The Purchase Order document type
Purchase Order is one of the values in the Document type dropdown on a document, alongside Invoice, Credit note, Receipt, and Invoice Statement. Setting the type to Purchase Order tags the document as a PO rather than a bill or receipt.
Changing the type affects two things:
The icon and label shown in the document list change to identify the document as a Purchase Order.
The document is treated as a PO for filtering and reporting inside Datamolino.
The document still lives in the same Purchases or Sales subfolder as the rest of your documents - the type only changes how it is labelled.
👉 How to mark a document as a Purchase Order?
Open the document, change the Document type dropdown to Purchase Order, and save. The change applies immediately.
The Purchase order no. field
Separate from the Document type, every invoice in Datamolino has a Purchase order no. field. This is the PO reference printed on a supplier invoice - for example, "PO-0042" that links it to the original purchase order.
Datamolino captures the PO number from the document during data extraction and stores it as its own field. The field is visible on the document detail for every connected accounting system (Xero, QuickBooks, and FreeAgent) as well as for documents in folders that are not connected to any accounting software.
👉 Where is the PO number captured from?
It is read from the document automatically during extraction, alongside the supplier, invoice number, dates, and totals.
👉 Can I edit the PO number?
Yes. The Purchase order no. field is editable on the document detail, the same as any other field. If the captured value is wrong or missing, correct it before exporting.
👉 Does the PO number depend on the Document type?
No. The Purchase order no. field appears on every invoice regardless of whether the Document type is set to Invoice, Receipt, Credit note, Purchase Order, or Invoice Statement.
How purchase orders are exported
None of the three connected accounting systems has a dedicated Purchase Order record type that Datamolino exports to. A document marked as Purchase Order is exported as a standard bill or invoice:
Xero - exported through the standard invoice endpoint. Xero does not receive a separate purchase order record.
QuickBooks - exported as a Bill, Supplier credit, Expense, or Check (for purchase documents) or as an Invoice (for sales documents), depending on which export option you choose. There is no QuickBooks Purchase Order endpoint.
FreeAgent - exported as a Bill or Invoice depending on whether the document is a purchase or a sales document. The Purchase Order subtype does not change the FreeAgent record type.
👉 Should I export a Purchase Order?
That depends on how your accounting workflow handles purchase orders. If you only post the matching invoice once the goods are received, you may want to keep the PO in Datamolino without exporting it - the Purchase Order tag still helps you find it later. If you do want a record of the PO in your accounting system, exporting it as a normal invoice or bill is the only option today.