➡️ PO Approval Flow
When enabled, any PO created by a manager must be approved by an admin or owner before it's sent to the supplier. When disabled, POs are sent directly without an approval step.
💡 This setting works together with PO Creation access.
If you've enabled PO creation for technicians, turning PO Approval Flow ON adds a review step before their POs go out — useful once you extend PO creation beyond admins/owners. See How to Enable PO Creation for Technicians for how the two settings interact.
➡️ Default PO View
Board view: Cards you can drag and drop between status columns
List view: A traditional table layout
➡️ Additional display & workflow settings
All of the following live on the same Purchasing Settings tab (Settings → Procurement → Purchasing → Purchasing Settings):
Setting | What it does |
Show PO products description | Includes material descriptions on the generated PO PDF only — doesn't affect the in-app view |
Hide Ply PO Number | Hides the PO number in both emails and generated PDFs sent to the supplier |
UPC instead of item number | Displays the UPC for the supplier instead of the item number on the PO |
Lock business cost from PO reconciliation | When enabled, reconciling a PO no longer overwrites an item's business cost in the catalog — business costs can then only be changed manually. See Purchase Setting: Lock Business Cost from PO Reconciliation for when to use this. |
Auto-update PO from supplier email reply | When a supplier replies to a PO email with a PDF attachment, Ply reads it and automatically applies the changes to that PO. Turn this off if you'd rather review supplier replies and update POs manually instead. This is the setting behind the workflow described in How Purchase Order Updates from Suppliers Work in Ply. |
Include zero-quantity items in replenishment list | When enabled, materials with a quantity of 0 and a minimum amount of 0 will still be included in the Replenishment List |
➡️ PO Number Formats
Configure custom purchase order number formats for different departments (e.g., Install, Service), with format name, prefix, separator, starting number, increment value, and suffix.
If you configure multiple formats, you'll be prompted to choose one each time you create a PO. Use the search bar (by name, prefix, or suffix) to find a specific format once you have several set up.
➡️Related settings elsewhere in Procurement
A few other settings live in nearby tabs rather than Purchasing Settings specifically:
Smart Suppliers, Smart Min/Max, and Cost Layers each have their own top-level tab next to Purchasing.
Price Locking Settings, Landed Cost Settings, and Margin Monitoring are separate sub-tabs alongside Purchasing Settings.
PO Creation access per technician (Settings → Company & Billing → Team): controls who besides admins/owners can create a PO in the first place. See How to Enable PO Creation for Technicians.
➡️ Best practices
✅ Turn on PO Approval Flow before extending PO Creation to technicians, not after. It's easier to start with review required and loosen it later than to discover unreviewed POs went out to suppliers before you intended.
✅ Decide on your PO number format early and stick with it.
Changing prefixes or numbering conventions later can make historical POs harder to reference at a glance alongside new ones.
✅ If your business uses negotiated or contract pricing, turn on Lock Business Cost.
It sits right alongside the other display toggles on this same tab, so it's easy to overlook if you're only skimming for the settings mentioned by name elsewhere.
✅ Decide deliberately whether you want Auto-update PO from supplier email reply on or off.
Leaving it on means supplier PDF replies apply automatically — convenient, but worth pairing with the "link new items before approving" habit described in How Purchase Order Updates from Suppliers Work in Ply so you don't end up with duplicate catalog items.
➡️ Common issues & fixes
"I turned on PO Approval Flow, but a technician's PO still went out without review." Double-check whether that technician has PO Creation enabled at all, and confirm PO Approval Flow is saved as ON — also note that only POs created going forward are affected; anything already sent before the setting changed won't be retroactively affected.
"I'm looking for a setting to stop PO reconciliation from changing my catalog costs." That's the "Lock business cost from PO reconciliation" toggle — it's on this same Purchasing Settings tab, right below UPC instead of item number. See Purchase Setting: Lock Business Cost from PO Reconciliation for what it does and when to use it.
"A supplier's emailed price update didn't get applied to the PO automatically." Check whether "Auto-update PO from supplier email reply" is turned on. If it's off, supplier replies won't be read and applied automatically — you'll need to review and update the PO manually instead. If it's on and an update still didn't apply, see How Purchase Order Updates from Suppliers Work in Ply for the PDF-only and reply-not-forward requirements this depends on.
"I changed my PO number format, and now new POs look inconsistent with old ones."
That's expected; changing the format only affects POs created after the change. Older POs keep the numbering they were created with.
➡️FAQs
Can I have more than one PO number format active at once?
Yes; if you configure multiple formats, you'll be asked to pick one each time you create a PO.
Does Hide PO Numbers affect anything besides what the supplier sees?
No; it only affects the supplier-facing PO; your internal view still shows the PO number as usual.
Who can change these Procurement settings?
Typically Admin or Owner role; if you can't find these settings, check with an account admin about your permission level.
Still need help? Contact Support!