Function #25: Automatically generate purchase orders from a sales order

Function #25: Automatically generate purchase orders from a sales order

We kicked off the "Function Fridays" series with the goal of helping you automate your everyday accounting tasks. As we delve into today's post, I'm delighted to announce that we're here to present the 25th custom function in this series. While it is a small milestone, we are committed to continuing this series to provide more functions that can save you time and significantly enhance the efficiency of your business operations. You can find a complete list of all the functions we've shared to date by visiting this link. 

Coming to today's function, you're likely familiar with the feature in Zoho Books that allows you to raise multiple purchase orders from a sales order when item quantities are running low or depleted. If your sales order has several low-stock items that must be procured from different vendors, manually creating separate purchase orders for each vendor can become quite a time-consuming task. To streamline and simplify this process, you can set up a workflow rule that will trigger the automatic creation of purchase orders.

Here's how it works: Let's take the example of John, a retail business owner who has received an order. While he's in the process of creating the sales order, he notices 2 items whose stock levels need to be replenished to fulfill future orders. During the sales order creation in Zoho Books, John can simply use a checkbox-type custom field (specifically created for this purpose) to mark the items that need to be ordered. From that point, Zoho Books takes over.



The custom function is executed to generate purchase orders for all the marked items. The choice of vendor in the purchase orders is based on the preferred vendor assigned to each item. If there are multiple items in the sales order with the same preferred vendor, the system will consolidate these items and add them to a single purchase order.

Prerequisites: 

1. Create a check box-type custom field for the items by the name "Generate PO" to be displayed in the item table of sales orders. When creating a sales order, it's necessary to tick this checkbox to initiate the creation of a purchase order for the item.



2. It's important to fill in the "Preferred vendor" field in the item details screen so that the purchase orders are raised for the corresponding vendor. Do note that the "Preferred vendor" field will be displayed only when the Purchase information of the item is enabled.




3. Create a Connection named "zbooks" to successfully execute the function. You can watch the GIF attached below to know how to create the connection.



Custom Function:

Navigate to Settings -> Automation -> Workflow Actions -> Custom Functions -> +New Custom Function > Add the function code from this GitHub link.
 
Workflow Rule: 
 
Go to Settings -> Automation -> Workflow Rules -> +New Workflow Rule and set up the workflow rule as shown below:-





In the final step of this workflow rule, associate the custom function you created and then hit Save.

This function will not just be a time-saver but also help you maintain optimum inventory levels required to fulfill customer orders. Should you need any help in configuring this function, remember, that we're just an email away. Feel free to drop your queries to support[at]zohobooks[dot]com. We're always available to provide the assistance you need! 

Regards,
Shireen Farhana S
Zoho Books

      • Recent Topics

      • Production Management Tool (MRP / BOM)

        Hi Guys, is there any recommended App available that works with zoho and covers the needed applications for a production? What we need is a system that covers the BOM (bill of materials), MRP (material ressources planning), MRP II (manufacturing ressources

      • Function #53: Transaction Level Profitability for Invoices

        Hello everyone, and welcome back to our series! We have previously provided custom functions for calculating the profitability of a quote and a sales order. There may be instances where the invoice may differ from its corresponding quote or sales order.

      • Bug in Zoho Cliq Signup Flow – "%s" Placeholder Visible Instead of Product Name

        Hi Zoho Team, I would like to report a UI bug in the Zoho Cliq signup/enable flow. During the step where Cliq asks to enable the product for the company, the following text appears: Great! Your company is already available in Zoho, so you just have to

      • Zoho Invoice Customer Login Portal

        Are there any plans for a customer portal to Zoho Invoice, ala Freshbooks?  I would like customers that I invoice to be able to login to review invoices and invoice history.  I have not switched from Freshbooks for this very reason.

      • Exporting tickets

        I went to Setup -> Organization -> Import/Export in order to export tickets but found 2 issues: 1. The email body never gets exported. 2. There are some large numbers (like 5.57E+16) under certain columns of the exported CSV file. I could not find any export options. Please can you help with this?

