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Overview

A purchase order (PO) is what you send a supplier to buy stock. In Alius, one PO has:
  • one supplier;
  • one destination — the location the goods go to;
  • a list of variants, each with a quantity and a unit cost.
Stock tells you what to reorder. A PO is how you act on it. The whole loop can run from chat: add to a PO from an alert, get told when it arrives, and receive it with one tap. Open Purchase orders in the app menu. POs are numbered per shop, from PO-1001 upward.

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Life of a purchase order

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Creating a PO

There are three ways to start one.
Click Create purchase order, then pick a Supplier and a Destination.
  • Search products to add — pick variants. Each quantity starts at the Stock page’s suggested reorder quantity (or 1).
  • Add supplier’s products — adds every variant this supplier serves at the destination, from its Suppliers rows.
A line the chosen supplier doesn’t normally serve gets a Usually from … badge, so you notice before sending.
Untracked variants (inventory not tracked in Shopify) can’t go on a PO. Alius leaves them out and tells you which ones.

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Costs

A line with no unit cost counts as “unknown”, not zero — the Cost summary then says the total is incomplete. Alius does no currency conversion.

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Purchase order details

Your reference, Note to supplier, Internal note (never shown to the supplier), Expected arrival, Ship date, Cancel date, Payment terms, Supplier currency and Tags.

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Sending

Save the draft, then click Send to supplier. A PO needs a supplier, a destination and at least one line. When you send:
  1. The supplier gets an email with the order and a View and confirm order button. Replies go to your shop’s email.
  2. Shopify shows the units as incoming at the destination.
  3. The Stock page shows them in On order, and reorder alerts stop for variants the PO fully covers.
After sending, the supplier, destination, currency, costs and lines are locked — the supplier already has them. Notes, dates, payment terms and tags stay editable.

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The supplier’s page

The link in the email opens a simple page for your supplier — no login needed, works on a phone. There the supplier can:
  • Confirm order or Decline order;
  • set a Ship date and Arrival date;
  • add a Tracking number and Tracking link, then Mark as shipped;
  • propose line changes — “I can send 8, not 10”, or a new unit cost;
  • leave a note for you;
  • Export to PDF.
The supplier can never receive or cancel your PO — those stay yours. Every answer shows up in Supplier feedback on the PO page and as a message on your Stock alert hubs.

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Proposed changes

A proposal waits for you. Accept change or Reject change — on the PO page, or with the buttons on the chat message.
  • Accept updates the PO’s lines and moves Shopify’s incoming units to match.
  • Reject keeps the PO as it was.
  • Either way, the supplier gets an email with your answer.
The Supplier card on a sent PO has Copy supplier link and Preview as supplier. If a link was shared with the wrong person, click Reset link: every old link stops working. Choose Reset and email supplier to send the new link, or Reset only.

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Receiving

When the goods arrive, open the PO. The Receive card lists Ordered, Received and Left for each line.
  • Receive all — takes everything that is left.
  • Receive now — type the quantity for each line, then click Receive. Use this for a partial delivery.
Received units move from incoming to available in Shopify at the destination. Each delivery is saved under Receipts. Alius never receives more than was ordered, and the same delivery is never counted twice.
If Shopify doesn’t answer in time, the page shows A receipt is waiting for Shopify to confirm with a Retry button. Retrying is always safe.

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Cancelling

Click Cancel order on an ordered or partly received PO. Units still to come are removed from incoming in Shopify; units already received stay. The supplier gets a “Cancelled” email listing what was still to ship.

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Chat messages

POs post to the same hubs you chose on the Stock Alerts page: Received all asks you to confirm first. Tapping it on two hubs never receives the units twice.
Move the expected arrival date and you get a new “arrives today” reminder for the new date.

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Plans

Creating, editing and sending POs needs Pro or Max. A PO is open while it is a draft, ordered, or partially received. Received and cancelled POs don’t count, so your order history has no limit. At the limit you can still edit, send, receive and cancel the POs you have — you just can’t create a new one until you receive or cancel one. This also applies to Add to PO from a chat message when it would start a new draft; adding to a draft you already have always works. Moving from Max to Pro never touches your POs. If you have more than 10 open, they all keep working. If you downgrade to Free, POs you already sent keep working: you can still open, receive and cancel them, answer supplier changes, and get the “arrives today” reminder. The goods arrive either way. See Pricing.