⚠️ Please note: This automation is disabled by default. To enable it, please contact your system administrator.
Introduction
When a customer requests a specific item that’s not currently in stock, a Special Order is created in Pavilion to track that request. However, by default, this item won’t appear in your regular Purchases tab. To make it easier to manage and track these vendor-facing purchases, Pavilion offers an automation that can automatically create a draft Purchase Order from a Special Order once certain steps are taken.
💡 For a complete overview of how Vendor Purchases work in Pavilion, see this Managing Vendor Purchases and Returns article.
What This Feature Does
If enabled by your system admin, Pavilion can automatically generate a draft Purchase Order (PO) when you fund, pay, or finalize a Special Order that includes an existing Inventory Item. This makes it easier to track what you’ve promised to order from vendors, without having to manually re-enter the same item in the Purchases tab.
How It Works (Step-by-Step Flow)
Once the automation is enabled, here’s what happens:
1. You create a Special Order using an existing Inventory Item (usually marked as out of stock).
2. The Special Order is initially in Draft status.
3. After the customer provides payment or funding through POS, the Special Order moves to Open status.
4. At this point, Pavilion:
Automatically checks if there’s an open draft Purchase Order for the vendor linked to the item.
If a matching draft exists, the item is added to that Purchase Order.
If not, Pavilion creates a new draft Purchase Order and adds the item to it.
5. The Purchase Order is now linked to the Special Order, allowing your purchasing team to process it like any other vendor order.
6. When you later Post and Receive that Purchase Order, the inventory item becomes available again.
7. You can then go back to the Special Order and Add to POS to finalize the sale.
8. Items added from Special Orders will appear in the printed document as Special Order-related items.
Why This Feature Matters
By linking Special Orders with your Vendor Purchases:
You avoid double-entry and ensure nothing gets forgotten.
You gain more visibility into what’s been promised to customers and what needs to be ordered.
It potentially simplifies your workflow and improves coordination between sales and purchasing teams.