# Purchase orders in Payables

Create or import purchase orders, link payables by PO Number, preview from the invoice, sync from Exact Online, and see what is next for delivery-confirmation goods receipts.

Track supplier **purchase orders** next to your payables: create or import orders, link invoices by **PO Number**, preview the order from the invoice, and (with Exact Online) sync open orders and book against them when you export.

**Who this is for:** AP clerks and finance leads who match supplier invoices to purchase orders, especially teams on **Exact Online** who want Cortena to keep PO and payable context in one place.

**Access** · Purchase orders must be enabled for your organisation (ask Cortena if you do not see the menu). You also need:

- **View purchase orders** · open the workspace and read orders
- **Create and edit purchase orders** · create, edit drafts, approve/issue/cancel, and link to payables

## 1. What purchase orders do in Cortena

Purchase orders are a **first-class Payables workspace**, separate from the invoice list:

| Capability | What you get |
| --- | --- |
| Order register | List and filter by **Draft**, **Approved**, **Issued**, **Cancelled** |
| Create in Cortena | Supplier, dates, lines, optional lines from a prior invoice |
| Import from Exact | Open / partial Exact POs with an **Exact Online** badge |
| Auto-link payables | When the invoice **PO Number** matches a Cortena PO |
| Preview from invoice | Click **PO Number** → lightbox → **Open in workspace** |
| Linked invoices on the PO | Amounts toward the order and remaining open |
| Booking from Exact | Prefer Exact item-group / purchase GL when a PO is linked |
| Exact export (when gated) | Payable can post as an Exact purchase invoice **against** the PO lines |

Cortena tracks how much of an order is **invoiced**. Goods **receipt** (quantity received in Exact) is not updated by invoice export today. See **Soon** at the end of this article.

## 2. Open the Purchase orders workspace

1. In the left navigation, open **Payables**.
2. Under Payables, select **Purchase orders**.
3. Use tabs **All** | **Draft** | **Approved** | **Issued** | **Cancelled**.
4. Search by **PO number or supplier**.

Select a row to open the detail pane: header fields, line items (**Ordered** / **Invoiced** / **Open**), totals, **Linked invoices**, and a right-hand summary (**Ordered**, **Invoiced**, **Open amount**, **Open qty**).

![Purchase order workspace with Issued, Partial, and Exact Online badges, plus linked invoice BC-0003](https://help.cortena.ai/assets/img/help/purchase-orders/03-purchase-order-workspace.png)

If purchase orders are not enabled, you see **Purchase orders are not enabled for this tenant yet** and an early-access contact prompt.

## 3. Statuses and fulfillment badges

### Lifecycle status

| Status | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Draft** | Editable. Only drafts can be changed (**Only draft purchase orders can be edited.**) |
| **Approved** | Internally authorized |
| **Issued** | Open with the supplier |
| **Cancelled** | Cancelled. Never auto-linked to new payables |

Typical actions on a draft or approved order: **Approve**, **Issue**, **Cancel order**.

### Fulfillment overlay

Alongside status, Cortena shows how far the order is covered by **linked invoices**:

| Badge | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Open** | Nothing invoiced yet against the order |
| **Partial** | Some invoice amount/qty applied; balance remains |
| **Complete** | Linked invoices cover the ordered amount / qty |

These badges reflect **invoice** progress in Cortena. They are not the same as Exact's warehouse **received** quantity.

## 4. Create a purchase order in Cortena

1. Click **New purchase order**.
2. Choose a **Supplier** (search, or **Add supplier**).
3. Fill **Description**, **Your reference**, **Order date**, **Receipt date**, **Currency**, optional **Cost center**, **Purchase agent**, **Note**.
4. Add **Line items** (description, qty, unit, unit price, VAT %, amount). Optionally **Use lines from invoice…** to copy lines from a prior payable.
5. Click **Create**.

Work the order through your Cortena purchase-order workflow (when enabled) or use **Approve** / **Issue** until it is ready to match incoming invoices.

## 5. Link payables with PO Number

When a supplier invoice mentions a purchase order (for example "Your Order: 1" on the PDF), Cortena extracts **PO Number** on the payable.

With purchase orders enabled, Cortena **auto-links** when:

- Booking match is ready on the payable, or
- A PO is created / imported and payables already quote that number, or
- You edit **PO Number** on the invoice, or
- Someone links manually (API / supported tools)

Matching uses a normalised PO number (trim + case-insensitive). Cancelled POs are never auto-linked. An existing link is not overwritten by auto-match (manual re-link can change it).

![Payable detail with linked PO Number set to 1 for invoice BC-0003](https://help.cortena.ai/assets/img/help/purchase-orders/01-invoice-detail-po-number-linked.png)

### Amount fit indicators

Next to **PO Number** you may see a coloured **!**:

| Colour | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Orange | Invoice total is **lower** than the remaining open PO amount |
| Red | Invoice total is **higher** than the remaining open PO amount |
| Green | Invoice total **matches** the remaining open PO amount |

Hover the icon for the full tooltip.

## 6. Preview the purchase order from a payable

When the invoice is linked:

1. Click the **PO Number** label (underline on hover; not a separate blue chip).
2. The **Purchase order preview** opens over the invoice.
3. Review supplier, lines, totals, and **Linked invoices**.
4. Click **Open in workspace** (or **Open full**) to jump to **Payables → Purchase orders** for that order, or **Close** to stay on the invoice.

