Purchase orders let you commit spend with a contractor before work starts. You can create a purchase order on its own or from a work order, link it to the expense invoices billed against it, and send it to the contractor as a branded PDF. Purchase orders are available in all regions.
Note: This feature is currently in closed beta.
To request access, contact our support team.
Features and workflows may change as we continue to develop them. If you experience any issues or have feedback, contact our support team.
How to Create a Purchase Order
You can create a purchase order from any of these places:
Income & Expenses – go to the Purchase Orders tab and click Create.
From an existing work order – in the Purchase Order section, click Create a purchase order.
To fill in the purchase order:
Select the Contractor.
Enter a Description to provide details of the spend.
optionally, link this purchase order to a work order. If this PO is a standalone, the work order can be left blank.
If the purchase order isn't linked to a work order, select the related Property, Area and Tenancy (optional).
Add one or more line items. For each line, enter the Description, Quantity and Unit Price, then select the Account and Tax Type. The Amount is calculated for you.
Add any Comments, and drag and drop or browse to upload Attachments.
Click Save.
Re-Leased gives each purchase order a number automatically, in the format PO-2026-0001.
Note: When you create a purchase order from a work order, the purchase order takes its Property, Area and Tenancy from the work order. Linking or unlinking a work order later doesn't change these.
How to Edit a Purchase Order
Go to Income & Expenses > Purchase Orders and open the purchase order.
Click Edit. The fields become editable on the same page.
Update the details, line items, comments, attachments or linked work order. You can rename or delete each attachment.
Click Save to keep your changes, or Cancel to discard them.
You can also edit a purchase order from its linked work order. In the Purchase Order section, click Edit.
How to Link a Purchase Order to a Work Order
Each work order can have one purchase order. To link a purchase order that already exists:
Open the work order.
In the Purchase Order section, click Link purchase order.
Search by purchase order number, description or contractor name.
Select the purchase order and confirm.
Once linked, the purchase order summary shows under Related Items, and a Purchase Order tab appears beside the Work Order tab so you can review both documents side by side.
If the property on the Purchase Order is different to that of the task, linking will change the property on the PO.
Note: The Email PDF button on a work order is disabled until its linked purchase order is approved. This stops an unapproved purchase order from being sent to a contractor.
How to Remove a Purchase Order from a Work Order
Open the work order.
In the Purchase Order section, open the actions menu beside Edit and select Remove.
Confirm the removal.
Removing a purchase order from a work order doesn't delete the purchase order. You can still find it in Income & Expenses > Purchase Orders and link it to another work order.
How to Link a Purchase Order to an Expense Invoice
You link purchase orders to expense invoices while processing the invoice.
Go to Process Expense Invoices and open the invoice.
Head to the Link maintenance tab and click Link maintenance
Review the list of maintenance tasks, work orders and purchase orders. The list is filtered by the invoice's property and supplier, and you can adjust the filters or search.
Select the purchase order. Its linked work order and maintenance task are selected automatically.
Click Link items.
You can link several expense invoices to the same purchase order over time, for example when a contractor bills in stages.
Important: Rejected purchase orders can't be linked to an expense invoice and don't appear in the list. Purchase orders in Draft, Awaiting Approval, Approved or Closed status can be linked.
How to See Which Expense Invoices Are Linked to a Purchase Order
Open the purchase order. The Linked Expense Invoices section lists every invoice billed against it, showing the invoice number, supplier, invoice date, amount and status. When more than one invoice is linked, a Total billed line shows the combined amount, so you can compare what was ordered against what has been billed.
Note: The Linked Expense Invoices section on a purchase order is read-only. To link an invoice, start from the invoice in Process Expense Invoices.
Purchase Order Statuses
Draft – the purchase order has been created but not submitted for approval.
Awaiting Approval – the purchase order has been submitted and is waiting for an approver.
Approved – the purchase order has been approved and can be emailed to the contractor.
Rejected – an approver has turned down the purchase order. It can't be linked to expense invoices.
Closed – the purchase order is complete.
You can see a purchase order's status on the purchase order list, the purchase order page, the work order page, and in the PO column of the Work Orders list in the Maintenance Hub.
Purchase Order Permissions
Purchase order permissions sit in the Income & Expenses section of user role settings:
Manage Purchase Orders – create and edit purchase orders, and link them to work orders and expense invoices.
Delete Purchase Orders – delete purchase orders. Requires Manage Purchase Orders.
Approve Purchase Orders – approve or reject purchase orders.
Note: Purchase order approval permission is separate from work order approval permission. A user who can approve work orders can't approve purchase orders unless they also have the Approve Purchase Orders permission.
How to Set Up a Purchase Order PDF Template
Purchase order PDFs use letter templates, the same way work order PDFs do. A default purchase order template is available straight away, and you can create your own with your logo, wording and layout.
Go to Invoice Templates in your settings.
Create a new template and select Purchase Order as the template type, or clone the default purchase order template.
Add your branding and wording, and insert merge fields for details such as the contractor, line items, totals, purchase order number and property.
Save the template.
How to Download or Email a Purchase Order PDF
On the purchase order – open the purchase order, select a template, and click Download PDF.
Email to the contractor – open the linked work order and click Email PDF. This is available once the purchase order is approved.
Note: Purchase order attachments aren't included in the PDF. Download PDF isn't available while you're editing a purchase order.
How to Check a Purchase Order Against the Budget
When you create or edit a purchase order, a budget health chip shows whether the purchase order fits within the property’s budget. Re-Leased checks each line item against the budget schedules for its account, so you can see the budget impact before you submit the purchase order for approval.
The chip shows one of these results:
Within budget (green) – no line item takes a budget schedule over budget.
Over budget (red) – at least one line item takes a budget schedule over budget.
To see the detail behind the result:
Click the budget health chip.
Review the breakdown for each line item. Each line shows the budgeted amount, actual spend, remaining amount, the purchase order amount and the result for every budget schedule it matches.
If a line item’s account matches more than one budget schedule, the line shows Over budget if it goes over on any of them. If no budget schedule matches a line item, the breakdown shows that no budget was found for that line, and the line doesn’t count towards the result.
The chip shows Checking budget… while the check runs, and updates automatically when you change a line’s amount, quantity, account or tax, or delete a line
Purchase Order Syncing with Accounting Platforms
Purchase orders currently only sync with Sage Intacct. Syncing purchase orders to Xero or other accounting platforms isn't currently available. If you use another platform, purchase orders can still be used as a standalone featur in Re-Leased only.
Purchase Order Approvals
To set up approval workflows and learn how submitting, approving and rejecting purchase orders works, see Purchase Order Approvals.
For Asia-Pacific customers, Lease is referred to as Tenancy and tax is shown as GST. For UK customers, tax is shown as VAT. For more information on regional terminology, see our Glossary of Regional Terminology.