# Purchase orders and deliveries

> Draft an order to your supplier, send it, and record each delivery as it arrives. Fill one in from an Alibaba.com receipt, and type the cost of one, the line total or the order total.

Category: Stock and cost of goods · Web page: https://bookalyze.com/guides/purchase-orders

## Make an order

**Where in Bookalyze:** Inventory → Purchase orders → New purchase order

- Supplier (one of your vendors), currency, order date, expected date, their reference and notes.
- Lines of product × quantity × cost. Type the **cost of one** or the **line total**, and the other is worked out; or type the order **total** and it's spread over the lines.
- Orders are numbered PO-0001, PO-0002 and so on.

> **Tip:** **Fill in from an Alibaba receipt**: drop in the receipt PDF from the order's page on Alibaba.com. It's read in your browser and never uploaded; it fills the supplier, currency, date, lines and costs, and lists what to check. Nothing is saved until **Save draft**.

## The life of an order

| Status | What you can do |
| --- | --- |
| Draft | Edit, delete, **Mark as sent** |
| Ordered | **Record a delivery**, **Cancel order**, record payments |
| Partly received | Record the rest |
| Received | Settle the difference (when purchases are in the books) |
| Cancelled | Nothing; the number stays accounted for |

## Deliveries

**Record a delivery** fills in everything still to come; lower a number for a partial delivery. A delivery in another currency asks for the exchange rate. Each delivery has its own **landed cost** page, where freight and duty are added and a wrong arrival date can be changed.

## What you should see

What you should see:
- [ ] Products shows **N on order** for sent orders
- [ ] A partial delivery leaves the order **Partly received**
- [ ] The order's lines add up to the supplier's total to the cent

## Related guides

- [Paying suppliers, and purchases in your books](https://bookalyze.com/guides/supplier-payments.md): Record what you pay against each order, with an optional payment plan. Switch on purchases in the books and payments wait on Supplier deposits until the stock arrives.
- [Landed cost and FIFO stock lots](https://bookalyze.com/guides/landed-cost-and-lots.md): What a unit really cost you: the supplier's price plus its share of freight, duty, brokerage and prep. Each delivery becomes stock lots, and sales use the oldest first.
- [From an Alibaba order to FBA sales and cost of goods sold](https://bookalyze.com/guides/alibaba-to-fba.md): The whole path of a batch of stock: the purchase order from the Alibaba receipt, the freight paid to a forwarder, the delivery's landed cost, and the cost of the units that sold.
- [Reorder: when to order and how many](https://bookalyze.com/guides/reorder.md): For each product: how many it sells a day, when it runs out, the last day to order, and how many to order, with Order now and Order soon.