Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app

Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app by Scoro lets you centralize all client Purchase Orders (POs) in a single structured module, giving account directors, client service leads, and finance managers a single view of every client-issued purchase order. You can link every project quote to the authorizing PO and see exactly how much of the client’s authorized budget remains in real time.

This article will walk you through how the Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app works and how to activate, configure, and use it.

1. How the Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app works

A client purchase order, or client PO in short, is a master budget your client authorizes to cover multiple projects across an engagement.

The Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app by Scoro lets you manage the client POs and link project quotes in Scoro to the respective POs. Every linked quote draws down from its PO automatically, with the remaining amount recalculated every time a linked quote is saved, based on three budget buckets:

• Open estimates – quotes in progress, reserved but not yet committed
• Confirmed quotes – quotes that have been finalized and confirmed, so the budget is officially reserved 
• Invoiced amount – quotes where the work is done, the final invoice has been issued, and quote status set to ‘Completed’

The remaining amount of the client purchase order is calculated based on this formula: Client purchase order value – Open quotes – Confirmed quotes – Invoiced amount.

By default, all three buckets deduct from the client PO balance to prevent over-committing the budget at any stage.

1.1. Key benefits

• Real-time remaining balance: Every linked quote draws down the PO automatically across three stages (open estimates, confirmed quotes, and invoiced work), so the remaining amount is always current, and no team member has to reconstruct it from a spreadsheet.
• Overspend protection at the source: Before a quote connects to a PO, the system checks the currency, the PO's status, and whether there is enough budget remaining, and blocks the connection if any check fails so overruns surface internally before they reach the client.
• One structured record per client mandate: Every PO carries its number, client, owner, order value, currency, due date, and status, replacing scattered spreadsheets and project notes with a single source of truth for what was authorized and what remains.
• Full visibility across projects and quotes: Each PO shows every connected quote and every funded project in a single view, so account leads can see what has been committed and finance can see what has been invoiced, all without switching tools.
• Every quote against the same PO: Each PO shows all connected quotes and projects in one view, so when an account manager scopes the next phase, they see the actual committed and remaining spend across all workstreams already drawing from the same client mandate.

1.2. Key things to remember & known limitations

• The currency on the client purchase order and the linked quote must match. Mixed-currency POs aren't supported at the moment.
• Quotes can be linked only to client purchase orders with an Open status; linking to a closed PO produces a connection error.
• Each PO maintains a single unified balance. Separate budget pots per quote type or project aren't supported.
• Balance recalculation runs when you save a quote. If a quote's status changes via a bulk action or import, you may need to re-save the quote manually to refresh the PO totals.
• The PO number dropdown field in the quote modify view displays all client POs at the moment. We're working on a solution to display only the POs linked to the client whose quote you're creating or modifying.

2. Activating the app

Site administrators can activate the Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app:

• From the Scoro App Store – click the Get this app button;
• From your Scoro site — go to Settings > Plan, add-ons and billing, click the Configure plan button (if your site’s on the new pricing plan) or the Manage add-ons button (if your site’s on a legacy plan), and enable the Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app. See the Plans, add-ons, and pricing article for step-by-step instructions on managing your add-ons

Once activated, the Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app will appear on your site menu, and you can start configuring it.

3. Configuring the app

• Managing the app permissions
• Configuring quote statuses for each budget bucket

3.1. Managing the app permissions

When you activate the Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app, the app grants full permissions to the permission set of the user (site admin) who enabled it. To customize the app permissions for other permission sets:

1. Go to Settings > Administration > Permission sets and click on the Modules and actions button for the permission set you want to modify the permissions for.
2. Scroll down to the Apps section and enable the Client purchase orders – this is the primary permission that grants access to the Client purchase orders module. Then, enable either of these sub-permissions to control what users with this permission set can do in this module:
   • Add and modify entries – lets you create and modify your own client purchase orders.
   • View entries of other users – lets you access and view client purchase orders created by other site users. Users without this permission in their permission set will not see the Owner filter in the client purchase order list view.
   • Modify entries of other users – lets you modify client purchase orders created by other users.
   • Delete entries – lets you delete client purchase orders you created and also those of other users if you have access to their client POs.

For more information about managing user access, see our Permission sets article.

3.2. Configuring quote statuses for each budget bucket

By default, the quote-based Client Purchase Orders app maps the quote statuses against the client PO budget buckets as follows:

• Open estimates: Opportunity, Scoping, Proposal
• Closed estimates: Confirmed
• Invoiced amount: Completed

If you want to customize the quote statuses mapped against the budget buckets, this must be done by our internal team – please contact our Support team by filling out this contact form. 

4. Using the Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app

• Creating a new client PO
• Linking a quote to a client PO
• Relinking or unlinking a quote from a client PO
• Monitoring the client PO
• Customizing the client PO list view
• Using the client PO board view

4.1. Creating a new client purchase order

To create a new client purchase order that the linked quotes can later draw funds from:

1. Open the Client purchase orders module and click the + New button.
   
2. Fill out the client purchase order details:
   • Owner – select the user responsible for the client PO.
   • Status –  set to ‘Open’ so the client PO is available for quotes to draw from. Once the PO is fulfilled and no longer active, change its status to ‘Closed’.
   • PO number –  enter a unique identifier for this PO based on your preferences.
   • Client company – choose the company to link the client purchase order to.
   • Client contact person – choose the related contact person to link the client purchase order to.
     • Note that people contact management is available only in the Sell core app and across all legacy plans (Essential, Pro, Standard, Ultimate, Core, Growth, Performance, Enterprise). Learn more about our Plans & Pricing.
   • Due date –  set the expiry or delivery deadline for the PO.
   • Order value – set the total authorized budget on this PO.
   • Currency –  choose the currency of the PO; it must match the currency of every quote you link to it.
3. Leave the fields in the Automatically calculated section untouched, as the app will automatically fill them out and calculate them as you start linking quotes. When you’re ready, click Save to finish creating the client PO.
   

