Creating a pickup order from a purchase order in SamBooks

How to organize picking up goods at a supplier when transport is on your account: where the pickup order is created, its steps, and what it does NOT do on its own (it doesn't generate the purchase delivery note).

What this is for

When you confirm a purchase order with carriage Carriage forward (recipient pays) — meaning you organize the transport yourself, not the supplier — SamBooks doesn't leave you on your own: the order automatically enters a logistics worklist from which you can create a pickup order, the document that organizes who goes to collect the goods, with which carrier or courier and at what price. It's the same mechanism as the loading order that organizes deliveries to customers on carriage-free terms (see Managing shipments and loading orders), but with reversed stops: here you pick up from the supplier and deliver to your warehouse, not the other way round.

A pickup order is a logistics document, not a fiscal one: it organizes the transport and, when you hand the pickup to a third-party carrier from your supplier registry, it carries the agreed cost with it. It doesn't generate a delivery note by itself: the purchase delivery note that records the arrived goods stays a separate step, which you do (or already did) from the purchase delivery notes page — see Receiving goods from a supplier. What happens when that delivery note is issued — the automatic generation of the transport-cost purchase order to the carrier, which only fires for pickup orders handed to a carrier — is covered in full in Picking up goods from a supplier with a courier: this guide focuses only on how the pickup order itself is created.

Before you start

• The purchase order must be confirmed, with carriage Carriage forward (recipient pays) and at least one line for a real item (not just services) — see Creating a purchase order for how to set the carriage.
• There must not already be an active pickup order for that purchase order: if there is, the order won't reappear in the worklist.
• A user with the Manager, Administrative or Logistics role (the latter can only write in the Warehouse/Logistics area, which includes shipments); a Viewer can only view.
• To hand the pickup to a third-party carrier: a supplier registered as a carrier (you can create it on the fly, see below). To use a courier: the ShippyPro integration connected, or you connect it during the same flow.

Step by step

1. Find the order in the "Orders to plan" worklist

From the left menu, under Logistics, open Shipments. The page opens on the Orders to plan tab, which mixes two kinds of rows told apart by a badge in the Type column: Sale (carriage-free sales orders to deliver) and Purchase (carriage-forward purchase orders to pick up) — the latter is your case. If the list is empty, the message reminds you that "Sales orders with transport on our account (carriage free) and purchase orders to be picked up (carriage forward) appear here once confirmed": confirm the order first if you don't see it yet.

You can filter by order number or counterparty, pickup or delivery province, and period.

2. Review the logistics data (optional) or go straight to the pickup order

Clicking the row opens a read-only summary with a Create loading order button at the bottom. It's the same panel used for sales orders, and on a Purchase row some of the information isn't reliable — read it knowing what to expect.

• "Customer" is the label above the supplier's name: the panel doesn't change its wording based on the direction of the order.
• "Carriage" shows "Carriage free (on our account)" even when your order is carriage forward: that's the panel's default value, not something read from your purchase order.
• "Destination" repeats the supplier's name instead of your warehouse, and "Pickup" only shows the town and province from their record.
• "Requested delivery", the delivery note field, the notes and the transport charges stay empty, because the panel looks them up among the data of a sales order: whatever you read there never comes from your purchase order.
• The item lines without prices, on the other hand, are the correct ones from the purchase order.

On a purchase order the summary adds little, then: you can press Create loading order straight from the row and skip it. Either way opens the same wizard, pre-filled with that order.

3. The wizard opens in pickup mode

For a purchase order, the wizard is titled "New pickup order", with the subtitle "Goods pickup from purchase order {number}: from the supplier to your warehouse." The first step, Order, shows the order number and the supplier read-only, plus a preview of the reversed stops: Pickups shows the supplier with the town and province from their record, Deliveries shows "Our warehouse (main)", with the reminder "The goods are picked up at the supplier and delivered to your main warehouse."

Where the pickup address really comes from: not from the purchase order. When you create the pickup order, SamBooks takes the supplier's default pickup address from their address book and, if they don't have one, falls back to the registered office on their record. So you change it on the supplier's record — add or edit the default pickup address there — not on the order and not in the wizard. Picking a different address from the book on a per-order basis is currently only possible by asking Sam.

4. Transport step: choose how to organize the pickup

After pressing Next, the Transport step offers the same three modes as a sales loading order — this isn't a stripped-down wizard:

• Own account — you pick up with your own vehicles: no third-party carrier, an optional Transport cost field (an internal estimate).
• Carrier — you hand the pickup to a supplier-carrier: search the Carrier combobox (if it doesn't exist yet, create it on the fly from the same field — remember to turn on the "Is a carrier/courier" switch on its record, otherwise SamBooks won't recognize it as selectable) and enter the Agreed carrier price, required in this mode.
• ShippyPro — defers the courier choice to the next step (rate shopping, label and pickup booking).

Expected pickup date, price and Notes appear with Own account and with Carrier: pick ShippyPro and those three fields disappear, replaced by the note that rates, label and pickup booking are handled in the next step.

5. If you choose ShippyPro: rates, label and pickup in the same wizard

Pressing Create and configure creates the pickup order immediately and moves the wizard to a third step, Shipment, identical to what you'd use for a sales loading order: Compare rates queries the connected couriers and shows each one's price and service; once you pick a rate, Generate label (with an explicit confirmation, since it has real effect at the courier) and then Book pickup with a date and time slot. If the ShippyPro integration isn't connected yet, the step shows a warning with a button to connect it: the pickup order is created regardless, and you can pick it up from there once the account is connected. If you'd rather stop here, Done closes the wizard leaving the pickup order marked "To complete".

