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Raise a purchase order, get it approved, turn it into a bill

A purchase order in Invoice Crowd is addressed to a vendor, numbered with a PO prefix, and built in the same editor you use for invoices. Approve it when the supplier agrees, and one action copies it into a draft bill with the bill's accounting entries generated at the same time.

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  • Built in the invoice editor
  • One-way approval, then convert
  • Ordered quantity, not stock on hand
The Purchase Orders screen in Invoice Crowd with draft, sent, viewed and approved orders, a vendor approval and signature, and an approved order ready to convert to a bill

What is inside

A commitment on paper, then a bill in the books

A purchase order is the purchasing-side counterpart of an estimate: an estimate quotes a customer, a purchase order commits you to a supplier. It carries no money of its own. Approving it opens the way to a bill, and the bill is what moves your stock and posts to the ledger.

Raising it

The invoice editor, vendor side

Invoice Crowd purchase order editor with a vendor, a PO number and line items, and the order options including Auto Convert to Bill

The same editor, with a vendor picker

A new purchase order starts from one of your document templates, so the layout, logo and labels match the invoices you already send. It is numbered automatically with a PO prefix and opens in the same editor as an invoice, with the customer picker swapped for a vendor picker. Add line items with quantities, rates, taxes and discounts, write your terms into the notes and signature block, and save.

  • Numbered automatically with a PO prefix
  • Starts from your own document templates
  • No supplier catalogue, punchout or EDI feed
Invoice Crowd purchase orders list with the email composer addressed to the vendor and the order's shareable link copied

Send it, or share the link

Sending opens a composer with the message pre-filled and addressed to the vendor on the order, and the list records the date it last went out. The supplier does not need a login to read it: every purchase order has a public preview link you can copy to the clipboard, and a PDF you can download and attach elsewhere.

  • The To field and message are pre-filled
  • Copy a public preview link to the clipboard
  • The status moves to Sent, then Viewed

Getting it agreed

One action, no approval chain

An Invoice Crowd purchase order with Mark as Approved in its actions, and the vendor's Approve & Sign on the shared link

Mark as Approved, and that is the whole flow

A team member with edit rights opens the order, chooses Mark as Approved and confirms the prompt. There is no chain to route it through and no second signature to collect. Approval is one-way in the interface: an approved order has no un-approve button, and Delete is withdrawn from its menu, which stops an agreed order quietly disappearing. The order itself stays editable.

  • Draft, Sent, Viewed and Approved, all derived
  • Viewed means the public copy has been opened
  • Convert to bill is available only at Approved
Invoice Crowd inventory movements showing a purchase order adding to the on-order quantity while stock on hand only rises with the bill or a receipt

Ordered, not received

Saving a purchase order records what you have ordered, not what you have received. For tracked items, the order writes an ordered quantity and a remaining quantity against each line, and stock on hand does not move. The increase happens later, when the bill is saved, which is the point Invoice Crowd treats the goods as received. Counting a commitment as stock would overstate what is on the shelf.

  • Ordered and remaining quantities per tracked line
  • Re-saving rebuilds them from the current lines
  • Deleting an order removes the quantities it wrote

Billing from it

Where the money starts counting

Invoice Crowd purchase orders list with the row menu of an approved order open on Convert to Bill, the confirmation prompt and the draft bill it creates

Convert an approved order into a bill

Converting is one action on an approved order, and it produces a new draft bill rather than changing the order. Line items, taxes and totals copy across unchanged. The bill gets its own BILL- number, a bill date set to the day you converted, a due date one month out, a due amount equal to the order total, and a link back to the order it came from.

  • Disabled on Draft, Sent and Viewed orders
  • The order stays Approved and is untouched
  • Bill accounting is generated as the bill is created
Invoice Crowd bills list with a bill created from an approved purchase order, its due amount and its Accounts Payable posting

Where the money is actually tracked

A purchase order carries no due amount and no paid status, so nothing is owed until the order becomes a bill. From there it reaches the books without a second user entry: the bill posts to the chart of accounts and the general ledger, and committed spend becomes recorded spend on the profit and loss statement. Purchase orders are on the paid plans; on the free plan, opening them shows an upgrade prompt.

