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.
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
- In the left navigation, open Payables.
- Under Payables, select Purchase orders.
- Use tabs All | Draft | Approved | Issued | Cancelled.
- 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).
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
- Click New purchase order.
- Choose a Supplier (search, or Add supplier).
- Fill Description, Your reference, Order date, Receipt date, Currency, optional Cost center, Purchase agent, Note.
- Add Line items (description, qty, unit, unit price, VAT %, amount). Optionally Use lines from invoice… to copy lines from a prior payable.
- 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).
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:
- Click the PO Number label (underline on hover; not a separate blue chip).
- The Purchase order preview opens over the invoice.
- Review supplier, lines, totals, and Linked invoices.
- Click Open in workspace (or Open full) to jump to Payables → Purchase orders for that order, or Close to stay on the invoice.
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. Then open Settings → Integrations → Accounting → Exact Online:
- Enable Import purchase orders from Exact.
- Optionally set Order status filter (default Open + partial), Sync from create date, and Use Cortena purchase order workflow.
- 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 confirmationattachment 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):
- Keep delivery confirmations as related documents (invoice + delivery note stay linked).
- Add a workflow node Export delivery confirmation to accounting, in the same family as Export to accounting.
- 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.
- Post Exact goods receipts against linked PO lines, update quantity received, and refresh the Cortena PO.
- 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 |
| Soon | Workflow node to export delivery confirmations as Exact goods receipts |