![Purchase order preview lightbox opened from the payable, showing linked invoice BC-0003](https://help.cortena.ai/assets/img/help/purchase-orders/02-purchase-order-preview-from-payable.png)

## 7. Linked invoices on the purchase order

On the PO detail (workspace or preview), the **Linked invoices** section lists each linked payable:

- Invoice number and date
- Line count (for example **1 line**)
- Gross amount
- Contribution hint (for example **−€4,840.00 toward order**) and **still open** balance

Click a card to open the invoice preview. Amounts use the same locale formatting as Payables.

Example: PO #1 ordered **€52,360.00**; after linking BC-0003 (**€4,840.00**), the summary shows **Invoiced €4,840.00**, **Open amount €47,520.00**, fulfillment **Partial**.

## 8. Exact Online: import purchase orders

Connect Exact first. See [Exact Online](https://help.cortena.ai/guides/integrations/exact-online). Then open **Settings → Integrations → Accounting → Exact Online**:

1. Enable **Import purchase orders from Exact**.
2. Optionally set **Order status filter** (default **Open + partial**), **Sync from create date**, and **Use Cortena purchase order workflow**.
3. Click **Sync purchase orders from Exact** (or wait for the scheduled Exact sync). Status: **Purchase order sync queued**.

Imported orders:

- Keep the Exact order number as the Cortena PO number
- Show the **Exact Online** badge
- Are treated as managed from Exact (edit rules still follow Cortena draft rules for Cortena-created drafts)

| **Use Cortena purchase order workflow** | After import |
| --- | --- |
| Off (default) | Order arrives as **Issued** (workflow skipped) |
| On | Order arrives as **Draft** and enters the Cortena PO workflow |
| Cancelled in Exact | **Cancelled** either way |

Exact App Center must allow purchase-order access. Reconnect OAuth after scope changes if sync fails.

## 9. Booking accounts from the purchase order

When a payable is stably linked to an Exact-imported PO, Cortena can apply the **accounting-system / purchase-order allocation** (Exact item-group COGS or purchase GL) onto booking accounts, similar to expense-tool dual matching.

On invoice detail you may see:

- **Purchase order / accounting system** value vs **Cortena matching**
- **!** markers and tooltips
- Banner: *Purchase order allocation from the accounting system differs from Cortena matching…*
- Actions to apply either value

Line mapping is deterministic (explicit line links → article/code match → shared GL for all lines). It does **not** invent line pairs from free-text descriptions alone. Unlinking the PO restores Cortena matching as the active row.

Re-sync Exact purchase orders if older imports are missing GL allocations on lines.

## 10. Exporting a PO-linked payable to Exact

When all of the following are true:

- Purchase orders feature enabled
- **Import purchase orders from Exact** enabled
- Invoice linked to an Exact-imported PO with Exact line references

…exporting the payable can create an Exact **purchase invoice linked to the PO lines** (quantity from the invoice; Exact keeps prices from the PO). If that path fails, Cortena falls back to a normal Exact purchase journal entry so the payable still exports.

After a successful export, Cortena refreshes the PO from Exact. In Exact you typically see **quantity invoiced** / open invoice quantities move.

**Important:** This path does **not** set Exact **quantity received**. Goods receipt remains separate. See **Soon** below.

## 11. Tips and limitations

- Put the supplier's order number in **PO Number** early so auto-link and Exact PO export can run.
- Only **Draft** Cortena POs are editable; Exact-imported **Issued** orders are primarily for matching and export.
- Fulfillment **Partial** / **Complete** is based on **linked invoices**, not warehouse receipt.
- Delivery notes / Lieferscheine can already appear as related documents (`delivery confirmation` attachment type) next to the invoice. That relationship stays; receipt export to Exact is planned next.
- Permissions and feature flag must both be on; Exact PO import needs a connected Exact division with purchase-order rights.

## Soon: export delivery confirmations to Exact (goods receipt)

Today, a PO-linked payable export updates Exact's **invoiced** side of the purchase order. **Quantity received** stays empty unless someone posts a goods receipt in Exact (or another system).

**Planned direction** (labeled **Soon**, not shipped yet):

1. Keep delivery confirmations as related documents (invoice + delivery note stay linked).
2. Add a workflow node **Export delivery confirmation to accounting**, in the same family as **Export to accounting**.
3. Exact as the first target when Exact is connected and purchase-order import is enabled. Other accounting systems can plug in later behind the same node.
4. Post Exact **goods receipts** against linked PO lines, update **quantity received**, and refresh the Cortena PO.
5. Keep invoice booking independent of goods receipt: payable export drives **invoiced** qty; the new node drives **received** qty.

Until this ships, maintain goods receipt in Exact when you need **Quantity received**, and use Cortena for order ↔ invoice matching and invoiced fulfillment.

## Quick reference

| Task | Where |
| --- | --- |
| Open PO workspace | **Payables → Purchase orders** |
| Create order | **New purchase order** |
| Link from invoice | Set / extract **PO Number** |
| Preview PO from invoice | Click **PO Number** → **Open in workspace** |
| See invoices on a PO | PO detail → **Linked invoices** |
| Import from Exact | **Settings → Integrations → Exact Online** → **Import purchase orders from Exact** → **Sync purchase orders from Exact** |
| Cortena workflow on import | **Use Cortena purchase order workflow** |
| Permissions | **View purchase orders** / **Create and edit purchase orders** |
| Exact payable guide | [Exact Online](https://help.cortena.ai/guides/integrations/exact-online) |
| Soon | Workflow node to export **delivery confirmations** as Exact goods receipts |