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.

4 tablesSnapshots refresh on editBill sync: Xero; limited QuickBooks

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	You / system	Where the order is in its lifecycle — Draft, Ordered, Partially Received, or Received. You move Draft to Ordered by sending the PO email or using the status menu; 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 moves to Ordered.
Received date	System	Set when the order becomes fully received; cleared if it later reopens.

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.
Quantity	You	How much to order, in the selected UoM. Required; can’t drop below what’s already received.
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 only rises.
Landed cost	Derived	What one stocking unit actually costs, once the purchase price, the unit conversion, and any by-value additional costs are folded in. This is the value your inventory carries.
Total price	Derived	Quantity × price per unit, before line tax.

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	By value spreads the cost across lines by each line’s share of value and folds it 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

An order is always in exactly one status:

• Draft — a working document; no effect on inventory yet.
• Ordered — 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

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.