Square can create, send, and receive purchase orders — if you're on a paid plan. Purchase orders live in Square Dashboard under Items & services → Inventory management → Purchase orders, and they're included with Square Plus and Square Premium (in older account language, "Square for Retail Plus"; Square unified its plans in October 2025). You can pick a vendor, add items with quantities and unit costs, email the PO to the vendor from Square, and receive stock against it — including partial receiving — with unit costs saved and COGS tracked on a FIFO basis.
This guide walks through the whole Square purchase order workflow step by step, then covers the limits you'll want to know about before you build your ordering process on it — including the ones Square's own docs confirm.
Quick answer
To create a purchase order in Square:
- In Square Dashboard, go to Items & services → Inventory management → Purchase orders and click Create
- Choose the vendor (or create one inline), the delivery location, and the expected delivery date
- Add items with quantity and unit cost — Square pulls per-vendor codes, SKUs, and costs if you've set them on the item
- Click Create, or Save as Draft if you're not ready to commit
- To send it, add the vendor's email, preview, and click Send — Square emails the PO directly, and you can keep a copy or export PDF/CSV
- When the delivery arrives, open the PO and click Receive All, or Receive per line for partial deliveries — stock on hand and unit costs update automatically
That covers order creation and receiving. Below: the setup that makes it work well, and where the workflow ends.