      • Editing the Ticket Properties column

        This is going to sound like a dumb question, but I cannot figure out how to configure/edit the sections (and their fields) in this column: For example, we have a custom "Resolution" field, which parked itself in the "Ticket Information" section of this

      • Copy field information to clipboard

        I need to be able to transfer some field information in to the clipboard, so that I can then paste it in to our helpdesk system. Is there a way I could add a button to a detail report that does this?

      • Issuing reconciling a bank statement

        HELP! I'm trying to reconcile a bank statement. The prior month reconciled perfectly. Beginning balance is correct yet I'm off by the same amount each time. Both myself and my office manager, separately and together, have tried to complete this reconciliation

      • Correlated subqueries not supported in Zoho Analytics. This creates huge limitations

        Running into a major limitation in Zoho Analytics: correlated subqueries simply don’t work, even in completely standard SQL patterns inside a JOIN. Example: LEFT JOIN "Bills" b ON d."Id" = b."Deal ID" AND EXISTS ( SELECT 1 FROM "Bill

      • Unknown table or alias 'A1'

        I would like to create a subquery but i am getting the following error: Unknown table or alias 'A1' used in select query. This is the sql statement:  SELECT A1.active_paying_customers, A1.active_trial_customers, A1.new_paying_signup, date(A1.date_active_customers), 

      • Detect and ignore bots in visitors

        The SalesIQ visitor numbers are basically useless to us because there is no bot detection. We get the same bots coming in from the same countries looking at the same pages every day. It can't be that difficult to tell the difference between an actual

      • Add Real-Time Microphone Audio-Level Indicator During Screen Recording

        Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to request an important enhancement to the Zoho WorkDrive screen-recording experience. Current Limitation: During a recording session, there is no visual indication that the microphone is

      • Properly Capture Dropdowns & Hover Elements When Recording a Window/Tab

        Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing great. We encountered a limitation when recording a selected window or browser tab: Certain UI elements, such as dropdown lists, hover menus, and overlays, are not captured unless we record the entire screen.

      • Allow Recording Only a Selected Portion of the Screen

        Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to request a more flexible recording option in Zoho WorkDrive. At the moment, we can record either the entire screen or a specific window/tab — but not a custom selected portion of the screen

      • Add Camera Background Blur During Recording

        Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope everything is well. We would like to request an enhancement to the video recording feature in Zoho WorkDrive. Currently, the camera preview displayed during a recording does not support background blur. This is an essential

      • Make Camera Overlay & Recording Controls Visible in All Screen-Sharing Options

        Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to request an improvement to the screen-recording experience in Zoho WorkDrive. Current Limitation: At the moment the recording controls are visible only inside the Zoho WorkDrive tab. When

      • Allow Admins to Transfer Ownership of Their Own Files & Folders

        Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to request an important enhancement to the ownership-transfer functionality in Zoho WorkDrive, specifically regarding administrator capabilities. As administrators, we have the ability to

      • How to update custom multi-user field in Zoho Projects?

        I'm trying to update custom multi-user fields in Zoho Projects via a Deluge function in CRM. The code I have so far is below. It works for updating standard project fields and single-line custom fields, but it does not work to update multi-user fields.

      • Has Anyone successfully integrated Zoho and Sage Intact?

        Hey all, We’re evaluating Zoho One + Sage Intacct and I’m trying to connect with anyone who has actually implemented the two together.Specifically, I’d love to know: -- Which functions you kept in Zoho vs. Intacct (e.g., Product Catalog, AR/AP, invoicing,

      • Kaizen #57 - Mass Update API in Zoho CRM

        Hello everyone! Welcome back to yet another post in the Kaizen series. This week, we will discuss the Mass Update API in Zoho CRM. In this post, we will cover the following: 1. Introduction 2. Mass Update Records API  3. Schedule Update and Get Status

      • Zero Personalization of the File Sharing Experience

        By now (2025) this is the maximum level of personalization available for a Zoho sharing link. We gently asked Zoho if we could modify at least the background, and they replied that it cannot be customized. We're truly disappointed – and surprised every

      • Create static subforms in Zoho CRM: streamline data entry with pre-defined values

        Last modified on (9 July, 2025): This feature was available in early access and is currently being rolled out to customers in phases. Currently available for users in the the AU, CA, and SA DCs. It will be enabled for the remaining DCs in the next couple

      • Canvas Flex Box containers should not require a width/height.

