsewhere. A separate training session will explore this further.

Summary

Creating a purchase order in Merchanter is a simple but powerful process that helps your business stay organised, maintain accurate stock records, and streamline supplier communication. By following the steps outlined here, you’ll be able to raise and manage purchase orders confidently and efficiently.

If you need further help or aren’t sure about something, don’t hesitate to speak to your system administrator or refer back to this guide at any time.