Purchase Orders Overview
Purchase Orders are essential for defining scope, setting expectations, and committing to costs before work begins.
By using Purchase Orders in your workflow, you gain greater control and visibility over project costs while ensuring clear communication with subcontractors and vendors.
Purchase Order Overview Help Video
What are Purchase Orders?
Purchase Orders represent agreed-upon work, pricing, and expectations between you and your subcontractors or vendors before work begins.
Using Purchase Orders helps you:
- Define scope and cost upfront
- Clearly communicate expectations
- Track committed costs
- Maintain control over your project budget
Creating a Purchase Order
Begin by selecting a Job, then navigate to Financials → Purchase Orders.
From there, click + Purchase Order and select Purchase Order from the dropdown to begin.
Enter the applicable purchase order details. When you are finished, select the Send icon to send the purchase order to the subcontractor or vendor for review and approval, or select Save to keep it as a draft.
In addition to creating a Purchase Order from scratch, you can also generate one directly from related features such as Change Orders, Bids, Selections, or the Estimate.
You can also add costs from these features to an existing unapproved Purchase Order for streamlined expense management.
Purchase Order II Help Video
To do this, navigate to the appropriate feature, select the checkboxes next to the items you want to include, then choose Create PO or Add to Existing PO.
✏️Note: The following permissions are required:
-
View Estimate / Change Order / Bid / Selection
-
View and Edit Purchase Orders
Bid Package:
If the Purchase Order includes a Bid Package, the bid will be linked on the Purchase Order for quick reference.
Estimate:
Change Order:
Selection Option:
To add a Selection Option to a new or existing PO, click into the Option and select Add to.
Once a Purchase Order has been sent, the assigned subcontractor or vendor will receive an email prompting them to review and either Approve or Decline the proposed work.
If your subcontractor or vendor has login access, they can review and respond directly from their portal.
If selecting Approve, they will be guided through signing the purchase order digitally. They will click Sign to begin the signing process.
They will then click within the singing area.
Then, they can either type or draw their signature and select Done.
The signature will then appear on the PDF of the Purchase Order. To complete the approval, they will select Finish.
If they select to Decline, they will confirm their decision and can provide feedback. 
If needed, you can approve or decline a Purchase Order on behalf of your subcontractor or vendor.
From the Purchase Order, you can either select Approve or click the dropdown arrow and select Approve With Signature.
If you choose to Approve with a signature, you will follow the same steps as the subcontractor of vendor would perform above. If you choose Approve (without a signature), a pop-up window will appear for you to make any comments regarding the status change. Click Manually approve to approve the Purchase Order.
Once approved, you can access the signed copy directly from the Purchase Order.
From the Purchase Order, click View from the Approvals section.
If a Purchase Order is recalled after being approved due to changes in scope or pricing that require reapproval, the Version History will display all previous iterations. This provides a clear record of every approved version for transparency and tracking.
Amending Purchase Orders
You can amend already-approved Purchase Orders to make changes such as adding or modifying scope, documents, or line items without needing to recall the Purchase Order or create a new one. All changes are tracked through a full change history, and subcontractor reapproval is required for any modified portions.
To begin amending a Purchase Order, select Amend.
Amend or add line items.
New totals are broken down at the top of the Purchase Order and changes are called out in the bottom right of the screen.
You can now resend this PO to the subcontractor for reapproval of the amended items. Click the link at the top to see the previously approved PO.
See the entire version history of the PO by clicking the Version History icon in the toolbar.
✏️Note: You can amend Purchase Orders that have associated Bills; however, any amendment must not reduce or alter amounts that have already been billed.
For example, you cannot decrease a Purchase Order total to a value that is lower than the amount already billed.
Amending a Purchase Order with a Change Order
Adding a Change Order to a subcontractor-approved Purchase Order will automatically create an amendment
From the Change Order:
- Select Add to → Purchase Order → Existing PO.
From there, you can assign each Change Order line item to an existing, sub-approved Purchase Order.
When each line item is appropriately assigned, select Finish.
This will then put your Purchase Order in a Draft and Amended status, allowing your subcontractor to review the amended portions and re-approve.
Your Purchase Order will then display your Original PO total, the Amendment difference, and the New PO total (pending approval).
✏️Note: Adding a Change Order to a Purchase Order with an existing amendment will automatically update that amendment.
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