        Flexbox containers are often used as organizational concepts, to ease re-flow on mobile etc. - I cannot use % for flexbox W or H - I cannot omit W or H This means that the content cannot dictate, and a Flexbox container cannot be used merely as an organizational

      • Zoho / Outlook Calendar sync

        The current Marketplace -> Microsoft -> Meetings integration needs 2 changes. 1. The current language for the Two-Way sync option should be changed. It currently states, "Sync both your Zoho CRM Calendar and Office 365 Calendar meetings with each other."

      • External Share > Edit: Cannot Create Zoho Files

        Hi Zoho, When we create an external share link with Edit permission, our external users are unable to create a Zoho file (Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet and Zoho Show). They can only upload files. They can edit the Zoho files if we create them internally and

      • Two factor authentication for helpdesk users

        The company i work for wants use the helpdesk site in Zoho desk, as a place for their distribution partners to ask question and look for information about our product. The things there is suppose to go up there is somewhat confidential between my company

      • Kiosk can't merge picklist or multiselect

        There is no ability to load a multiselect or picklikst field into a kiosk with the values that have been previously selected. So, I essentially have 3 unacceptable options: 1.)Load the value into a text string and include instructions like this: "Picklist

      • AGE field from DATE OF BIRTH Field.

        HI! I have a field called date of birth in my CRM (LEADS, CONTACT etc…)     How can I know the AGE today   I would like to create a field AGE. I now how to create a field but I don´t which calculation (CUSTOM FUCTION) to make ¿ANY HELP?

      • CRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive

        Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage files

      • How to update/remove file in zoho creator widgets using javascript API

        Hi Team, I have developed a widget which allows inserting and updating records I have file upload field with multiple file upload. Now while doing insert form record, I am using uploadFile API to upload files for that record. I am using updateRecord API

      • Contact data removes Account data when creating a quote

        Hi, Our customer has address fields in their quote layout which should be the address of the Account. They prefill the information, adding the account name - the address data is populated as per what is in the account - great. However when they then add

      • Introducing Enhanced Storage Management

        We’re excited to roll out two new enhancements in Zoho Recruit, Subscription Information and Storage Management — designed to give admins complete visibility into subscription details, feature limits, and storage consumption — all from one place inside

      • Announcing new features in Trident for Windows (v.1.34.4.0)

        Hello Community! Trident for Windows just got better! With this update we have features that make your daily work easier and more efficient. We've added some features that are exclusive to our app and we're sure you'll find them useful. Let’s dive into

      • Report Hover Setting

        Would be great if we will able to show information to the user while hovering a record in a report.

      • Vertical images displayed as horizontal

        Some pictures that originally are in vertical position are displayed in horizontal after the upload. It seems that system rotates them by 90 degrees. How can I fix this issue?

      • Zoho Desk iOS app update: Saved filters and sort options

        Hello everyone! Saved filters created on the web(desk.zoho.com) for tickets are now accessible on the Zoho Desk iOS app. You can easily rename, delete, or clear filters on the go. We have also introduced Sort options on the ticket listing screen, allowing

      • Introducing VeriFactu Support in Zoho Books

        Hello users, Spain has introduced the VeriFactu system under Real Decreto 1007/2023 to ensure integrity, traceability, and anti-fraud compliance in e-invoicing. Starting January 1, 2026, all B2B invoices must be reported to Agencia Estatal de Administración

      • Big Things Just Dropped in the SalesIQ Universe: Top Upgrades You’ll Love in Nova’25

        Nova'25 has landed, and it’s packed with meaningful upgrades to help you engage smarter, work faster, and scale with ease. Whether you're into proactive messaging, smarter automation, or better admin control, there's something here for everyone. Here's

      • Time Entries in Analytics

        I am trying to import a zoho sheet into zoho analytics. In my sheets one of the columns has "time Entries" in this "format HH:MM am/pm" example 11:00 PM. After import, i noticed that analytics converted the time to "00 Jan 1900 23:00:00".. how do i maintain

      • Amazon invoice in Zoho Books

        I have just made my first few sales on Amazon India. Amazon Seller account generates invoices for the sales made on Amazon. These invoices are sent to customers also. Now when I was only making offline sales, I used to create Invoices in Zoho Book. Now

      • Next Page