---
title: "About Purchase Orders"
slug: "about-purchase-orders"
updated: 2026-07-23T11:04:33Z
published: 2026-08-10T20:23:40Z
canonical: "help.idibilling.com/about-purchase-orders"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.idibilling.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# About Purchase Orders

Purchase orders let you order inventory from a distributor. A purchase order is created as a result of an inventory request and is approved according to the approval plan for that location.

#### Overview

For an overview see [Basic Purchase Order Work Flow](/v1/docs/basic-purchase-order-work-flow).

#### Inventory Approval Plans

Before purchase orders can be sent to a distributor, you must set up an approval plan. See [Inventory Approval Plan](/v1/docs/inventory-approval-plan).

#### Purchase Order Approval Alerts

If your Inventory Approval Plan is configured to require approval for purchase orders, when the user currently logged into IDI Desktop Client is a designated approver and has open purchase orders pending approval, an alert icon, labeled with a red **P** will flash in the lower right corner of the IDI Desktop Client form.

![UG template for Help](https://cdn.us.document360.io/3f7f8ade-bcb1-4ec8-af25-0c0ad8601afb/Images/Documentation/36399(1).gif?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-14T11%3A08%3A33Z&se=2026-11-14T12%3A08%3A33Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=yPB21bsxH6e23wnpJ2s837f563O212e7lco2mkLdLLo%3D)

Double-clicking the icon opens the Pending Inventory Purchase Order form listing the purchase orders pending approval. From this form you can edit the purchase order for approval by right-clicking the corresponding row and selecting **Edit**.

#### Accessing and Managing Existing Purchase Orders

You may have purchase orders in several different states of completion. When you need to access an existing purchase order for editing or some other transaction management function, the IDI solution provides two methods for searching your system. See [Finding Existing Purchase Orders](/v1/docs/finding-existing-purchase-orders).

#### How to Create a Purchase Order

When requesting additional items for inventory, you can create a new purchase order or you can add the items to an existing, open purchase order. For details on creating purchase orders see:

[Creating a New Purchase Order](/v1/docs/creating-a-new-purchase-order)

Adding Items to an Existing Purchase Order