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Create your first purchase order

Practise creating a three-line purchase order and recording a partial supplier claim.

Written by Ben Walker

In this tutorial, you will create a $6,000 purchase order, approve it and record a $3,000 supplier cost against it. You will finish with $3,000 remaining on the order.

Before you begin

Use a training project and sample supplier because approval affects project budget figures. You need permission to create costs and POs, plus an approver available for both. Choose a project task for the exercise.

1. Create the order

  1. Open your training project and select Costs.

  2. Select Add Purchase Order.

  3. Select your sample supplier and name the PO Consulting Services.

  4. Select your chosen project task under Task Allocation.

  5. Leave Total Value (ex tax) blank, keep the status Draft, and select Save and Edit.

You should now see the PO details and its line-items table.

2. Add three lines

Use Add Line Item to enter these lines with quantity 1. Choose the appropriate account and tax for your training setup.

  • Item 1: $2,000

  • Item 2: $3,000

  • Item 3: $1,000

Check that the total excluding tax is $6,000. Each line should show no amount consumed.

The example starts with $6,000 excluding tax and no costs drawn.

3. Approve the commitment

Select Approve if you have permission, or Submit and have your approver approve it. Confirm the PO is approved. The project now shows a $6,000 purchase order commitment.

4. Add a sample supplier cost

Prepare a sample invoice with three $1,000 lines. Return to Costs and drag the invoice onto the Project Costs table. Open the processed cost and check that its total excluding tax is $3,000.

  1. Select Link Purchase Orders and choose Consulting Services.

  2. Select Keep this cost’s lines.

  3. Map the first cost line to Item 1, the second to Item 2 and the third to Item 3 using Draws down.

  4. Select Link and allocate the cost to the same project task as your PO.

Check the remaining amounts: Item 1 has $1,000, Item 2 has $2,000 and Item 3 has $0.

5. Approve and check the result

Approve the supplier cost, or have your approver do so. Return to the project’s purchase order list and check $3,000 drawn and $3,000 remaining. Open the drawn amount to find your linked supplier cost.

You have created a PO and recorded a partial claim against it. For the other cost-entry routes, read How to allocate costs against a purchase order. For the budget calculation, read How purchase orders affect a project’s budget.

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