  • Nothing is owed until the order is a bill
  • One bill for the whole order, no partial receipting
  • See the current plans and pricing

Built in

The rest of the purchase order screen

The list you work from, the settings behind it, and the boundaries worth knowing before you lean on purchase orders for something they were not built to do.

  • Five columns, sortable

    PO number, status, vendor, total and PO date, with actions on each row. Sort by number, total or date; search by PO number. Ten rows a page by default.

  • Filters that stick

    Filter by status, by one or more vendors, and by a date range, then lock the filters you use daily so they survive the next visit.

  • Actions on the row

    Each row offers edit, send, preview, PDF download, copy public link, convert, mark approved, duplicate and delete. Select several rows and delete them together.

  • Duplicate a repeat order

    Duplicating produces a new Draft copy, which is how a repeat order to the same supplier gets raised without retyping the lines.

  • Convert on approval

    Switch on auto-convert to bill in business settings and approving an order raises the bill in the same step instead of a second action.

  • No converted lock

    The order is not stamped as converted, so running Convert to bill twice creates two bills. Check the Bills list before converting again.

  • Numbering per business

    Every purchase order belongs to the business profile you are working in, so a second business keeps its own numbering, vendors and orders under one login.

  • Settings shape the editor

    Business settings decide what the purchase order editor offers: units on line items, custom fields, and whether lines can be removed.

  • Inventory start date

    Saving is refused when a tracked line sits on an order dated before your inventory start date. Conversion checks today's date against it instead.

  • Roles per action

    Create, edit and delete are separate permissions on the purchase orders screen, so a buyer can raise orders without being able to remove them.

  • What the vendor sees

    Invited vendors see their orders read-only: PO number, status, total and order date, with preview and PDF download. Their one action is Approve & Sign.

  • Deletion is final

    A deleted order goes from the list with the ordered quantities it wrote, and there is no recycle bin to restore it from.

Questions

Purchase Orders, answered

Does Invoice Crowd have purchase order software?

Yes. Invoice Crowd includes purchase orders as part of its purchasing side, alongside expenses, vendors and bills. You raise a purchase order against a vendor, send it by email or share the public link, mark it approved when the supplier agrees, and convert the approved order into a draft bill. Purchase orders are on the paid plans, not the free plan.

How do you convert a purchase order into a bill in Invoice Crowd?

Converting a purchase order in Invoice Crowd requires it to be at Approved status; the action stays disabled before then. One click copies the order into a new draft bill with its own BILL- number, the due amount set to the purchase order total, a due date one month out, and a link back to the originating order. The bill's accounting entries are generated at the same time. The purchase order is not marked as converted afterwards, so converting the same order twice creates two bills.

Do purchase orders update stock levels?

Saving a purchase order records an ordered quantity and a remaining quantity against tracked items, but does not change stock on hand. Stock increases when the resulting bill is saved, which is the point Invoice Crowd treats goods as received. Deleting a purchase order removes the ordered quantities it wrote, and re-saving an order rebuilds them from the lines on the document. With inventory tracking on, the Inventory screen's Reorder tab can also create a draft purchase order for each preferred vendor from the items at or below their reorder point.

Which Invoice Crowd plans include purchase orders?

Purchase orders are not included in the free plan. On the free plan, opening the purchase orders screen shows an upgrade prompt instead. They are available on eligible paid plans alongside bills, vendors and vendor credits; check the pricing page for the current plan details.

Can a vendor see the purchase orders you send them?

Vendors invited to the Invoice Crowd vendor portal get a read-only list of the purchase orders raised to them, showing PO number, status, total and order date, with preview and PDF download, and they can Approve & Sign an order from its shared link. Which sections a vendor sees is set per vendor and covers bills, purchase orders, payments made and vendor credits. A supplier without a portal login can still open the public link you send.

Can a purchase order be edited or deleted after it is approved?

An approved purchase order in Invoice Crowd can still be edited, but it cannot be deleted: Delete is withdrawn from the menu once the order reads Approved, which stops an agreed order quietly disappearing. There is no un-approve action either. Mark as Approved is greyed out on an approved order. Deleting an order before it is approved removes it along with the ordered quantities recorded against it, and there is no recycle bin to restore it from.

Commit to a supplier, then bill from what you agreed

Raise the order in the editor you already know, mark it approved when the vendor agrees, and one action turns it into the draft bill that posts to your ledger.

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  • Your data stays yours
  • Cancel anytime
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