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Purchase orders

Orders issued to subcontractors and suppliers on a job.

Purchase orders

What it is

A purchase order is the formal instruction to a subcontractor or supplier: this scope, this price, these dates. The Purchase Orders tab on a job lists every order with its status, value, what has been billed against it and what is left, and opens each one to show its budget line, bills, variations, prepayments, acceptance, every send and every document. Issuing an order is what makes money committed against a budget line. (Until October 2026 the UI called these work orders.)

Before you start

  • The Subcontractors module is on (Settings → Team Modules).
  • Orders are issued from the Estimate tab, section by section, so the estimate has sections with lines.
  • The sub or supplier is in Contacts with an email. A sub whose insurance has expired cannot be sent an order.
  • For the Committed column to move, the trade has a budget line on Job Costs.

How to

Issue a purchase order

  1. On the Estimate tab, open a section's menu and choose Issue purchase order. Awarding a tender on the Tenders page opens the same screen with the tendered price and scope already in it.
  2. Step 01: the scope of works. It starts from the lines in the section (or the scope they tendered). Draft … scope asks Base to write the trade's scope when none is written yet; Restore Base draft or Restore tendered scope goes back to it after you have edited. Pick who it is Awarded to, set the value (an awarded price is the price agreed, not the estimate), confirm the dates and attach project documents. The value is measured against the trade's budget line; changing it away from the awarded price or the estimate needs a written reason, recorded against you on the order.
  3. Step 02 Review & send: the email they will receive, the order value and the on-site dates, and What issuing does: the budget line moves from estimated to committed, a programme task is created if ticked, the PDF is generated and filed, and a countersignature can be requested.
  4. Press Issue & send. The order goes to their email, lands on the Purchase Orders tab as Issued, and the budget line shows the committed value. An order cannot go out with an empty scope, no recipient, or expired insurance.

Track an order

  1. Each row shows the PO number, who it went to, type (Purchase Order, Supply & Install or the assignee type), value, Billed and Left (from countable bills only; unapproved bills are shown as held and not counted) and its status.
  2. Change the status from the dropdown: Draft, Issued, Accepted, In Progress, Completed, Cancelled. Marking an order Completed posts the value not already covered by linked bills as cost, so the job is charged once; it also closes the order's programme task.
  3. A supply order shows a Delivered control; set the date goods arrived, or clear it.
  4. The row's buttons download the PDF, prepare the order document for review, edit the order (scope, issued and due dates, delivered date, notes) or delete it after a confirmation.

Open an order

Click a row. The panel shows what was assigned, notes, the Budget line (estimated, committed, actual), the drawdown (billed, paid, held, left, over), Variations, Paid ahead, the Order facts (PO number, type, to, contact, terms, cost code, Xero status), the Dates, the Accepted record if the sub accepted, every Sent email and every Document.

Vary an order

  1. In the open order's Variations panel, add one: the variation, a reason, the amount (negative for a credit) and detail. It is proposed.
  2. Approve files it through Money → Decide as you: the order's value and its budget line move with it. Reject records a reason; Withdraw takes a proposal back and changes nothing.

Record a prepayment

Under Paid ahead, Set it up files one instalment to Money → Decide; split it on the row afterwards. A requested prepayment needs the supplier's invoice or pro-forma attached before it can be paid.

What happens on its own

  • A client variation that is approved can propose a matching variation on the affected order, which waits for a person to approve.
  • Replies to the order email come back into the job; an acceptance is recorded on the order with when and how.
  • Bills pulled from Xero or read from receipts that match the order link to it and draw it down; an order is drawn down only by the bills linked to it.
  • An order in Xero shows its Xero PO number on the row; one deleted in Xero is flagged as no longer a commitment.
  • Issuing an order engages the subcontractor on the job if they were not already.

Things that surprise people

  • Once issued, the value moves only by a variation. The paper the sub holds and the number in Base stay the same.
  • An order on a trade with no budget line still exists, but the Committed column does not move. Create the line on Job Costs first if you want it tracked.
  • Completing an order nets it against the bills already linked to it. If you expect a bill still to come, link it before you complete, or the completion entry will be larger than the final cost.
  • A legacy order carries one value and no lines.
  • Delivered is a date on the order, recorded here. Receiving goods line by line is not on this tab.