Purchase Orders Overview

Updated at October 30th, 2025

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Table of Contents

Purchase Order Stages Add a Purchase Order Required and Optional Fields Add Line Items to POs Purchase Order Details & Comments Pinned Fields Purchase Order Status Save Options: Save as Draft, Submit for Approval Pending Approval / Rejected / Approved Purchased Status Received Status - Partial / Full Close a Purchase Order Editing Purchase Orders (for Advanced Inventory Valuation Method accounts) Deleting a Purchase Order (for FIFO and LIFO accounts) Bulk Edit Purchase Orders Purchase Order Reports

Purchase Orders in Fleetio are designed to help standardize Parts procurement through a purchasing workflow.

Associating Purchase Orders with Vendors allows for detailed history tracking and cost reporting.

You can access Purchase Orders by clicking Parts & Inventory in the Sidebar Navigation, then clicking Purchase Orders.

PERMISSIONS: Account Owners and Administrators can fully manage the Purchase Orders on your account, but Regular Users must be given Purchase Order permissions through their assigned Role. Learn more in User Types and User Roles & Permissions.

IMPORTANT: At least one Part Location must exist in your account for a Regular User to add a Purchase Order. If a Part Location does not exist, the Add Purchase Order button will be grayed out.

Purchase Order Stages

Click the tabs at the top of the page to view Purchase Orders in any stage of the Purchase Order process:

All - for Purchase Orders in any status
Draft - for Purchase Orders in the creation phase
Pending Approval - for Purchase Orders that are ready for approval/rejection
Rejected - for any Purchase Orders that have been rejected
Approved - for Purchase Orders that have been approved and need to be purchased
Purchased - for Purchase Orders that have been purchased, but need to be received
Received, Partial - for Purchase Orders whose number of items received is less than the number ordered
Received, Full - for Purchase Orders whose number of items received matches the number ordered
Closed - for Purchase Orders that have been 100% fulfilled and completed

Add a Purchase Order

NOTE: If you frequently create the same Purchase Order, you have the ability to copy any existing PO to a new PO. Once you make a copy, all data from the original PO will be copied over into the new Draft PO. This is only available to users that have Manage Permissions for Purchase Orders.

To access the copy feature, click the More Actions Button next to the existing PO you would like to copy and click Make a Copy.

If you would like to create a brand new purchase order, click the + Add Purchase Order button.

Purchase orders can also be created directly from the Part Overview page for a specific Part. Simply click the Add to PO Button in the Locations card. You'll see a pop-up where you can adjust the quantity and choose to create a new PO or add the part to an existing PO.

Required and Optional Fields

NOTE: In order to select line items, you must first select a Vendor (a) and Part Location (b). In order to submit a Purchase Order for approval, you must include at least one line item (d).

You may optionally identify Labels (c), a Description (e), additional Price information (Discount, Shipping, Tax) (f), upload documents (g), and enter any Custom Fields (h).

NOTE: Custom Fields can be set as required on any individual Custom Field in Account Settings.

According to the PO stage, and your User permissions, you may Save as Draft or Save and Approve (i).

Add Line Items to POs

A Purchase Order can contain an unlimited number of Line Items.

Click the + Add Line Item button (a) to add a new line item for each part that is needed.
Then, search for each part in the line item field by name or full or partial manufacturer number.
Select a Part from the drop-down list (b).
Enter the Quantity (c).
Enter the Unit Cost (d).
Click the Trash icon (e) to Delete if necessary, or search for a replacement part in the part selection box to reset the quantity, unit cost, and amount for the new part.

NOTE: Line Items can only include Parts that are Active at the Part Location selected on the Purchase Order.

Purchase Order Details & Comments

The Purchase Order Details page displays the information you have entered with Details (a), Line Items (b), the ability to Watch the Purchase Order (c) along with a section for Comment and the ability to @mention other users (d) or Documents (e)

NOTE: While you can manually add watchers to a Purchase Order, there are specific instances where an individual will automatically be added as a Watcher:

User who creates a Purchase Order
User who edits a Purchase Order
User who changes the status on a Purchase Order
User who comments or add attachments to a Purchase Order
User who replies to an @mention on the comment of a Purchase Order

Additionally, a user will now receive notifications for comments on Purchase Orders they are watching and comments where the user is @mentioned.

Pinned Fields

Fleetio allows you to pin fields you commonly use to the top of the Details card. Once pinned, these fields will be added to the Pinned Fields subsection. To pin a new field, hover over the field and click the Pin Icon. To unpin a field, click the Pin Icon again.

PERMISSIONS: Users with View permissions can personalize the Details card by pinning fields.

NOTE: You can only pin fields in the Details card. When you pin a field, this will be available for all Purchase Order Details Pages you access. Pinned fields are only pinned for you; the fields you pin in the Details card will not affect other Users' Details Pages in your organization.

Reorder your pinned fields by clicking and dragging the reorder icon on the left side.

