Purchase Order › PO on WhatsApp

Sending a purchase order on WhatsApp or email

Most small businesses now place orders on WhatsApp. A PDF purchase order in the chat is much better than a typed message: it has a number, clear rates and terms, and nobody can say later that the order was different.

Steps on a phone

1. Make the order in the maker and press Save.
2. Press Share. Your phone's share sheet opens with the PDF attached.
3. Pick WhatsApp and the supplier's chat (or email, or any other app).
4. Add one line: "Please confirm PO/26-27/014 with your delivery date."

On a computer, Share downloads the PDF. Attach it in WhatsApp Web or your email. Print / PDF prints it or saves it as a PDF through the print screen.

Get it accepted

An order the supplier has accepted is far easier to rely on. Ask for a reply in the same chat: "Confirmed, will dispatch by 12 Nov." Keep that chat. If the supplier changes the rate or date in their reply, that is a counter-offer: make a revised PO rather than leaving the difference unsaid.

Revising or cancelling

• Changes before dispatch: open the PO from Saved purchase orders, make a copy, change the lines, save it under a new number and write in Notes "Replaces PO/26-27/014". Set the old one to Cancelled.
• Cancelling: send a short message with the PO number and the reason, then set the status to Cancelled.
• Never edit an order the supplier already accepted without telling them; send the revised PDF.

Keeping records

Your accountant or auditor may ask how a purchase was approved. A numbered purchase order, the supplier's reply and their invoice together show it. In the maker, every PO is kept in this browser with its status, and the list in Saved purchase orders shows what is still open.

A short example

A builder in Pune needs 200 bags of cement at a site in Hinjewadi by Friday. Instead of a voice note, they make PO/26-27/031: 200 Bags at ₹380 = ₹76,000, CGST 9% ₹6,840 + SGST 9% ₹6,840, total ₹89,680, with the site address and the site engineer's phone in Deliver to. The dealer replies "OK, Thursday". On Thursday 180 bags arrive. The engineer opens the saved PO on the phone, counts, writes "180 received, 20 pending" in Notes and saves. When the bill comes, it is checked against the order, not against memory. (Check the current GST rate for your goods; rates are changed from time to time.)

Tips

• Send the PO to the person who will pack the goods, not only to the owner.
• For goods going to a site, put a contact phone in the Deliver to address.
• Your supplier, customers and items are shared with the other Nivesh Sahayak tools, such as the invoice maker, so you type them only once.

Also read: purchase order format and terms and conditions.