PO numbers & order review

Two settings decide how a company order arrives: whether the buyer must give you a PO number, and whether the order is placed directly or submitted for your review first.

Both are set per branch, on the location’s Ordering, checkout and tax panel. Settings → B2B wholesale → New company defaults only sets the starting value for companies you create later — changing it never rewrites a branch you have already set up.

PO numbers

The policy is Optional or Required.

• Optional — checkout shows a PO number field the buyer may fill in.
• Required — the field is marked with an asterisk and reads “Required for this company location.” Checkout refuses to take payment or submit the order without it: “Enter a PO number to continue.”

Vinayak Infra’s site engineer types PO-2026-0184 on a ₹3,18,000 order. The number is saved as they type, and it then prints on the confirmation, on their order in their account, and on the invoice.

The PO number is a reference your buyer types. It is not matched against a purchase-order document, and nothing checks the format.

Note

A PO number is capped at 64 characters, and it is frozen once the order exists. You can still change it while the order is a draft — including a draft submitted for review — but not afterwards. If a buyer gives you the wrong reference on a completed order, note it and move on.

Order review

The submission policy is Place orders directly or Review orders.

• Place orders directly — checkout completes as normal. Payment is taken or terms are applied, and a real order is created immediately.
• Review orders — checkout takes no payment. The buyer’s cart arrives as a draft for you to check, edit and complete.

Use it for the customers whose orders you always adjust anyway: a contractor who orders off an old drawing, or an account where you confirm stock before committing.

Caution

Nothing is reserved while an order sits in review. Submitting releases the buyer’s cart and holds no stock — every review draft is badged “Inventory not reserved”, and availability is only re-checked when you complete the draft. Two branches can both submit for the last 50 units, and both will be told nothing until you work the queue. Review the fast-moving lines the same day.

Caution

Your buyer is not told this at checkout. The checkout looks completely normal and the button still says Pay now; they only find out on the confirmation screen, which reads “Order submitted for review”. Tell the customer yourself when you switch their branch to Review orders, or the first call will be someone asking why they were not charged.

Working a submitted order

1. The buyer submits. They press Pay now, nothing is charged, and they land on a submitted-for-review confirmation with a reference like D42. Their account shows the order as Awaiting review.

2. You open the queue. Go to Orders → Drafts → For review. Vinayak Infra’s ₹3,18,000 cable order appears as D42, badged “Inventory not reserved”, with the PO number and the buyer’s name on the row.

3. Edit what needs changing. Lines, quantities, prices, discounts, shipping, the PO number and notes are all editable. Delete the backordered ₹18,400 line and the draft falls to ₹2,99,600.

4. Use Price lock if you are honouring the prices the buyer submitted, so a later catalog change cannot move them underneath you.

5. Complete it, either by sending the buyer an invoice to pay, or by choosing Collect payment and then Mark as paid (money already received) or Payment due later (put it on the branch’s terms). D42 completed as Payment due later mints a ₹2,99,600 order on Vinayak’s Net 30.

There is no Reject button

You cannot decline a submitted order from the admin today. There is no Reject action, and Delete refuses a draft a buyer submitted.

Decline by phone or email, the way you would have before. The draft stays in the queue as your record of the conversation. If you want it out of your working view, empty the lines or leave it and work by date — but expect to tell the buyer yourself, because nothing goes out automatically.

Edits and payment links

If you edit anything commercial on a draft you have already sent — lines, quantities, prices, discounts, tax, shipping, the address or the PO — any payment link already in the buyer’s hands stops working. A buyer can never pay against an outdated version. Re-sending the invoice emails a fresh link that reflects the edit. Internal notes and tags invalidate nothing.

Payment links you create are short-lived by design: 60 minutes by default, and 30 days at the most. Say “today” to a buyer, not “sometime this fortnight”.

Caution

A silent edit is invisible to the buyer. If you change the draft and complete it without re-sending the invoice, they only get the “approved and processed” email, which will not show them that you deleted a line. Re-send the invoice whenever the change matters to them.

Emails

The buyer gets an email when they submit, a fresh payment link if you re-send the invoice after an edit, and a confirmation once the draft becomes a real order. Wording is editable under Settings → Notifications in the B2B wholesale group.

Nothing emails you when a submission arrives. Order review is a queue you work, not an inbox that fills up — put Orders → Drafts → For review in your morning routine alongside Orders → Overdue.

Next steps

• Catalogs & contextual pricing — what the buyer was quoted before they submitted.
• Payment terms & credit — what “Payment due later” puts them on.
• Delivery addresses & shipping — the ship-to the submission carries.