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August 1, 2026 · 5 min read

How to track which Shopify purchase orders are paid

A purchase order tells you what you ordered and whether it's arrived. It doesn't tell you whether you've paid for it — and Shopify's admin has no field for that at all. For merchants running net-30 terms with several suppliers at once, that gap is where invoices get paid twice, or not at all.

Why receiving status isn't payment status

A PO naturally moves through received / partially received / pending — that's inventory. Payment is a separate lifecycle that doesn't line up with it:

Treating "received" as a stand-in for "paid" is how a supplier invoice sits unpaid past its due date without anyone noticing — the stock's on the shelf, so it looks done.

What's worth tracking per PO

  1. Paid status — a simple toggle for at-a-glance filtering across all open POs.
  2. Amount paid — not just yes/no. A partial payment against a $2,400 PO looks identical to a fully paid $2,400 PO if you only track a checkbox.
  3. A link to the invoice — wherever it already lives (Gmail, Drive, your accounting software). A link is enough; it doesn't need to be a new file uploaded and stored again.

Payment terms matter here too — if a supplier's terms are recorded (e.g. "Net 30" or "2% 10 Net 30"), showing them next to the payment card on the PO means you're not digging through email to check when something's actually due.

Where this fits in the PO screen

The natural place is a payment card directly on the PO detail page — sitting next to receiving status, not buried in a separate "accounting" tab. Marking a PO paid or unpaid should be a one-click action from the same screen you already use to check receiving status, so there's no reason to skip it.

Stop losing track of what's actually paid

Reorda tracks paid status, amount paid and an invoice link on every purchase order — right next to receiving status. $19/month flat, 14-day free trial.

Install Reorda on Shopify →

If you're migrating from Stocky

Stocky never had payment tracking either — this isn't a gap that opened up with its shutdown, it's a gap that's existed in Shopify purchase orders the whole time. See the full Stocky-to-Reorda feature map for what else changes.

Frequently asked questions

Does Shopify track whether a purchase order has been paid?

No — Shopify's admin has no payment field on purchase orders at all, paid or otherwise. It's inventory and receiving only; payment status has to be tracked separately or in an app that adds the field.

Should I track the full amount paid, or just paid/unpaid?

Track the amount. A supplier invoice rarely matches the PO total exactly once shipping, discounts or partial shipments are involved — paid/unpaid alone hides the difference you need for reconciling with your books.

Can I attach the actual supplier invoice to the PO?

Yes, as a link to wherever you already store it (email, Drive, accounting software) rather than a fresh file upload — it's cheaper to build and means you're not duplicating a document that already exists somewhere.

Does marking a PO paid affect inventory?

No — payment and receiving are separate events. You can receive stock before paying (net-30 terms) or pay before stock arrives (prepayment); the two shouldn't be locked together.

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