A Purchase Order (PO) is how your team formally authorizes repair work and keeps a record of warranty-related costs. POs are created from Work Orders and give you a structured way to manage expenses, issue back charges, and maintain an audit trail — all without reopening or modifying completed work.
This article covers:
How to create purchase orders from work orders
The difference between positive and negative (back charge) POs
Adding multiple POs to a single work order
Using cost codes
Attaching supporting documentation
Approval and tracking
Creating Purchase Orders From Work Orders
POs are always tied to a Work Order. Once a work order has been created, you can add one or more POs to authorize the associated work and track costs.
POs can be added at any point — including after a work order has been completed — so you don't need to reopen or modify the work order to add financial documentation later.
Positive vs. Negative (Back Charge) POs
There are two types of purchase orders in WarrantyOS:
Positive POs → Authorize payment to a trade or vendor performing repair work. These are the standard PO type.
Back Charge POs → Charge a vendor for work that was their responsibility. Back charges are always entered as negative dollar amounts.
Both types can exist in the same work order. For example, if a subcontractor caused damage that another trade had to repair, you can issue a positive PO to the repair vendor and a back charge PO to the responsible party — all linked to the same work order.
Multiple POs Per Work Order
A single work order can have more than one purchase order attached to it. This is useful when:
Work is split between multiple vendors
You need to issue both a payment PO and a back charge PO for the same issue
Additional costs are identified after the original PO is created
Cost Codes
Cost codes can be added to purchase orders to categorize expenses and support reporting. Your team's cost codes need to be loaded into the system before they can be applied to POs.
Supporting Documentation
Relevant documents — such as invoices, estimates, or photos of completed work — can be attached directly to a purchase order for reference and record-keeping.
Approval and Tracking
Every PO created in WarrantyOS is logged in the History, giving your team a full audit trail of who created each PO, when, and what it was for. This makes it easy to reference past authorizations and track warranty-related spend over time.