Create and manage purchase orders
About purchase orders
You can easily create and manage purchase orders to stay on top of your products, track vendors and receive inventory.
When creating an item for a purchase order, you can manually enter the item name, price, and unit cost on the spot. Once your items are created and ready to include in a given purchase order, your library will populate as a drop-down for you to choose from.
If you’ve already created the items to include in a given purchase order, just start typing and your library will populate as a drop-down for you to choose from. If you need to create an item for a purchase order, you can manually enter the item name, price, and unit cost on the spot.
Before you begin
You can create purchase orders from your Square Retail POS app on iOS devices or your Square Dashboard.
A maximum of 500 unique items can be added to a single purchase order.
Purchase orders do not currently support ordering or receiving decimal quantities — only whole numbers.
Create purchase orders
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Inventory management > Purchase orders.
- Click Create.
- Enter purchase order details, such as vendor name, delivery location, date expectancy, and item information.
- Click Create or Save as Draft.
- Add your vendor’s email address and an optional note. To see the purchase order before hitting send, click Preview Email.
- If you’d like a copy of the purchase order, select Send me a copy, Save as PDF, or Save as CSV.
- Click Send or Done.
From the Square POS app with retail mode enabled or from the Square Retil POS app:
- Open your point of sale app, then tap Inventory.
- Tap Purchase orders > Create purchase order.
- Select an existing vendor or tap Create vendor. Tap Continue.
- Using the search bar or a compatible barcode scanner, select the items to apply to the purchase order and tap Continue. You can see only items that are associated with the current vendor by switching a toggle during search that says the “Vendor Name only” filter.
- Add quantities, a vendor code, and a unit cost. To adjust, tap the relevant field. Tap Continue.
- Review purchase order details.
- Add an expected date, any relevant taxes, and an optional note.
- Tap Create or Save to complete the draft at a later time.
Once the purchase order is created, you have the option to send a copy to yourself or the vendor. You can also add an optional note.
Once you’ve created a purchase order for an existing vendor, the item variation will be associated with that vendor and the cost to purchase from that vendor. Items associated with a vendor will be visible in the Vendors tab in your Item Library.
Create items from purchase orders
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services > Purchase orders.
- Click Create.
- Enter the order information and the name of the item you would like to create. Alternatively, click Import items.
- Click Create or Save as Draft.
From the Square POS app with retail mode enabled or from the Square Retail POS app:
- Open the app and tap Inventory.
- Tap Purchase orders > Create purchase order.
- Choose an existing vendor or type Create vendor. Tap Continue.
- Search or scan items.
- Enter the item quantity, then tap Save.
- Review order details, then tap Create.
- Send notifications to yourself or the vendor with an optional note.
Your newly created item will automatically populate in your purchase order. A maximum of 500 unique items can be added to a single Purchase Order.
Additionally, on the item creation page, if you click View All Item Properties, you can add other information such as the locations your new item is carried, or item variations.
Receive a purchase order
If inventory is damaged or will not be fulfilled for some other reason, click Update next to the impacted line item. Marking items as damaged, stolen (theft), or as a loss, will not reflect on your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) report.
When you receive a purchase order, you can enter shipping and handling or other costs by clicking Add Fee. Additional costs will be included in your COGS report. Adding additional fees will not affect the unit cost of the individual items in the purchase order.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Inventory management > Purchase orders.
- Select the purchase order you have received.
- Click Receive All or Receive None. To partially receive inventory, click Receive in the product row.
- Enter the amount to partially receive.
- Click Save.
From the Square POS app with retail mode enabled or from the Square Retil POS app:
- Open your point of sale app, then tap Inventory. If you’re using Square Retail POS app on Square Register, tap the list icon on the left-hand side of the screen.
- Tap Purchase Orders > tap the appropriate purchase order.
- Tap Receive items > check off the appropriate items to be received.
- Tap Modify, then tap Receive in Full to receive the full quantity of received items you need to modify, or tap Partial Receive to receive a partial quantity > tap Save.
- Tap Next to view the Purchase Order Summary.
- Tap Receive to complete the reception.
Edit purchase orders
You can edit purchase orders from your Square Dashboard, Square POS app with retail mode enabled, or from the Square Retail POS app.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Inventory management > Purchase orders.
- Click the purchase order you wish to edit.
- Click Edit Order > update the order details.
- Click Save.
Editing a purchase order does not automatically generate a new email to your vendor. To ensure they receive the updated order information:
- From Purchase Orders, click (•••) to the right of the purchase order.
- Click Send as Email.
- Include a note to explain that the purchase order has been updated.
- Click Send.
You can also edit an existing Purchase Order directly from your point of sale app on any compatible device (iPhone, iPad, Square Terminal and Square Register). To get started:
- Open the app and tap Inventory.
- Tap Purchase Orders > tap the appropriate purchase order under the “Active” list.
- Select the item(s) needing update to open the “Modify Receiving Item” screen.
- Edit the appropriate information and repeat those steps for any affected items.
- Tap Save to finish editing.
Cancel a purchase order
To cancel a purchase order, you need to access your existing purchase orders. These can be purchase orders you received, created or previously imported. You can cancel a purchase order from your Square Dashboard.
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Inventory management > Purchase orders.
Click (•••) next to the purchase order you’d like to cancel.
Click Cancel Order.
After a purchase order is canceled, it's moved into the Archived Orders section.