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Purchase Order: Place an order to your supplier

Create purchase orders for your upstream suppliers from a sales order, one by one or in bulk.

How to place Purchase Orders to your supplier(s)?

Method 1: Via a Sales Order

  1. Go to Traceability → Orders → Sales Orders and click the View icon in the Actions column to open a sales order.

  2. Open the ‘Tracing’ tab, click ‘+’ on the company box where you want to add an order, and choose Add order.

  3. Fill in the information on the 'Supplier & Buyer' step. Choose your facility process and your upstream supplier with their facility process. If the goods go to another company than you, untick Same as buyer and choose the receiver. Click Continue to order details.

    If you were unable to locate your upstream supplier, use 'Connect a company' at the bottom of the supplier list. Retraced shows whether the supplier has active users who will be notified.

  4. Fill in the ‘Order Details’ step. Add a PO number, then add styles under Order products (you can also create a new style here if you haven’t added it to your style table yet). Optionally set the Order Type, Order Date, Agreed Delivery Date and Custom Tag. Then add the ordered quantity with + Assign. Tick “I have read and agree to proceed creating this order” and click Continue to documents.

  5. The last step is ‘Documents’. The attachment template is taken over from your buyer’s sales order automatically. You can upload documents now with Add files (or Bulk Upload), or upload them later after the order is created. Click Create Order, and your upstream supplier will be notified about the new order by email.

Method 2: Through the Purchase Orders tab

You can place orders directly with your upstream suppliers by creating purchase orders either one-by-one or in bulk.

⚠️ Important: Here you need to choose the attachment template yourself. Always choose the same template as your buyer’s sales order; otherwise, the purchase order cannot be linked to the sales order.

One-by-one

Go to Traceability → Orders → Purchase Orders, click Add New and follow steps 3 to 5 above. In the ‘Documents’ step, untick Use main tracing preferences and select the same template as your buyer’s sales order.

In Bulk

  1. Under the "Purchase Orders" tab, click "Import."

  2. Click Download template and fill in the (mandatory) data fields in the “Purchase Order Upload” sheet for the purchase orders you want to create. In the Tracing Template column, enter the same template as your buyer’s sales order.

  3. Upload: Upload the completed Excel or CSV file (up to 5000 rows) by either dragging it into the designated field or clicking "Choose file", then click "Continue."

  4. Map columns: Check if the importer has correctly matched your columns with those in Retraced. If not, manually match them by selecting the appropriate links yourself. Additionally, note that mandatory columns are listed at the bottom and will appear green when matched correctly. Finally, proceed by clicking "Next."

    Required columns are PO Number, Buying Company Facility Process ID, Supplier Company ID, Facility Process ID, Tracing Template, Product Code and Product Quantity. Values such as the supplier's facility process or the tracing template are matched to your Retraced data; pick the right one where a value is not matched.

  5. Review: The importer checks for any potential errors in your Excel file and highlights them during this step. If errors are found, correct them. The import can only be completed once these errors are resolved. To finalize, click "Import N rows" (N is the number of rows).

    The new orders appear at the top of the Purchase Orders tab, and your upstream suppliers are notified.

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