> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Purchase orders and suppliers

> Raise a purchase order, email it to your vendor, receive it line by line, and keep the goods-received voucher behind every delivery.

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['pharmacy']} plans="All plans, with a purchase-order quota on Starter" roles="Staff with the manage suppliers and purchase orders permission" />

A purchase order is what you send a supplier and what you receive against when the delivery arrives. Raising one from ClinikEHR means the received quantities, the costs and the lots all land back on the same document instead of on a printout somebody has to reconcile later.

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Inventory', 'Purchasing']} />

<TaskHeader before="At least one vendor and the products you are ordering already in your catalogue" time="3 minutes to raise, a minute per line to receive" after="A submitted PO with the vendor emailed, ready to receive against" />

## Raise a purchase order

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open a new order">
    On the **Purchasing** tab, select **New PO**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose the vendor and the date">
    Pick the **Vendor**, then set the **Expected date** you have been promised. That date is what the delivery is chased against.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add the lines">
    Add each product with its quantity and **Unit cost**. The **Est. total** updates as you go — check it against the quote before you send anything.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Submit it">
    Select submit. A toast confirms **"PO submitted"** and the order is emailed to the vendor. Until it is submitted it is a draft nobody has seen.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Receive against it

Deliveries rarely arrive complete, so receiving is per line rather than all or nothing.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the submitted PO">
    Find it on the **Purchasing** tab.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Receive each line into a location">
    Enter what actually arrived for that line and the location it is going into. A line you leave alone stays outstanding, so a part-delivery is recorded as a part-delivery.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Record lot and expiry as you go">
    Every received line becomes a lot. Scan the pack where you can — see [Batches, expiry and FEFO](/pharmacy/inventory/batches-and-expiry) for why an undated lot causes trouble later.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Receiving through a PO and receiving through the toolbar's **Receive** button end in the same place: stock on hand, and a movement on the **Ledger** tab.

## Vendors

**Vendors** on the **Purchasing** tab opens the supplier manager — the addresses, contacts and account details you order against.

Without the "manage suppliers and purchase orders" permission the manager opens **read-only**. The same permission also hides negotiated unit costs and supplier account numbers, so a person who can see your stock does not automatically see what you pay for it. See [Staff permissions](/platform/team/permissions).

**New PO** and **Draft PO from these** are both locked without it.

## Ordering from the reorder suggestions

The **Catalog** and **Alerts** tabs carry a strip counting the items **at/below threshold**, with **Draft PO from these**. It builds a draft order from exactly those items — and deliberately skips any that are also projected to expire unsold, telling you how many it skipped. See [Batches, expiry and FEFO](/pharmacy/inventory/batches-and-expiry).

## Vouchers — the goods-received record

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Inventory', 'Vouchers']} />

A voucher is the document behind a delivery: what arrived, from whom, against which invoice, at what cost. The tab opens on three figures — **Voucher value** for the chosen period, **Stock received**, and the number of **Vouchers** — with a period and status filter, and a **Receive stock** button that starts a new one.

A voucher takes a **Vendor**, a **Receiving location**, a **Vendor invoice #**, a **Funding source** and a line per product with **Qty**, **Cost price**, **Markup %**, **Sale price**, **Lot** and **Expiry**. Two shortcuts save most of the typing: "Scan a pack to add it…" adds a line from the pack itself, and **Add from a purchase order** pulls the lines straight off an order you already raised.

**Notes** — "Delivery condition, discrepancies, credit notes…" — is where a short delivery or a damaged carton gets written down while somebody still remembers it.

Each row can be downloaded or printed as a PDF for the supplier file.

## Check it worked

* The order shows as submitted on the **Purchasing** tab, not as a draft.
* Your vendor has the email.
* After receiving, the **Stock** tab shows the new lots at the location you chose, and the **Ledger** tab shows the movements.
* The voucher for the delivery appears on the **Vouchers** tab and the **Stock received** figure has moved.

## If something goes wrong

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="New PO is greyed out">
    You do not have the "manage suppliers and purchase orders" permission, or you are at your plan's purchase-order limit on Starter. The **Free plan** strip shows which.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I can see vendors but cannot change them">
    The supplier manager opens read-only without the permission. That is the same permission that hides negotiated costs.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Unit costs show as hidden">
    Viewing cost and margin is granted separately from viewing stock. Ask an owner or manager — see [Staff permissions](/platform/team/permissions).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The vendor says they never got the order">
    The email goes out on submit, so check the order is submitted rather than still a draft, and check the address on the vendor record. Download the PDF from the voucher or the order and send it manually in the meantime.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Only part of the delivery arrived">
    Receive the quantities that arrived and leave the rest of the line outstanding. Do not receive the full quantity and adjust it afterwards — that hides the shortfall from the supplier record.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck topic="a purchase order" />