The Details card on a purchase order holds its dates, references and notes, and the PO number can be your own. This article covers each field, how dates are typed, and how to set the numbering format for the store.
Dates and references
One collapsible Details card holds the rest:
Expected arrival (the date your team sees on the PO list) and Payment due. If the supplier's Payment terms spell out a day count - like Net 30, 30 days, or due on receipt - an empty Payment due fills in by itself as soon as you pick the supplier. Your own date always wins: type one or clear the field and Stockroom leaves it alone. There is no Order date field here: the order date is set the day you click Mark as ordered - see Creating and Sending Purchase Orders.
Customer order number and Supplier order number. Customer order number is the customer order or job you are buying for. Supplier order number is your supplier's own number for the order - the one on their confirmation - and it shows when you receive, so several open orders with the same supplier are easy to tell apart. Both are searchable from the PO list, both stay editable after the order is placed (the supplier's number usually arrives later), and both can be added as columns to a CSV export profile. Neither prints on your supplier's copy unless you switch it on - see Customize the purchase order PDF.
Reference, PO number, and Notes. Anything you put here is searchable from the PO list later. Type your own number into PO number while you're creating the order and that becomes the order's number - handy when the supplier's numbering is the one your team knows, or when you're mirroring a purchase order that already exists somewhere else, like QuickBooks. Entering an older number doesn't disturb the sequence: numbering carries on from your highest number, so with PO-1108 already in place, a mirror entered as PO-1100 still leaves PO-1109 next. A number already used on another order is refused. On an order that's already saved, the same field works as a display override instead: your number shows in place of the generated one on the list, the PDF, emails, exports, labels, and QuickBooks, while the generated number stays visible under the title, stays searchable, and the automatic sequence keeps counting from it.
Date fields take dates the way you type them: 08/28/2026, 8/28, 0828, and 20260828 all work, and a date without a year assumes the current year. Press T for today, and the up and down arrow keys move the date a day at a time.
Your own numbering
Want different numbering? Settings > Purchase order numbering holds a Format, a starting number, and zero-padding. Put {number} where the counter goes, and add {YYYY}, {YY}, {MM} or {DD} to build the date into it:
PO-{number} gives PO-1001, the default.
PO-{YYYY}-{MM}-{number} gives PO-2026-07-1001.
{YY}{MM}{DD}-{number} gives 260731-1001.
The page shows the exact next number as you type, and dates follow your store's timezone. Start counting from is the first number issued: set it to 1250 and your next purchase order is PO-1250. A number that has already been used is never reissued - the sequence continues from whichever is higher. One thing to know before you date a number: the counter starts over each period, so July might end at 1005 and August start again at 1001.
Good to know
The order date is the day you click Mark as ordered; to change it afterwards use More actions then Edit order date - see Creating and Sending Purchase Orders.
Payment due and payment status are covered in Track payments on purchase orders.