Streamline your ordering workflow with multi-location ordering. If you receive stock at a central location and then transfer it to your retail stores, you can send purchase orders for multiple locations, receive products at your central location, and create transfers to move products to stores. 

Creating a purchase order

1. To create a purchase order in Retail POS, navigate to Inventory > Stock control > Orders.

2. Click Order stock.

   

3. Enter the details for the following information:
   • Supplier: Choose the supplier for the order from the dropdown. This will dictate which supplier code and cost price is used for products added to an order that has multiple suppliers recorded.
   • Ordering for: Click the dropdown and select the outlet(s) the stock will be ordered for.

     

   • Deliver to: Choose the outlet where the order will be received.
   • Delivery date: This is the expected date of delivery for the order.
   • Order number: The order number is generated by Retail POS when you select the outlet. You can edit this number to help you identify your orders.
   • Supplier invoice number: If you have a supplier invoice number, enter it here for your supplier’s reference.

   • Note: Add custom information to your orders, like personal reminders or approval notes.

     

Adding products using Choose products

When ordering for multiple locations on one purchase order, you cannot add products using a CSV file or from recommendations.

1. To add products, type the product name into the search bar or scan the product barcode.

   

2. Enter the quantity of the product you would like to order for each location you are ordering for. If a product has variants, you can select the variants and quantity from the selection modal, then click Add variants to order.

   

   You can view current product inventory levels across all your outlets by clicking the product arrow to show the expanded product details. You can see at a glance how much of the product is in stock, on order, on transfer, and how much of each product was sold in the last 30 days.

3. Record any discounts, freight charges, or duties you will incur as part of the purchase order. These amounts can be edited while receiving a purchase order and will not appear on the purchase order you send to your vendor.

   

4. When your purchase order is complete, click Save.

   

Sending a purchase order

Once you have created and populated your purchase order, you can send it to your supplier to order the products.

1. Navigate to Inventory > Stock control.
2. Locate and click on the order you wish to send, using filters if required.

   

3. Click Email order and enter the supplier name, email address, and a message if required.

   

4. Click Send. The status will change to Sent.

   Trial accounts cannot send receipts or stock orders via email. Any emails sent by trial accounts will not be delivered.

5. Once your supplier confirms the order, you can Mark as Dispatched.

   

6. If you know the date it will be delivered, enter it and click Next.
   • If you don't know the delivery date, select I don't know when and click Next.
7. Click Change status to dispatched.

Receiving and distributing a purchase order

You can receive purchase orders and create inventory transfers to your outlets at the same time, ensuring stock is moved to where it's needed and your warehouse doesn't get backlogged with orders awaiting transfers.

1. Navigate to Inventory > Stock control.
2. Locate the order you wish to receive, using filters if required.
3. Click on the Receive icon next to the order.

   

4. If you are receiving a partial order, enter the total number of units received for each product. Any ordered product that is not going to an outlet must have 0 entered in its Received quantity field.

   If you are receiving a full order, click Receive all ordered products.

   

   The number of products received to your different outlets must add up to the number of products in the Received quantity field. If this is not the case, an error message will appear, alerting you that your total allocation across locations doesn't match the received quantity.
   

5. Enter or update any discount, import, or shipping fees information as part of the order.
6. Click Receive and distribute delivery.

   

7. A pop-up will appear confirming that you are about to receive and distribute this delivery, permanently updating your inventory. To confirm, click Receive and distribute delivery. This will create transfers for each location in the purchase order.

   

   • To cancel and make further changes, click Don't receive.
   • If some of your products were not received, you will be prompted to add them to a new order. You can choose to Create new order or Don't create new order.

     

You will be returned to the Orders tab, where the transfers to distribute the stock to your outlets will be automatically created and marked as Sent. A temporary banner will also appear, confirming that your purchase order has been received and transfers have been sent for distribution.

If some of your products were not received and you created a new order for those products, your transfers will still be automatically created and marked as Sent. The banner will instead indicate that a new purchase order has been created with the unreceived products. You can optionally click the link in the banner to view the new purchase order.

To view open transfers from purchase orders:

1. Navigate to Inventory > Stock control.
2. Click on the arrow beside the purchase order to expand the details.
3. Click the Distribution tab.

   

For more information on stock transfers, refer to our Transferring stock in Retail POS guide.

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