Inventory glossary
What is Purchase order acknowledgment?
Purchase order acknowledgment is a supplier's confirmation that they received your purchase order and agree to its terms, including items, quantities, prices and delivery date.
A purchase order acknowledgment tells you the supplier actually saw your order and accepted it as written. Without it you are guessing whether your order is in their queue, whether the price matches what you expected, and whether the delivery date is realistic.
Use it to catch problems early. If the supplier changes a quantity, swaps a price, or pushes the delivery date back, the acknowledgment is where you find out, not when the shipment fails to arrive on time.
Example
You send a purchase order to your candle supplier for 200 units of a lavender candle at $4 each, total $800, requesting delivery in 2 weeks. The supplier replies with an acknowledgment confirming 200 units at $4 each but moving delivery to 3 weeks due to a backlog. You now know to adjust your reorder timing instead of assuming the original 2 week date still holds.
Common mistakes
- Treating a sent purchase order as confirmed without waiting for the supplier's reply.
- Not checking the acknowledgment line by line against the original order for price or quantity changes.
- Filing the acknowledgment away without updating the expected delivery date in your own planning.
Purchase order acknowledgment and SteadyShelf
SteadyShelf drafts and emails the purchase order for approval, so you have a clean record to compare against the supplier's acknowledgment when it comes back.
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Related terms
Purchase order · Lead time · Supplier · Receiving · Advance shipping notice
FAQ
What happens if a supplier never sends a purchase order acknowledgment?
You have no confirmation that your order was received or accepted. Follow up directly with the supplier before you count on that stock arriving, since the quantities and dates in your plan are still unconfirmed.
Is a purchase order acknowledgment the same as a goods received note?
No. The acknowledgment confirms the supplier accepted your order before shipping. A goods received note is created later, after the stock physically arrives, to confirm what was actually delivered.
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