Vendor orders (purchase & work orders)
Send a purchase order or work order to a vendor, get it accepted, and lock in the committed cost against your budget.
A vendor order is your commitment to a vendor — a Purchase Order for materials or a Work Order for a sub's labor. It's a Record, so it lives with everything else you send. When the vendor accepts it, its total becomes committed cost on your Budget.
Create a vendor order
- Open the project and go to its Records tab.
- Click Create Record.
- Under the Vendor Agreements heading, pick the order type you want — a Purchase Order ("Send a purchase order to a vendor") or a Work Order.
- The order opens in the builder with a number like VA-0001.
Note
Fill out the order
- Pick the vendor the order is going to.
- Set the Order Date and an Expected By date.
- Add line items. To pull straight from the budget, use the budget item picker so each line keeps its cost code and stays linked to the budget line it commits against.
- Set a Tax % if it applies — the Subtotal, tax, and Total calculate as you go.
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Send it to the vendor
- In the right-hand panel, add or confirm the vendor under the recipients list.
- To require a signature, turn on the Signature? toggle for that recipient.
- Click Send to Vendor.
The vendor gets an email with a link to review the order. The status moves from Draft to Sent, then Viewed once they open it.
Acceptance commits the cost
When the vendor opens the link they click Accept Order (or sign, if you required a signature). The order's status becomes Accepted and its total is written to the Committed column on your Budget against each linked budget line.
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Mark it fulfilled
Once the materials arrive or the work is done, open the accepted order and click Mark Fulfilled. This is an operational milestone for your records — it does not change the committed cost.
Turn it into a bill
When the vendor invoices you for an accepted order, you can carry its line items and budget links straight onto a new vendor bill instead of retyping them. See Vendor bills & the cost inbox for what happens next.
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