A purchase order is what you send your supplier: these items, this many, at this price, by this date. Everything that happens afterwards — the delivery, the invoice, the chasing — hangs off it.
What it gets you
Confirm an order and Brahmin Solutions starts counting that stock as on its way. It shows up in the Expected column against those items, so anyone looking at stock levels can tell the difference between we have none and we have none, but 200 land on Tuesday.
That distinction is most of the value. Without it, every stock question ends with someone walking over to ask the buyer.
Ordering is not receiving
A purchase order does not put anything in your warehouse. Only receiving does that.
The order records what you asked for. The receipt records what actually turned up. Keeping them separate is what lets you see that you ordered 100 and only 60 arrived — which is exactly the thing you want to know before the customer calls.
Three documents, one order
Document | Records | Created when |
Purchase order | what you asked for | you place the order |
Receipt | what arrived | the delivery turns up |
Bill | what you owe | the invoice arrives |
One order can have several receipts and several bills — deliveries come in stages, and suppliers invoice on their own schedule. They do not have to match up, and they do not have to happen in order. Enter the invoice before the goods arrive if that is how your supplier works.