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Working with purchase orders

When your crew installs and you buy the materials, those materials go on a material order — the supply side of a work order. Sending it gives your distributor a purchase order (PO): a PDF listing what to deliver, where, and when. Material orders live on the work order’s card on the project’s Construction tab. This feature is available on select XBuild plans. If you don’t see it in your account, contact support@x.build. A work order has a material order only when it’s Split — your crew installs, you supply. A Turnkey work order’s crew furnishes its own materials, so there’s nothing to order. Each work order has at most one live material order.

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1. Set up your distributors

Manage distributors on the Construction tab opens Settings → Distributors — where material orders go. Click Add distributor: The branch’s Orders email is where the PO goes. Distributors archive rather than delete, so past orders keep their supplier.

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2. Send the order

  1. On the work order’s card, find the material leg. Pick the distributor and branch.
  2. Click Send order. The dialog reads Send order to [distributor]?
  3. Choose how:
    • Email the PO — emails the PO to the branch’s orders email. Change Send to for this one order if needed; the distributor’s record stays the same. Edit the subject and message if you like.
    • Already ordered — for an order you placed by phone or at the counter. XBuild files the PO and emails nothing.
  4. Set a Delivery date if you have one. Left empty, the PO says “to be confirmed”.
  5. Click Preview PO PDF to check it, then Send order (or Mark as sent).
The PO gets a number — PO- followed by a short code — and is filed to the project’s documents. It lists the items, quantities, units, and SKUs, the delivery address and site contact, and the requested delivery date. It carries no prices — the email says “Pricing per our account terms — this order lists quantities only.” Replies come back to whoever sent it. Once an order is sent, its supplier is fixed.

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3. Track it to delivery

The pill on the material leg shows where the order stands. Change it from the pill’s menu.
  • Delayed… flags a sent or confirmed order with a new expected date and an optional note. It shows as · Delayed on the pill until you Clear delay or mark the order delivered.
  • Resend order emails the same PO again, to the branch’s current orders email — or, if that’s been removed, the branch’s orders email from when the order was first sent. It never uses an address typed in Send to, and if neither address exists it can’t send; add one in Settings → Distributors first.
  • Cancel material order calls it off.
Once the work order is dispatched, the material lines lock along with the rest of the work order.

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A sent order on a cancelled or completed work order

Cancelling a work order also cancels its material order if it hasn’t been sent. A material order that was already sent stays open — the distributor may already be filling it — and so does its projected material cost. Once a work order is cancelled or complete, its card can’t change the material order any more, so handle it on the Financials tab:
  • A bill comes — record it as a cost with the bill attached, or a return as a credit.
  • No bill will come, or the bill is less than the order — the projected material cost from that order keeps counting in your projected figures, and there’s no way to clear it from the app yet. Contact support@x.build if it needs to come off.

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4. How it touches the money

A material order feeds the job’s projected material cost, with the distributor as the payee. When the distributor’s bill arrives, record it as a cost with the bill attached on the Financials tab.

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5. On the mobile app

The mobile app’s Construction tab can pick the distributor and delivery date, send the order or mark it as sent, resend, and move the pill — Confirmed, Delivered, Delayed, Clear delay, Cancel. Distributors are set up on the web app.

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6. Troubleshooting common issues

  • I can’t send the order. Pick a distributor and a branch first, and make sure the order has at least one line. If the branch has no orders email, add one in Settings → Distributors or type a Send to address.
  • I can’t change the distributor. The order has been sent — the supplier is fixed. While the work order is still a draft, cancel the material order and add a new one by editing the work order. Once the work order is dispatched, a new material order can’t be added; cancel the work order and create a new one if you need to switch.
  • I cancelled the work order, but the material order is still open, or I can’t change a material order on a completed work order. See A sent order on a cancelled or completed work order.
  • The distributor never got the email. Check the branch’s orders email in Settings → Distributors, then Resend order. Resend goes to that address, never to one you typed in Send to — see Resend order above.
  • The distributor wants prices on the PO. POs list quantities only; pricing follows your account terms with the distributor.
For further assistance, contact XBuild Support at support@x.build.