Purchase orders (POs) record committed purchases with vendors before bills are received. POs are managed under **Spend management → Purchase orders**.
Last updated Jul 22, 2026 · 4 min read
Navigate via Spend management → Purchase orders.
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
IN_DRAFT | Editable draft |
APPROVED_ACCOUNTING_ENTRY_PENDING | Approved; finalising accounting entry |
OPEN | Active and available for matching against bills |
CLOSE_PENDING | Close in progress |
CLOSED | Closed (no further matching) |
CANCEL_PENDING | Cancel in progress |
CANCELLED | Cancelled |
RESET_PENDING | Being reset to a prior state |
Navigate to Purchase Orders
Click + Create purchase order
Enter PO details:
Click Next to add line items
The PO number is assigned automatically from your company's PO number sequence when the PO is approved — you don't enter it manually.
Click Add Line Item
Enter:
Light calculates line total
Click Add
Repeat for additional items
POs progress through the states listed above:
When viewing a PO, the status badge in the header shows the current state.
State changes happen through specific actions rather than a free-form status picker: approve a draft to open it, and close, cancel, or reset an open PO. Once a PO leaves draft it is locked for editing.
When a PO is approved and syncs to your ERP (moving to APPROVED/OPEN state), Light automatically emails the vendor with the PO PDF attached. The email includes the PO number, issue date, delivery date, and description, plus your contact email for questions.
Note: this only happens if the vendor has an email address on file. If your vendor is missing an email, add it in the vendor record before approving the PO.
Light does not route individual POs through their own approval chain. Pre-purchase approval is handled upstream by purchase requests: a requester files a purchase request, it is routed to the configured approvers, and an approved request with a purchase order outcome results in a PO.
Configure the routing in Settings → Workflows under the purchase request approval workflow. Routing can branch on amount, entity, requester, vendor (including whether the vendor is new), outcome type, and custom properties.
Light matches bills (vendor invoices) directly to POs by amount — there is no separate goods-receipt step:
Notes:
When a PO is open or closed, the matched invoices table shows which bills have been linked to the PO, the matched amount, and the remaining unmatched amount.
When viewing a PO, use the Show document / Hide document toggle button to display or hide the PDF preview. This helps focus on the PO details or review the formatted document as needed.
Approved and open POs are locked for editing. To modify one:
The PO's activity log keeps a record of updates, state changes, and bill matches for audit purposes.
To cancel a PO:
Draft POs are cancelled immediately; open POs pass through CANCEL_PENDING while the cancellation syncs. Cancelled POs remain in the system for historical reference. If goods were already received, you're still liable for payment.
Once approved, the PO transitions through APPROVED_ACCOUNTING_ENTRY_PENDING to OPEN and is available for matching.
When entering a bill, you can link it to a PO by setting the PO number on the bill. Light then tracks the matched amount and the remaining unmatched amount on the PO.
When all bills against a PO have been received (or the PO is no longer needed), close it from the PO detail view. It transitions through CLOSE_PENDING to CLOSED.
Purchase requests are a separate, upstream document used to request approval to buy. PRs are filed from the page under Spend management → Purchase orders. An approved request's outcome can be a purchase order or a vendor card; a purchase order outcome creates the PO on approval. PRs are an optional workflow — companies that don't need a request layer can use POs directly.
Was this article helpful?
