Purchase order management is software that follows an importer's purchase orders line by line, from the day each order is placed with a supplier abroad until the goods are received in the importer's warehouse. A purchase order, or PO, is the document in which a buyer tells a supplier what it wants to buy, how many, at what price and by when. Each item on it is called a line. This software is often a part of freight forwarding software, and it is sold to both importers and forwarders.
Why follow each line, and not just each container? Because one container can carry parts of many orders, and one order can be split across many containers. An importer that tracks only containers cannot tell which of its orders are late or short.
Consider a furniture retail chain in Bengaluru that imports from a supplier in Vietnam. Its buyer raises a purchase order with three lines: 600 dining chairs, 150 tables and 400 bar stools, all due in Bengaluru by 15 March. The order is created in the chain's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which sends it to the purchase order software. There, the supplier confirms that the chairs and tables are ready, but only 250 bar stools. So the software records a short shipment of 150 stools against that line. The forwarder books the 600 chairs, 150 tables and 250 stools into two 40-foot containers bound for Chennai port. Each line now shows the containers that carry it, and each container shows its expected arrival date. The remaining 150 stools stay open on the order, and the software reminds the buyer to follow them up. When the containers reach the Bengaluru warehouse, the staff scan the boxes, and the software marks each line as received.
The importer gains three things. It sees early which orders are late or short, so its stores can plan their sales. It can ask the supplier to ship the most urgent lines first. And its accounts team pays the supplier only for what was shipped and received.
Every company raises purchase orders for its own buying. The difference here is the journey. This software follows a supplier's goods across a border and through customs clearance. It also links each line to its containers, which the importer can follow in supply chain visibility software.