Recurring Purchase Orders

What are recurring purchase orders?

Recurring purchase orders let you set up a schedule that automatically generates a draft purchase order at a regular interval — weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. Each generated order is a standard purchase order in your account, linked to the schedule that created it.

Benefits

• Remove the manual step of recreating the same purchase order each period
• Keep committed cost visibility accurate without relying on someone to raise orders at the right time
• Use date variables so references and notes update automatically on each generated order
• Optionally, email generated orders directly to your supplier with no manual step

Where to find it

• Sidebar: Select Recurring POs from the main navigation
• From an existing PO: Open the purchase order and click Make recurring to pre-fill a new schedule from that order
• From the PO list: Use the ⋯ menu in the toolbar and select Recurring schedules

How to create a recurring purchase order

1. Go to Recurring POs in the sidebar.
2. Click New recurring PO.
3. Select a Supplier (required). Choose a project and currency if needed.
4. Add a Reference, Notes, and Terms if required. You can use date variables in these fields — see Date variables below.
5. Add line items manually, or click Add from catalogue to use items from your product catalogue.
6. Set the Schedule: choose a frequency (weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually), a start date, and an end condition (never, after a set number of orders, or on a specific date).
7. Choose whether to enable Automatically email supplier — see Auto-send below.
8. Click Save.

Date variables

The Reference, Notes, and Terms fields support date variables. These are replaced automatically with the correct value when each order is generated.

Variable	Example output (order date: 1 July 2026)
[order_date]	2026-07-01
[month_year]	July 2026
[next_month_year]	August 2026
[month_name]	July
[quarter]	Q3 2026
[year]	2026

Click See examples next to the Reference field to see how each variable resolves based on your schedule's start date.

Unknown variables (for example, a typo such as [Month_Year]) are left as-is in the generated order.

Auto-send: automatically emailing your supplier

Each schedule has an Automatically email supplier option, which is off by default.

With auto-send off (default): each generated order is created as a draft. You review and send it using the normal purchase order Send flow.

With auto-send on: each generated order is emailed to the supplier contact's address and marked as sent automatically. The PDF is attached, and your company's PO email template is used — the same email that goes out when you send a PO manually.

Before turning auto-send on:

• The form shows a Will be sent to: ... hint when you select a supplier contact. Confirm the email address is correct.
• If the contact has no email address on file, you will see a warning. In that case, generated orders will be left as drafts even if auto-send is on.
• Only use auto-send for orders you are confident can go out without review. For anything that varies from period to period, leave auto-send off.

Managing a schedule

Schedule states

State	What it means
Active	Orders are generated automatically on schedule
Paused	Generation is skipped until you resume the schedule
Finished	The end condition has been reached; no further orders will be generated

You can pause or resume a schedule at any time from its detail page.

Generate now

Generate now creates an immediate draft from the schedule's template without affecting the schedule's next run date or counting towards the end condition. Use this when you need an ad-hoc order outside the usual cadence.

Editing a schedule

You can edit a schedule's name, line items, frequency, end condition, and auto-send setting at any time. Changes take effect from the next generated order onwards — previously generated orders are not affected.

Deleting a schedule

Deleting a schedule removes the schedule and its settings. Previously generated orders are kept in your purchase order list and are not deleted.

Viewing generated orders

Open any schedule and scroll to Generated orders to see all purchase orders the schedule has created, along with their dates and current status.

End conditions

End condition	Behaviour
Never	The schedule runs indefinitely until paused or deleted
After N orders	The schedule stops automatically after generating the specified number of orders
On a date	The schedule stops after generating the last order due on or before the specified date

Who can use recurring purchase orders

Recurring purchase orders are available to all users with an Employee role or above. Access follows the same rules as standard purchase orders.

Troubleshooting

My schedule is Active but no order was generated today. Orders are generated once daily at 06:00 UTC. If the schedule's next run date hasn't been reached yet, no order will be created. Check the schedule's Next order date on its detail page.

The generated order has the wrong date in the reference. Verify that the date variable you used is spelled correctly and matches one of the supported tokens listed in Date variables. The reference field's See examples popover shows you exactly how each token resolves.

Auto-send is on but orders are being left as drafts. Check that the supplier contact has a valid email address in your contacts. If the address is missing, auto-send skips sending and leaves the order as a draft. Add the email address to the contact and re-send manually.

I deleted a schedule — where are the generated orders? Deleting a schedule keeps all previously generated purchase orders. They remain in your purchase order list and are not removed.

I clicked Generate now but it didn't advance the schedule. This is expected. Generate now creates an ad-hoc draft without affecting the schedule's next run date or end condition count.

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