One thing to know before going down this route: a ShippyPro pickup order does not record a carrier-supplier on the document — the courier is known to ShippyPro, not to your supplier registry — and the rate you pick in the comparison isn't written back as the pickup order's transport price. In practice this means a ShippyPro pickup order does not produce the automatic transport purchase order described in the linked guide: when the courier's invoice arrives, you record it as an ordinary purchase invoice.

6. The pickup order is created as "Assigned"

With Own account or Carrier, pressing Create loading order creates the document immediately in the Assigned state — no further confirmation step is needed. From here you can download the Loading order (PDF), and if you chose a carrier/ShippyPro manage its label; Cancel stays available as long as the pickup order hasn't generated a delivery note (for a pickup order, as explained below, this in practice means: for as long as you want).

The difference from a sales loading order: no "Create DN" here

In the detail view of a sales loading order, a Create DN button generates the delivery note when the goods are ready to leave. A pickup order never shows it: that button only appears for loading orders linked to a sales order, and a pickup order is linked to a purchase order instead. This isn't an omission: the delivery note that records the goods' arrival is created from the Purchase delivery notes page, choosing "From order" and picking the same purchase order — a step independent of the pickup order, which you can do before, after, or while organizing the pickup. The pickup order therefore stays a purely logistics document: stops, carrier, price, label; the warehouse only loads once that delivery note is issued.

The Loading orders tab (the list of all loading orders, both sales and pickup) doesn't have a column or filter telling the two kinds apart either: to recognize a pickup order you have to open it — you'll see the supplier as sender and your warehouse as recipient, and the absence of the "Create DN" button.

Ask Sam instead

You can ask Sam to create the pickup order with a plain sentence, for example: "create a pickup order for purchase order 14/2026 with carrier Trans Italia, agreed price 180 euros", or, for a courier: "create a ShippyPro pickup order for purchase order 14/2026 and compare the rates". The result is the same as the wizard, on the same document: you can start on one side and continue on the other.

If something goes wrong

• The purchase order doesn't show up in the worklist — check that it's confirmed, with carriage forward and at least one item line (not only services); if it already has an active pickup order it won't reappear until you cancel it.
• "Invalid carrier: select a supplier marked as a carrier" — the chosen supplier doesn't have the "Is a carrier/courier" switch on in their record: turn it on and try again.
• The agreed price is required and I can't move forward — it's only required with the Carrier mode: if you don't have a price agreement yet, consider Own account or ShippyPro in the meantime.
• I can't find "Create DN" on the pickup order I just created — that's correct: on pickup orders that button never appears, see above. The delivery note is created from the Purchase delivery notes page.
• I don't see a way to pick a different pickup address — the address comes from the supplier's address book (the default pickup address, otherwise the registered office): fix it on the supplier's record, or ask Sam to use another address already in the book.

Frequently asked questions

How do I organize picking up goods from a supplier? Confirm the purchase order with carriage forward: it will show up in the Orders to plan worklist under Shipments, with a Purchase badge. From there press Create loading order and follow the wizard.

The supplier delivers on my account (carriage forward): do I have to send a courier to pick up? How? Exactly: create a pickup order from the purchase order and choose, in the Transport step, whether to pick up with your own vehicles, a third-party carrier with an agreed price, or a ShippyPro courier.

What is a pickup order? The logistics document that organizes picking up the goods at the supplier and delivering them to your warehouse: carrier or courier, price, expected date. It's not a fiscal document and it doesn't generate the purchase delivery note on its own.

Why do I see purchase orders in the shipments worklist too? Because "Orders to plan" collects both carriage-free sales orders (to deliver) and carriage-forward purchase orders (to pick up): a Sale/Purchase badge tells them apart on each row.

What changes between a regular loading order and a pickup order from a supplier? The stops are reversed (pickup at the supplier, delivery to your warehouse instead of the other way round) and a pickup order never shows the "Create DN" button: that delivery note is created separately from the Purchase delivery notes page.

How do I choose the pickup address at the supplier? You don't choose it in the wizard: SamBooks uses the supplier's default pickup address from their address book and, failing that, their registered office. To change it, edit the supplier's record; to use another address already in the book for this pickup only, ask Sam.

After the pickup, is the delivery note created automatically? No. The pickup order only organizes the transport; the purchase delivery note that loads the warehouse is created separately, from the Purchase delivery notes page, selecting the same order.

Can I use ShippyPro to pick up goods from a supplier too? Yes: the wizard's Transport step offers ShippyPro for a pickup order too, with the same rate comparison, label generation and pickup booking as a sales loading order. With one accounting difference to keep in mind: a ShippyPro pickup order records neither a carrier-supplier nor a transport price, so it doesn't produce the automatic purchase order for the transport cost — you record the courier's invoice by hand.

Related features

• Picking up goods from a supplier with a courier (pickup order and automatic transport) — what happens to the carrier's cost when you issue the delivery note, and when the transport order doesn't get created.
• Managing shipments and loading orders — the same wizard, on the sales side.
• Creating a purchase order — where you set carriage forward and the pickup address.
• Receiving goods from a supplier (purchase delivery note) — the step that actually loads the warehouse.