Working with Purchase Orders

Every PO a customer sends you, on one list — accept, reject, and act from the same page.

Overview​

When a customer raises a purchase order against your business, it appears on your Orders list. From there you can:

• See every PO your customers have sent you, in any status.
• Open a PO to read its lines, terms, and history.
• Accept or Reject new POs.
• Drill into individual items via the row menu.
• Follow each PO through to invoicing and payment.

Where to find it: Orders from the left sidebar.

1The Orders list​

Open Orders from the sidebar.

Tabs​

Four count-badge tabs filter the list by status:

Columns​

Filters​

The filter bar at the top of the list lets you narrow by:

• Requested Delivery Date — date or date range.
• Requested By — the user at the customer who raised it.
• Status — any individual PO status.

Filters compose with the active tab — e.g. you can be on the Accepted tab and filter further by the user who requested the PO.

PO statuses​

2The PO detail page​

Click any PO row to open its detail page. The layout is a wide main panel on the left with a stack of contextual cards on the right.

Header​

• Order title with the date and time the PO was created (e.g. "14 May 2026, 11:32 AM").
• Status stepper — four steps: Received → Accepted → Invoiced → Paid. The active step is highlighted; Paid only lights up once at least one invoice on the PO has been marked paid.
• Message Customer button — opens a chat panel for back-and-forth with the customer on this order.
• Accept / Reject buttons — visible only when the PO is in Received status.
• Upload invoice button — visible once the PO is Accepted, taking you into the invoice-import flow.

Accepting or rejecting a PO​

When a new PO lands, the right-hand side of the header carries two buttons:

Both actions take effect immediately — there's no separate confirmation dialog. Once the PO moves out of Received, the buttons disappear.

Important: rejection is final for the PO. If you reject by mistake, the customer will need to raise a new PO — you can't un-reject from your side. Use Message Customer first if you're unsure.

After accepting, an Upload invoice button appears in the header so you can move on to invoicing the order.

Items section​

A summary table of the lines on the PO with the following columns:

Below the table you'll see the order totals: Subtotal, Tax, Total authorised by buyer, and Total authorised to vendor.

Opening item details via the row menu​

Every line has a row menu at the end of its row (the three-dot actions icon). Open it and pick View Item to slide a detail panel in from the right with everything available for the item:

• The item's full name.
• Basic details: line identifier, description, category.
• Pricing grid: unit price, quantity, line total.
• Form responses — if the line was added as a free-text item under one of the customer's custom forms, the responses they captured appear here.

You can also click the row to open the same panel. Close it by clicking outside or the close button.

Terms section​

The Terms section consolidates the agreements that apply to this PO:

• Payment Terms — the term name (e.g. Net 30), its code, description, payment configuration (net days, payment due, calculation basis), and any rich-text Terms & Conditions.
• Purchase Terms and Delivery Terms — one tab per contract attached to the PO. Each tab shows the contract's rich-text content (Ts & Cs, Incoterms language, etc.).

These are set by the customer — you can't change them, but reviewing them before you accept is good practice (especially payment terms).

Invoices section​

If invoices have been raised against this PO, they appear here as a table:

If no invoices have been raised yet, the section is empty.

Side panel cards​

The right-hand column groups context that isn't the main flow:

• Customer — customer name and a link to their profile.
• Bill To — the billing address the customer wants the invoice addressed to.
• Ship To / Deliver To — the address goods or services should be delivered to.
• History — a chronological timeline of status changes (received, accepted, rejected, etc.) with timestamps.
• Notes — any free-text notes the customer captured on the PO.

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Delivery instructions​

Each line on a PO can carry delivery instructions — shipping requirements your customer's rules attached when they sent the order. Not every line will have them; when a line does, review them before you ship.

Every instruction includes:

A few things worth knowing:

• Instructions are per line, not per order — a fragile item and a standard item on the same PO can carry different handling requirements, so check each line you're fulfilling.
• One line can carry several instructions — e.g. a customs instruction and a labeling instruction.
• Instructions are read-only on your side. They were fixed when the customer sent the PO; if one looks wrong or unworkable, raise it via Message Customer (below) before accepting or shipping.

Tip: treat the Documents list as a dispatch checklist — missing customs paperwork is one of the most common causes of delayed deliveries and delayed payment.

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Messaging your customer​

The PO detail page carries a Message Customer button in the header. It opens a chat panel scoped to this specific PO — so the conversation stays tied to the order it's about.

Channels, threads, reactions, file sharing, and member management all work the same way across POs and invoices — see Messaging Customers for the full guide.

Tip: add a colleague (e.g. someone from your dispatch team) as a channel Member before they need to chime in. That way they get notified about the conversation rather than having to be looped in by email.

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How a PO's status progresses​

PO status changes are driven by you (accept / reject) and by the invoices you raise — the customer can't move the PO between statuses unilaterally:

• Received → Accepted. You click Accept on the PO header. The lines and payment terms are locked from this point.
• Received → Rejected. You click Reject on the PO header. Final — the customer must raise a new PO if they want to retry.
• Accepted → Invoiced. Automatic. The PO moves to Invoiced once every line on the order is fully covered by invoices that are Approved (or Paid) on the customer's side.
• Invoiced → Accepted (revert). If an invoice that contributed to full coverage is later cancelled or rejected by the customer, the PO falls back to Accepted automatically.

The Paid step at the end of the status stepper is purely visual — the underlying PO status doesn't change, but the stepper lights up once any invoice on the PO is paid.

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Tips & good practice​

• Read the terms before accepting. Payment terms, purchase terms, and delivery terms are all set by the customer on the PO — review them before clicking Accept. Once accepted they're locked in for the order.
• Use Message Customer for ambiguity. If a line description, address, or quantity looks wrong, message the customer before accepting or rejecting. Saves a round-trip of rejection + re-issue.
• Don't accept what you can't deliver. A Rejected PO is easier to handle than an Accepted PO you fail to fulfil. If you can't honour the order in full, reject and let the customer raise something workable.
• Filter by Received every morning. It's the only tab that has work waiting on you — using it as your inbox view stops POs from sitting unactioned.

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Troubleshooting​

A PO is on my list but I can't see Accept or Reject. Those buttons only show when the PO is in Received status. If you (or a colleague) have already actioned the PO, the buttons disappear. Check the History card on the side panel to see who actioned it and when.

I accepted a PO by mistake. Acceptance can't be undone from your side. Use Message Customer to let them know — they'll typically cancel the underlying invoice flow or raise a corrected PO.

I rejected a PO by mistake. Same — rejection is final on your side. Message the customer; they can raise a new PO with the same details.

My PO has been Accepted for a while but won't move to Invoiced. The PO only moves to Invoiced when every line is fully covered by invoices the customer has Approved or Paid. Check the Invoices section on the PO: any line short of full quantity, or invoices stuck in Draft / Received, will keep the PO on Accepted.

The Upload invoice button isn't showing. That button only appears once the PO is Accepted. If the PO is still Received, accept it first.

Line items look right but the total doesn't match what I quoted. Check the Summary totals at the bottom of the Items section — the customer may have added taxes or charges you didn't include in your quote. Use the row menu's View Item action to inspect line-level pricing.

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Need help?​

Contact your customer directly first — most PO issues are easier to resolve buyer-to-supplier than by escalating. If you need to reach Axiom support, include the PO Identifier from the list and a description of what's stuck.