Restaurant Purchase Order Management

A purchase order is a promise written down: two cases of tomatoes, 20 kg of beef shoulder, delivered Thursday before ten. Without one, the order lives in a phone call, the delivery is checked against someone's memory, and the invoice gets paid because nobody can prove it is wrong.

This guide explains how purchase orders work in Wox, who should do what, and how to run one consistent cycle for every vendor: draft, approval, sending, receiving, and reconciliation. For the product overview, see purchasing.

The life of an order

Every purchase order in Wox belongs to one vendor and one location. It moves through a small set of statuses: Draft, Awaiting approval, Sent, Accepted or Rejected by the supplier, In delivery, Delivered, and Cancelled. If a cart holds items from three suppliers, checking out creates three separate orders, one per vendor.

wox.ge

Wox

Purchase Orders

5 orders this week

+ New Order

All

Draft

Placed

Received

PO #VendorTotalStatus

PO-1042Sysco$2,847Placed

PO-1041US Foods$1,562Received

PO-1040Local Farm$486Draft

PO-1039Sysco$3,120Placed

PO-1038BakeMark$912Received

✦3 items below par — auto-reorder draft ready

Agree the roles first

• Buyer or manager: drafts the order and reviews quantities.
• Approver: confirms the spend and that the order is ready to go.
• Receiving lead: records delivered quantities, shortages, and credits at the door.

In a small cafe these can be one person on different days. What matters is that each step has a name next to it. Access for each role is set up as described in team roles and permissions.

Build the draft

Most orders start in a cart. You can add items by hand, reorder from a previous purchase order, or take replenishment suggestions based on par levels and current stock. Suggestions land in the cart for you to review; they never send themselves. Prices refresh while the order is still a cart, so the total you approve reflects the vendor's current prices.

1. 1Build the draft with the quantities, units, and delivery date you need, starting from a previous order or the par-level suggestions where that helps.
2. 2Add notes for substitutions, receiving access, or prep constraints, such as back gate before 10:00 or no substitute on sulguni.
3. 3Check each unit against the vendor's pack size, so 20 kg does not quietly become 20 cases.
4. 4Review the totals and approve the order before sending.

Approvals

Each location can have an approval rule: orders above a set amount need a decision from an approver role you choose. When someone sends an order over the threshold, it moves to Awaiting approval instead of going to the vendor. Budget limits are checked at the same moment.

1. 1Open the approvals inbox and select the pending order.
2. 2Check quantities and the total against the budget and the week's plan.
3. 3Approve the order to send it, or reject it with a note explaining what needs to change.

Send and track

An approved order goes to the vendor by email, SMS, or WhatsApp. The supplier receives a link where they can accept or reject the order and set the expected delivery date, without needing an account. Wox sends reminders for orders and deliveries that are still waiting.

1. 1Send the approved order through the channel the vendor prefers.
2. 2Monitor the vendor's acknowledgement: accepted, rejected, and the expected delivery date.
3. 3Update delays as soon as a vendor confirms a change, so the kitchen plans around the real date.

Receive what actually arrived

Receiving is where food cost is made or lost. Each line can be received in full, short, damaged, disputed, or returned. Received quantities go into stock through the same ledger that records sales, counts, and waste, so the item's movement history shows exactly which delivery added it. Receiving can be assigned to a person or assigned automatically.

1. 1Open the pending deliveries for your location and select the order.
2. 2Count each line at the door and record the actual quantities.
3. 3Mark shortages, damaged goods, and substitutions on the line they belong to.
4. 4Confirm the receipt so stock updates in the right storage area.

The purchase order is where food cost starts; receiving is where it is decided.

Reconcile and close

An order is not finished when the van leaves. Shortages need an answer from the vendor, and prices on the invoice or rs.ge waybill sometimes differ from the order. Close each order only when those differences are written down.

1. 1Compare the received order with the vendor's invoice or rs.ge waybill, line by line.
2. 2Reconcile pricing differences and record any credits the vendor agreed to.
3. 3Accept or dispute shortages with the vendor.
4. 4Close the order with a clear note on what changed and why.

Invoices can be scanned and imported so their prices land in Wox without typing, as described in invoice scanning and document processing. Persistent gaps between ordered and delivered prices are covered in price variance.

Standing orders

Some orders never change: bread every morning, mineral water every Monday. Order templates turn these into scheduled orders that Wox creates when they are due. You can pause a template over a holiday closure and resume it after, without rebuilding the order.

What good looks like

• Anyone on the team can see what was ordered, what arrived, and what changed.
• Credits and shortages are recorded with a named owner.
• Managers review order exceptions in the weekly operations meeting instead of chasing them by phone.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Sending drafts without a final check. A missing zero costs more than the minute it takes to review. Make the pre-send check part of the routine, and use the approval rule for larger orders.

Late delay updates. If the kitchen finds out about a late delivery at 11:00, the lunch menu pays for it. Log delivery changes as soon as the vendor confirms them.

Incomplete receiving records. Substitutions and credits remembered later are rarely remembered correctly. Capture them at the door, on the line they belong to.