If you are still placing your orders via text message, phone call, or carrier pigeon, losing invoices or having to manually enter your invoices into your Accounting package - welcome to the 21st-century #poweredbylightspeed

Experience dreamlike efficiency. With Purchase, getting stock for your business is simple, traceable, and connected to your inventory, reporting, and accounting systems.

Purchase enables you to quickly create detailed purchase orders, send them to your suppliers, and keep track of when orders are received - all in one place.   

This guide will walk you through the steps to send a purchase order and how to update it when the order is delivered so that you always have the perfect amount of stock on hand.

What’s in this guide?

Before you begin
Send a purchase order
-Create the draft
-Send the purchase order via email
Receive deliveries
Review past purchases
Frequently Asked Questions

Before you begin

You will need:

• Purchase enabled from the Back Office
• Your suppliers added in Lightspeed

Send a purchase order 

Create the draft 

1. Launch Purchase then go to the Purchase orders tab. 

2. Select New Order from the upper right side of the screen

3. Search or select which supplier you’d like to order from.

4. Select a category to see the assigned products under the supplier. You can also search for any category or product in the top right.

5. Select the product you would like to order. The icon now will display the quantity in your purchase order which can be changed by selecting it.

6. On the same page, you can view and/or edit further details about your purchase order - such as the ones described below the image.

• Stock & Par - Below each item, you will see your stock level and par level. Your stock level is updated based on your inventory settings. As for the Par level, you need to first set up your par level for a number to appear here. A dash will appear if this is not set.
• Order Number - Lightspeed generates this automatically.
• Delivery Date - The default date here will be tomorrow. You can edit the date by selecting it.
• Delivery Note - Here's where you can jot down more specifications about your order.
  
  
  Hot tip: Notes for a particular product can be added the same way you would in POS. Select the product and enter a note, it's that easy!

7. If you would like to review the PDF of this purchase order, select the menu icon (three dots) on the upper right corner of the screen. Then, select View as PDF

Note - Make sure to complete your supplier’s details and your own business details so that the fields auto-populate on the pdf.

8. Once you are happy with your order, select Review Order.  

Send the purchase order via email 

Once you are happy with your order, you can send it to your supplier via email.

9. From the page of the draft you are making, select Place order

10. Check the auto-filled details.

The “To” field is automatically filled with the email of the supplier. The email address of the Purchase user currently logged in will automatically be Cc'd. The Subject field will also be auto-filled. 

11. You can edit the To, From and Subject fields, providing you have Manage Cost Price permission enabled. Enable the Manage Cost Price permission here. You can also add email addresses in the Cc and Bcc fields.

12. Hit Send email and you will get notified that the email was sent.

12. This will send an email to your supplier, to the email entered on the “From” field, and to the site owner. The email contains a message and the purchase order attached as a PDF.

Note - If you are subscribed to Purchase Advanced, the email is personalised to include your site logo. (See example below)

Receive deliveries 

Once the order is delivered to you, follow the steps below to track received orders and update your stock levels. This will also allow your purchase data to sync directly to your integrated accounting app (Xero, MYOB, Quickbooks - you name it) - no more time wasted entering invoices!  

1. From the Dashboard in Back Office, select Launch Purchase

2. You will see the list of purchase orders. Select the order you are receiving

3. This will open the order. Update the Invoice no. with the invoice number from your supplier

4. In case you receive a different amount/price than originally ordered, select the item from the order summary to note the changes. The search bar is also available if you need to enter additional stock items that got delivered but wasn’t in the original order

5. Select Receive order

6. For easy documentation, you can attach packing slips, invoices, and/or other photos to the purchase order after receiving it. Select Add PDF/Image. **Subscribe to Purchase Advanced to unlock this feature.

Note -   If you are using Lightspeed App, you’ll be able to upload a photo from the camera of the device. 

The status of the order will be updated. This is viewable in the same location, the Purchases page.

Review Past Purchases 

1. From the Lightspeed Purchase Homescreen, go to the Purchase orders tab.

On this page, you can see an overview of all orders and their stages:

• Draft - Order has been saved as a draft ready for review to send
• Placed - You have reviewed the order and sent it to the supplier
• Delivered - Order has arrived on site but not marked off or put away
• Received - Order has been checked off for discrepancies, and once marked as received will be synced with your accounting package if you have this feature enabled
• Canceled - This is the status of orders canceled by either you or the supplier. When a supplier accepts an order and then deletes or cancels it, this is the resulting status.
• Rejected - This is the resulting status when orders are immediately rejected by the supplier.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I cancel a purchase order I sent?

Simply select the placed order. Once the order opens, select the actions panel (three dots) on the upper right corner. You will find an option to cancel the order. Once an order is cancelled, this will notify your supplier.

Can I delete purchase orders?

Purchase orders that are under the Draft or Received status can be deleted. Placed orders can be cancelled. To learn more, view our FAQ guide on how to delete a purchase order, recurring order, or order reminder.

How do I automatically send purchase orders on a schedule?

 Purchase enables you to save recurring purchase orders that automatically send on a schedule. You can set the day, time, and interval. Another option is to send order reminders to your own email.

Can I automatically order low stock products?

Not for now. You can, however, see your stock level and PAR level for each product when drafting your purchase orders.

Will the stock automatically update after I receive the order?

After an order is marked as received it will automatically update your stock levels.

How can I remind my staff to replenish stock?

This can be done in two ways.  

Recurring purchase orders are actual orders that are sent automatically and repeatedly on the specified schedule. They notify the user one hour in advance before automatically sending the purchase order to the chosen email/s, to the site owner, and to the supplier.

Meanwhile, Order reminders are email prompts for the user towards an action - like create a purchase order, send a draft, and etc. This reminder sends to the chosen email/s and to the site owner.

What if I receive less than or more than the original order I sent?

As you receive deliveries (as discussed above), you will have the option to change the quantity of received items. If you receive other stock items from your supplier, you can also add them using the search bar.

What else can I do to optimise my purchasing?

Automation makes life easier.

• With Purchase, you can automate sending purchase orders to your suppliers using Recurring orders - Or you can simply automate sending regular reminders to your email using Order reminders.

Stock Levels on Lightspeed automatically sync with your purchases, sales, and wastage so that inventory management reaches a whole new level of ease.

• If you enter your PAR level for a stock item, you’ll be able to see this number side-by-side with the stock level of that item. This shows on the same page where you create purchase orders - helping you make the best purchase decision every time.
• Once your stock items are entered, you can enter your recipes. With Lightspeed’s recipe add-on, every time a product is sold (or entered as wastage), it will automatically update your stock count of how much of the ingredients are left.