Purchase Order Status

There are eight pre-defined Purchase Order Status options:

Draft
Pending Approval
Rejected
Approved
Purchased
Received, Partial
Received, Full
Closed

You can create aliases for the Status names and customize status colors in your Account Settings:

Navigate to your Account Menu and select Settings
In the Settings sidebar, click Purchase Order Statuses in the Parts & Inventory section.

Save Options: Save as Draft, Submit for Approval

When a PO is created, the Save options depend on User Permissions.

Save as Draft or Submit for Approval / Save and Approve.

PERMISSIONS: Account Owners and Administrators can Save as Draft or Save and Approve. Only Regular Users without PO Approve permission will see the option to Submit for Approval (Pending Approval Status).

Pending Approval / Rejected / Approved

PO’s that are Pending Approval can be either Rejected or Approved by Users with the appropriate permissions.

Click the More Actions menu at the end of the row in the PO list, or Edit the PO and click the Reject or Approve button.

Purchased Status

Once a Purchase Order has been Approved, it can be marked as Purchased. Click the More Actions menu at the end of the row in the PO list, or Edit the PO and click Mark Purchased.

Received Status - Partial / Full

A Purchase Order marked as Purchased is ready to be Received. You may Unmark as Purchased if needed, or click the Receive button on the Purchase Order Details Page to receive the order.

You will then see a form for entering the received values of each line item.

To quickly receive ALL items on the order, click the Select All box on the left. The number field automatically populates with the number ordered.

IMPORTANT: If you are using FIFO or LIFO, you can change this value based on what was actually received, but the value cannot exceed the number ordered.

Once complete, click the Receive button.

If the number of items received is less than the number ordered, the Purchase Order becomes Received, Partial status. The additional items may be received as they come in.

NOTE: The Total on a partially received Purchase Order reflects the sum of ALL part subtotals, regardless of whether or not they have been received yet. As parts are received, the Received Quantity updates accordingly.

If the number of items received matches the number ordered, the Purchase Order becomes Received, Full.

IMPORTANT: The values entered on this form will automatically become inventory adjustments for your Parts.

NOTE: You may choose to use the Received Full and Closed statuses separately because of the different stages they represent in your internal procurement process. Once a part is fully received, you may want to add additional data points and attachments to the Purchase Order before closing it, such as:

Uploading a receipt from when the Parts were physically received
Uploading the actual PO that was given to the parts vendor
Adding an invoice number or data point that will link this Purchase Order to records in other systems you use
Adding GL coding

Close a Purchase Order

After the Purchase Order is Received, Full it can be Closed. Click the More Actions drop-down menu at the end of the row in the PO list, or Edit the PO and click Close.

NOTE: If you consider a Purchase Order that is fully received as closed and no additional internal steps need to be taken, you may enable this setting to automatically close fully received POs in Account Settings > Purchase Order Settings.

Editing Purchase Orders (for Advanced Inventory Valuation Method accounts)

If your account has an Advanced Inventory Valuation Method, such as the Average Cost Method or FIFO or LIFO Method, there are certain restrictions in place for editing Purchase Orders based on the status.

Draft/Pending Approval/Approved/Purchased Status POs: The unit cost of a Purchase Order line item can be edited at any time.
Received - Partial or Received - Full Status POs: Users cannot edit the Unit Cost of a Purchase Order line item once any of the parts for that line item have been received. If any received parts have been used on a Work Order, the unit cost becomes permanently uneditable. However, users can make adjustments to the quantity received by reducing the received quantity to 0 (as long as no received quantity has been used on a Work Order). This will allow you to edit the Unit Cost for that line item. To do this:

Click the More Actions button at the top of the Purchase Order.
Click Make Adjustment.
Enter a negative value in the Adjustment field to subtract the same quantity you've received.
Click Make Adjustment.
Click Edit on the PO and you'll be able to edit the Unit Cost for that line item.
- Closed Status POs: The Unit Cost of a Purchase Order line item becomes permanently uneditable once the Purchase Order reaches the Closed status.

Deleting a Purchase Order (for FIFO and LIFO accounts)

If you use the FIFO or LIFO Advanced Inventory Valuation Method, you have the ability to delete Purchase Orders, even after units have been received.

IMPORTANT: You cannot delete a Purchase Order if:

Units received from that PO have been used on a Work Order.
Units received from that PO have been used via manual inventory adjustment
The PO is for a non-inventory-tracked location

PERMISSIONS: Users must have the "Delete" permission for Purchase Orders in their User Roles & Permissions to delete Purchase Orders.

To delete a Purchase Order:

Click the More Actions button at the top of the Purchase Order and select Delete.
In the pop-up that appears, click Delete Purchase Order to confirm.

Bulk Edit Purchase Orders

If you would like to edit multiple purchase orders at once, reference the Bulk Actions article for more information.

Purchase Order Reports

Navigate to Reports > Parts > Purchase Orders List for several Purchase Order reporting options

There are two Layouts available: Group by Purchase Order and Split by Part.

TIP: Learn more in the Parts section in the Reports Overview article.