Purchase order fields
Every field on a purchase order, grouped by where it lives. Set by says whether you enter it, the system sets it, or it’s calculated for you. Calculated fields are read-only.
Order header
Section titled “Order header”One row per order. Money fields are calculated from the lines and additional costs — you don’t edit totals directly.
| Field | Set by | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase order | You / system | Identifier such as PO-708, unique in your organization. Assigned automatically on the first successful save if you leave it blank. |
| Type | System | Operator-created purchase orders are Standard orders that carry materials. Additional carrier costs stay on the order as additional-cost rows. |
| Supplier | You | The vendor the order is placed with. Required. The supplier’s name is copied onto the order when saved, and refreshed from the supplier record on later order edits. |
| Status | System | Receiving progress — Not received, Partially Received, or Received. New saved purchase orders start Not received; receiving moves the later statuses. |
| Expected arrival | You | When you expect delivery. Used for planning. Optional. |
| Delivery address | You | Where goods are delivered. Optional, and separate from the stock location goods land in when you receive. |
| Additional info | You | Supplier-facing notes shown on the purchase order. |
| Additional costs | Derived | The total of additional-cost rows. |
| Subtotal | Derived | Line amounts plus additional costs. |
| Tax | Derived | Tax on the line amounts only — shipping and additional costs are not taxed. |
| Total | Derived | Subtotal plus tax. |
| Ordered date | System | Set when the order is created. |
| Received date | System | Set when the order becomes fully received; cleared if it later reopens. |
Order lines
Section titled “Order lines”One row per item being ordered. An item can appear on an order only once.
| Field | Set by | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Item | You | The material or product being purchased. Required. Its SKU appears beneath its name when one is set. |
| Supplier item code | Item | The selected item’s current supplier-facing code. An em dash means the item has no supplier item code. |
| Internal barcode | Item | The selected item’s current internal barcode. An em dash means the item has no internal barcode. |
| Quantity | You | How much to order, in the selected UoM. Required and greater than zero. Increasing it after receipt adds expected supply; reducing it below received opens an impact confirmation. |
| UoM | You / item | The purchase unit for the line, such as Bag or Case. |
| Price per unit | You | Price per purchase unit. Required. If received tracked stock from this order is still on hand, a later change to this cost revalues it. |
| Tax | You | The tax applied to the line. Defaults to your organization’s purchase tax rate. |
| Received | System | Shown in the receive dialog, not the edit grid. Starts at zero and rises as stock is received. A confirmed quantity correction can lower it while preserving the original receipt history. |
| Landed cost | Derived | What one stocking unit actually costs, once the purchase price, the unit conversion, and any distributed additional costs are folded in. This is the value your inventory carries. |
| Total price | Derived | Quantity × price per unit, before line tax. |
Additional costs
Section titled “Additional costs”Zero or more per order, for freight and other charges.
| Field | Set by | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | You | Shipping, Customs, or Other. |
| Amount | You | The cost’s value. Required; zero or more. |
| Distribution | You | Starts as By value, which uses each line’s share of material value. By quantity uses its share of ordered purchase units, not converted stocking units. Both fold the cost into stock cost when you receive. Not distributed adds to the order total only, never to stock cost. |
| Supplier | You | Who is paid for this cost. Leave it as (PO supplier) to bill the order’s supplier, or choose another supplier for Xero vendor grouping. |
| Reference | You | A free-text reference, such as a carrier’s invoice number. |
Statuses
Section titled “Statuses”An order is always in exactly one status:
- Not received — placed with the supplier; its remaining quantity is expected supply.
- Partially Received — some lines received into stock; a remainder is still due.
- Received — every line received.
For how an order moves between these, see The purchase order lifecycle.
Accounting bill statuses
Section titled “Accounting bill statuses”A purchase order tracks billing separately from its order status. Creating a bill is a manual step you take when you’re ready to pay — it sends the bill to your connected accounting provider and is never an automatic side effect of receiving. Xero supports grouped supplier bills from a purchase order; QuickBooks bill sync is limited and does not support grouped supplier bills or additional-cost vendor groups yet.
Billed (manual tracking — you set it):
- Not billed — no bill recorded yet.
- Partly billed — some of the order has been billed.
- Billed — fully billed.
Visible sync state (Ashicore sets it when you push a bill):
- Creating bill — the bill push is running.
- Billed — the bill was created in your accounting provider.
- Bill failed — the push didn’t go through; it’s safe to retry.