4.2. Linking a quote to a client purchase order

To link a quote to a quote-based client purchase order:

1. Create a new quote or modify an existing one.
2. Select the required client purchase order from the PO number dropdown field.
   • The currency on the quote and the client purchase order must match; otherwise, the PO connection status will be ‘Not accounted’.
3. Leave the PO Connection Status field as is, as the app will fill it in automatically later. Click Save.
   
4. Once you’ve saved the quote, click the Connect with PO button in the quote detailed view to trigger the app checks against the linked client PO. If you don’t click this button, the quote won’t be linked to the selected client PO.

When a quote is linked to a client PO number and saved, the app runs three checks against the linked client PO:

1. Status check – is the PO status still ‘Open’?
2. Currency check – does the quote's currency match the PO's currency?
3. Fund check – is the quote amount (incl. VAT) at or below the PO's remaining amount? If the PO has no remaining amount yet — for example, this is the first quote linked to it — the app checks against the client PO value instead.

If all the above checks pass:

• The PO Connection Status field is set to Accounted under (along with the client PO number);
• The Open Estimates, Closed Estimates, and Invoiced Amount figures are updated on the Client PO record;
• The remaining client PO budget is recalculated by summing all linked quotes across their lifecycle stages.

If any check fails, the PO Connection Status field is set to Not accounted, along with the client PO number, and the app automatically sends a Scoro notification to the quote owner, with a direct link to the quote. Notifications are only sent on failure – successful connections don’t trigger one.

4.3. Relinking or unlinking a quote from a client purchase order

To change the client purchase order linked to a quote, modify the quote and select a different PO from the PO number dropdown field. To unlink the client PO, simply clear the field selection. Once you’ve saved the changes, the link with the previous client PO is removed, and the PO’s balances are updated to remove that quote’s contribution.

4.4. Monitoring the client purchase order

In the Client purchase orders module, click on the client PO record to see a consolidated view of all budget activity in one place:

• The current remaining amount and total order value
• Open estimates, closed estimates, and invoiced totals, broken down separately
• % consumption and % invoiced at a glance
• Every linked quote, with its status, author, amount, and project

4.5. Customizing the client purchase orders list view

The Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app’s list view displays all client purchase orders you’ve created, plus ones created by other users if your permissions allow accessing them. You can use filters to display client POs by owner, status, tags, creation, modification, and due dates, companies, contact persons, currency, and more.

To customize the columns in the Client purchase orders list view:

1. Click the View button and select Data columns.
2. Enable the checkboxes for the data types you want to display, drag and drop them to rearrange them as needed, and click Display to apply the changes.

  You can also enable a summary bar at the top of the list with your selected metrics:

1. Click the View button and select Summary bar.
2. Enable the checkboxes for the metrics you want to display in the summary bar, drag and drop to rearrange them as needed, and click Display to apply the changes.

4.6. Using the client purchase order board view

You can also use the board view of the Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app if you prefer it over a simple list view. It can be filtered by owners (if you have access to client POs of other users), PO statuses, client companies, contact persons, creation and due dates, etc. 

The board view of the app can also be customized as needed:

• Click the Columns button to choose what data type you want to display as columns.
• Click the View button to uncover even more board customization options:
  • Rows – click this if you want to add horizontal dimension to the board view and group them by a specific data type like owner, status, client company, etc.
  • Sorted by – click this to sort the client POs in the board by PO numbers, or select Drag and drop if you want to change the order of the POs yourself.
  • Field data – click this button and select what details you want to display on the client PO card on the board.
  • Summary bar – click this button and select the necessary metrics to display them in the summary bar right above the board.

5. Troubleshooting

Here are the most common Client Purchase Orders (quote-based) app issues and how to solve them:

• The PO connection status on the quote is 'Not accounted':
  • If the PO connection status field displays 'Not accounted' on your quote, check the reason provided with the status. Most commonly, the 'Not accounted' status for the client purchase order connection appears if:
    • the client purchase order is closed;
    • there is a mismatch between the currency on the client purchase order and the quote;
    • or the quote value exceeds the remaining budget on the linked client purchase order.
• PO balances didn't update after saving a quote:
  • Confirm the PO Connection Status on the quote shows Accounted under — only connected quotes are included in balance calculations. Also check that the quote's status is assigned to one of the three budget buckets.
• Quote shows "Not linked" after clearing the PO number:
  • This is expected — when you clear the PO field, the app resets the connection status and updates the previously linked PO's balances to remove that quote's contribution.
• PO is closed but I need to add more quotes:
  • Re-open the PO by changing its Status back to Open. Existing connected quotes remain visible and their balances are unaffected.

6. Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Do client purchase orders affect the revenue forecast?

The data from the Client Purchase Orders – Quote-Based app isn’t currently included in the revenue forecast. Learn more about revenue recognition and forecasting.