> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://hub.equipme.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://hub.equipme.io/documentation/purchasing/orders.md).

# Orders

Orders is the record of what you bought, from whom, at what price, and where it currently is.

Not to be confused with Sales, Order Inbox. Two menu items, both about orders, opposite ends of the same chain: Order Inbox holds what customers ordered from you, this page holds what you ordered from your distributors.

A purchase order is created from Order proposals. You cannot start one here, because an order without demand behind it would have nothing to deliver to.

## An order is a file, not a form

This is the part that decides whether the page is useful to you or just another list.

When you place an order, you know almost nothing: the supplier and what you want. The distributor's order number, the confirmation, the delivery date and the invoice number all arrive over the following days, by email, in a PDF, on the phone.

Everything on the order stays editable for exactly that reason. Enter each piece as it arrives and the order becomes the one place where the history of that purchase lives. Skip it and you have a row in a list.

Two fields repay the discipline more than the others.

**The expected delivery date** appears in Goods receipt, so it tells your warehouse what to expect and when to chase.

**The distributor's order number** is how you find the right order when a parcel arrives with a delivery note and nothing else on it.

## What the price fields mean

The unit price is prefilled from the product master data, which is a default rather than a fact. Your actual buying price changes with volume, with the day, with the distributor. Overwrite it to match what you really paid, otherwise your margin reporting is built on a list price nobody charged.

Freight and the VAT rate are editable for the same reason.

## The three tabs

Once the order exists, three tabs appear, and each answers a different question.

**Order items** shows a status per article, which is what you need for a partial delivery: three of five arrived, and you can see which three.

**Goods receipt** shows received against pending, the same picture from the warehouse side.

**Instances** lists the service instances this order produced, each with its serial number and its own financing agreement field. This is where a single purchase gets split across contracts, when part of it runs on leasing and part does not.

## Status

Ordered, in progress, Delivered, Completed, cancelled.

An order moves to **Delivered** on its own once the goods are booked in through Goods receipt, so there is nothing to close by hand on the normal route.

**Items in transit** above the list gives you everything currently on its way, which is the view you want when a customer asks where their device is.

## Dropshipping orders are different

A dropshipping order never reaches your warehouse, so it never appears in Goods receipt and nothing there will ever move it forward.

For those, this page is where the work happens. What the distributor tells you gets recorded here, and the shipment number and tracking link you enter appear in the customer's portal. The fulfillment position follows whatever you record.


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