Magnetic caters for companies who work with purchase orders.


What is a Purchase Order (PO)?

A purchase order (PO) is a commercial document and first official offer issued by a buyer to a seller, indicating types, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services. It is used to control the purchasing of products and services from external suppliers.


There are two methods for creating a purchase order on Magnetic.


METHOD 1: Create a PO directly from a Cost Estimate


***Note*** You can only create a PO from a CE that has been approved by a client. 


Follow these steps:

  1. Click on accounts.
  2. Click on Cost Estimates
  3. Find the  CE you want to use to create a PO from. (You may want to use the search filters)
  4. Hover over the icons on the right-hand side of the CE. 
  5. Click on the icon that is called "Add Purchase Order"
  6. A new Purchase Order screen will open where you can fill in all the details for the PO.
  7. Add the relevant information. (All information marked with *must be filled in)
    • Contact: Contact at the company the PO is addressed to.
    • Company: Company the PO is for.
    • Job: The job the PO is associated with. Assign this PO to a particular job by adding the relevant job name in here.
    • Owner: Person in charge of the PO.
    • Title: Cost estimate title.
    • Tags: A comma-seperated list of tags used to segment your database.
    • Issue dates: Date the PO is issued.
    • Delivery date: Date goods will be shipped / service provided.
    • PO Number: Purchase order number supplied by company.
    • Status: Select the workflow stage the PO is in from the dropdown menu. E.g.  Draft, Internally Approved. 
    • Terms of payment: Select the payment term from the dropdown menu. (You can create your own payment term in your company settings under the accounts section).
    • Description: Add any extra information you think is important in this text box.
    • Item types: 
      • Select the relevant item type from the dropdown menu. You can create your own list of item types. Alternatively, select the "New item" option from the dropdown menu and create a new item type.
      • Section Headings: If you would like to split your PO into sections, choose Section Heading and name it. When printing your PO you will see the line items split and a total per section is automatically added.
      • Mouse over a line item to display icons to change order, add new or delete line items.
    • Quantity: A number of hours for that particular item type to be charged for.
    • Cost: Basic cost per line item without markup added.
    • Line Total: The total of the external cost plus the profit margin.
    • Tax type: Select one of the following options on the dropdown menu:
      • No Tax: Items which are not taxed.
      • Taxable: Items which follow standard taxable rules.
      • Zero Rated: Items that are zero-rated for tax purposes.
      • Exempt: Item types which ca not be charged VAT.
    • Details: This text box is useful if you want to add additional information about the item type being added.
    • Add a discount percentage or change the tax percentage if you wish.
    • Ensure all the info is correct. 
  8. Save the details.
  9. Download or email the PO to the supplier by clicking on the cloud icon on the right of the PO to download, or the envelope to email the PO.


See the screenshot below:


*You can prevent the creation of PO's that exceed the value of the parent Cost Estimate.
To do this simply go the your Company Settings and enable the settings as indicated below:


METHOD 2: Creating a Purchase Order


Follow these steps:

1. Click on Accounts.
2. Click on Purchase Order.
3. Click New Purchase Order.
4. Add the relevant information. (All information marked with * must be filled in).
5. Ensure all the info is correct. You can also add, remove or move item types by hovering over a line item.
6. Save the details.
7. Download or email the PO to the supplier by clicking on the cloud icon on the right of the PO to download, or the envelope to email the PO.


See the screenshots below: 



PO creation view:


PO Action icons:


Also see: 

Creating item types and billing rates