What is a purchase order in tspoonlab and how do you generate it?
A purchase order is the digital document that centralises the process of buying raw materials in tspoonlab. It gives traceability to your purchases, organises communication with each supplier and keeps costs under control before you receive the goods.
This article shows you how to generate an order in two ways: a single-supplier order, or an order organised by week or month with several suppliers grouped inside. You’ll also learn how to add items and quantities, and how to send the order to your supplier by email, WhatsApp or manual record.
💡 Tip: We recommend orders organised by week, to keep operations smoother and more organised in the system.
How do you generate a single-supplier order?
A single-supplier order is the quickest to create: you select a specific supplier from the start and the order is associated with that supplier only. Although it’s quicker to create, it’s also less organised, so we recommend placing orders organised by week.
Create a new order
Go to "Management" and click "Purchases".
Go to the three dots next to the search bar and select "New order" in the dropdown menu.
Fill in the order’s basic details
In the "New order" pop-up window, fill in the order’s "Name" field (by default it suggests a generic name such as "C0001"; we recommend entering the supplier’s name here).
Select the "Supplier" this order will be sent to.
Select the order’s "Date" and "Time".
Click "Ok" to save.
Add the supplier’s items by following the step-by-step guide further down.
How do you generate an order organised by week or month?
This is the method we recommend: you create a single order with the name of the week or month, and inside it you add all the suppliers you need, instead of creating a separate order for each one.
Create the weekly or monthly order
Go to "Management" and click "Purchases".
Go to the three dots next to the search bar and select "New order" in the dropdown menu.
In the "Name" field, enter the relevant week or month (for example, "Week 1 to 6 September").
Select the "Date" and "Time". Leave the "Supplier" field empty: you’ll fill it in later, supplier by supplier.
If you want this order to automatically receive the scanned delivery notes and the orders generated from other parts of the system (such as templates) during that period, tick the "Default order" box.
Click "Ok" to save. The week will appear in the vertical calendar with a green tick, which marks the default order.
💡 Tip: We recommend a fixed operating routine: on Monday morning or Sunday night, once all the week’s delivery notes are scanned, create the folder for the coming week and mark it as "Default order". That way, you repeat the same habit every week.
Add a supplier to the order
Inside the weekly or monthly order, you can add as many suppliers as you need, one by one.
Open the order from the list. You’ll see that it starts with "0 Purchases".
Click the three dots next to the order name, at the top right, and select "Add supplier to order".
Search for and select the supplier in the "Supplier" field.
Click "Select" and then "Ok" to add it to the order.
Repeat these steps with each supplier you want to include in that week’s or month’s order.
Each supplier will appear as its own line inside the order, with its status and total; you’ll also see the weekly total amount next to "Order total".
📢 Important: If a scanned delivery note or an automatically generated order ends up in the wrong weekly or monthly folder, use the order’s three-dot menu and select "Move to another order" to move it to the right folder.
How do you add a supplier’s items and quantities to an order?
Whether you created a single-supplier order by selecting the supplier or a weekly order with the "Add supplier to order" option, a window opens where you can select the items of the supplier you chose:
Add items in two ways:
Individual search: type or search for the item name in the "Item" field and add it.
Item list: click "Show as checklist", at the bottom of the window, to see all the items associated with the supplier and tick them one by one.
Enter the "Quantity" you want for each item, and use the "Comment" field to add specifications if you need them.
If you need to change the reception date, click "+data" and select the date in the header.
If you already have prices loaded on the Supplier Page (manually or with price lists) and want to bring them into the order lines, click "Update prices".
Once complete, click "Ok" to save that supplier’s items.
The order total updates automatically with the sum of all the suppliers you’ve added.
How do you send an order to the supplier?
Once the order is generated, whether single or by week/month, with one or several suppliers, you need to send it so it reaches each supplier.
Hover over the supplier’s grey line and click the three dots.
Select the sending channel:
"Send by email": sends the order to the email address set on the Supplier Page, with an editable preview of the message.
"Send by WhatsApp": opens WhatsApp Web or the mobile app with the supplier’s number and the order text ready to send.
"Send (manual record)": marks the order as Sent without sending it, if you placed it by phone or another channel.
"Copy purchase text": to share it through another channel.
Sending generates a downloadable document; to open it, click "Order" just below the supplier’s name, in the grey strip.
📢 Important: The order is automatically sent to the supplier without prices, on every channel.
How do you track an order sent by email?
Sending by email lets you track the order with the supplier. Click the brown down-arrow icon (next to the Sent status) to see the sending progress (delivery and opening of the email). You can refresh this information with the gear icon at the top.
If your workflow requires it, you can request approval for the order before sending it, to validate the costs first. Click the order’s three-dot menu, and then "Request approval".
📌 Note: To turn on Order approval, contact your account advisor.
How do you customise the default order message?
You can edit the default text used for orders sent by email or WhatsApp from the Cost Centre settings.
Go to the "Cost Centres" menu, at the top right of the screen.
Select "Edit" on the relevant Cost Centre.
In the "Purchases" section, edit the predefined message.
📌 Note: By default, sending by WhatsApp doesn’t attach the order’s PDF or XLSX, unlike email.
How do a single-supplier order and an order organised by week or month differ in the list?
In the side list, orders are grouped by month in a vertical calendar; that’s where you see the organisational difference between a single-supplier order and one organised by week or month.
If you don’t use the "Default order" folder, every delivery note you scan and every order you generate will appear as a separate line in the side list. If instead you organise your purchases with orders by week or month marked as "Default order", each week or month will appear in the vertical calendar, and all the orders and delivery notes for that period will be grouped inside that folder, instead of sitting loose in the list.
Status icons for an order or delivery note
Each order line and each week folder shows icons that indicate what point of the process they’re at.
Diagonal up arrow (orange): the order was generated in the system but hasn’t been sent to the supplier yet (Pending to be sent).
Diagonal down arrow (brown): the order was generated and has already been sent to the supplier (Sent).
Pause (blue): the delivery note was scanned, but hasn’t been received in the system yet.
Tick (green): the delivery note was received in the system; the ingredients have already entered the digital store.
Circle with "!" (red): there’s an associated incident (for example, a duplicate delivery note number, or an incident added manually, such as "the tomatoes didn’t arrive").
Tick (green) next to the weekly order: Default order.
📌 Note: Any icon next to an order or a week folder means there’s something pending. If all the week’s purchases have already been received (green tick), the folder will look clean, with no icon next to it.
📌 Note: When you scan a delivery note and the system doesn’t recognise the supplier, the line will appear as "Without supplier" with the Pending to be sent icon (orange arrow) and the delivery note attached to the order.
Still need help? Click the built-in Support Chat in the bottom-right corner of your screen and our team will get back to you.