Shopify has native purchase orders: in Shopify admin, go to Products → Purchase orders, click create, pick or add a supplier, add products with quantities and costs, and save. After supplier confirmation, mark it Ordered and create an inventory transfer from the purchase order to receive it — partially or in full, from admin or Shopify POS, including by barcode scan. Received inventory becomes available at the destination location automatically.
Two things to know before you build your ordering process on it. First, Shopify can't send the PO: official docs are explicit that you can't email a purchase order from Shopify admin — you download a PDF and send it yourself. Second, if you're reading this because of Stocky: Stocky was delisted from the App Store on February 2, 2026 and stopped operating on August 31, 2026, and the native PO system is Shopify's official migration path.
Here's the full workflow, step by step, and an honest map of where it ends.
Before you start
Set up the supplier and receiving location, and enable inventory tracking for the products you will order. Choose who owns receiving so one delivery is recorded once. Shopify's current setup requirements cover these prerequisites.
Quick answer: creating a purchase order in Shopify
- In Shopify admin, go to Products → Purchase orders and create a new purchase order
- Select a supplier, or click Create new supplier and enter their details — check the supplier contact details; currency and payment terms are recorded on the purchase order
- Select a destination location (you can save a draft without one, but you'll need it before marking the PO as ordered)
- Add products — search and browse, import a CSV of line items, or scan barcodes. Only products that already exist in your store can be added
- Per line, set quantity, supplier SKU, cost, and tax — if you've ordered from this supplier before, SKU, cost, and tax auto-fill from your previous POs
- Optionally add a reference number, supplier note, tags, payment terms, and supplier currency (the cost summary converts to your store currency)
- Save as draft, review, then mark it Ordered after the supplier confirms the order
To send the order, open the PO and choose More actions → Export PDF, then send it to your supplier. You can edit an Ordered PO, but cannot return it to Draft. Keep the supplier informed of any accepted revision and check the linked transfer separately.
Receiving: purchase orders create transfers
Since June 2026, purchase orders and inventory transfers are connected: the PO records what you ordered and at what cost; the transfer records the movement of goods. When your PO is marked Ordered:
- Create the transfer from the Ordered PO, select the destination and save. The supplier and line items prefill
- Process the saved transfer to prepare it for receiving; Shopify creates a shipment. Add separate shipments when needed
- When stock arrives, go to Products → Transfers, open the linked transfer and choose Receive items. Enter the actual quantities and select Accept, Reject or Cancel, then save
- Partial receiving is supported. Accepted stock becomes available at the destination; rejected stock does not. Cancel quantities that never shipped. Outstanding quantities keep the transfer In progress
- Record shipment-level freight, duties or fees as cost adjustments when needed; these are separate from the PO's agreed product cost
One important accounting caveat, straight from Shopify's docs: each variant has a single static Cost per item field, and it does not change when you receive a purchase order. Shopify directs merchants needing weighted-average costing or automatic landed-cost allocation to a third-party costing application. Confirm which system maintains the product cost in your setup. (Why that matters: weighted average cost, landed cost.)
What about knowing when and how much to order?
Shopify provides inventory reports, Flow-based alerts and Sidekick assistance for buying decisions. Review those options before assuming you need a separate planning application. Check how your process represents lead times, supplier minimums, case packs and outstanding orders; those details affect whether a suggested quantity is usable.
For a worked explanation of the buying threshold, see reorder points. For a complete supplier workflow, evaluate Shopify purchase order software from LineNow using the same items and supplier constraints.
If you are migrating from Stocky
Stocky is discontinued. Preserve available records, reconcile open supplier commitments and decide which system records receiving before introducing replacement orders. The Stocky migration guide covers that transition and links to Shopify’s current access rules.
Where the native workflow ends
Look at the loop Shopify gives you: draft PO → PDF → your email → wait → transfer → receive. The team still needs a process for supplier changes. Without that process:
- The supplier confirms 10 of 12 lines, substitutes one SKU, and moves the ETA a week. The buyer needs to update the relevant order and receiving records after accepting the change.
- The receiving team may work from an outdated order, even though the buyer already knows about a short shipment or changed price.
- The bookkeeper may be working from the original PO unless the accepted change is recorded and available.
Shopify documents that a linked PO and transfer operate independently after creation: changes to one do not automatically update the other. Native purchase orders and transfers support the commercial and physical records. Supplier coordination is the work of keeping those records aligned with a changed commitment. LineNow’s Shopify purchasing workflow connects supplier-ready orders to reviewable email updates, partial receipts and accounting context. The buyer checks the change; the receiving team records what arrived. Supported item and location mappings are required, and the team should avoid recording the same receipt twice.
For more on that operating boundary, read the Shopify procurement layer guide. If stock has not changed after receiving, use the six inventory-update checks.
For retailers buying cases or supplier-specific variants that do not belong in the sellable Shopify catalog, procurement item mapping keeps the supplier SKU, pack, MOQ, and cost in the buying layer while connecting it to the Shopify products it stocks.
When choosing the replacement workflow, run the native flow for a low-stakes supplier first. Native POs plus a reliable supplier-confirmation process may be all you need. Evaluate an additional layer when the team repeatedly loses accepted changes between purchasing, receiving and accounting.
Evaluating LineNow? Use the Shopify connection guide and partial-receiving instructions to check the setup behind the workflow. Confirm the product and location mappings before testing a delivery.
Sources checked
The purchase-order creation, receiving and Stocky-transition documentation was rechecked October 12, 2026. The additional changelog, blog and Flow references below were originally reviewed September 4, 2026.
- Shopify Help: Purchase orders
- Shopify Help: Creating and managing purchase orders
- Shopify Help: Creating transfers from purchase orders
- Shopify Help: Migrating from Stocky to Shopify inventory management
- Shopify changelog: Purchase orders now create transfers to move inventory
- Shopify blog: Enhanced inventory management (June 2026)
- Shopify Help: Shopify Flow — product variant inventory quantity changed