eCommerce: provide a purchase order option for customers

Set up purchase orders for your customers

You can offer a purchase order (PO) to your customers alongside your existing payment methods.

A purchase order is a document requesting products from a seller, with the agreement to pay on delivery. Some businesses that manage inventory and delivery dates use purchase orders to manage their payment workflows.

This payment option is distinct from most typical online payments, where customers pay first  through a payment provider, and receive goods after payment.

Availability: depends on your LearnUpon plan

Your purchase order workflow

When you add a purchase order option to your store:

• your customer generates the purchase order by completing the form at checkout
• the order appears in the eCommerce Orders page, along with all other orders
• your customer receives an automated email about their purchase and with payment instructions
• when you receive payment, an admin manually marks the order as Paid
• the customer receives an automated email confirming payment, and providing a link to their courses

Customer view: buying content with a purchase order

Customers can browse and select courses or learning journeys. At checkout, they:

• select Purchase Order
• complete the associated form with their buyer details
• select Pay
• see a confirmation page and an order number onscreen
• receive an automated email with payment details - customer must complete the payment
• receive an automated email receipt after an admin manually confirms their order as Paid

When customers view their accounts on the eCommerce platform, their Payment State is Balance Due until they pay for the courses and learning journeys. The courses are not available until the customer pays the invoice.

When the organization receives payment, their admin can change the the Payment State to Paid.

The following screenshot shows a sample customer’s Orders & Returns page with 2 orders marked as Balance Due.

Prerequisites

This option is available for the eCommerce platform powered by Spree only. It’s not available for the legacy eCommerce store.

See eCommerce: migrate to the new eCommerce platform  for the instructions to set up eCommerce powered by Spree.

You can set up purchase orders alongside other payment methods during your initial migration, or add purchase orders later.

Access permissions

• admins with full portal permissions: can set up purchase orders and email templates, and manage orders on your Spree eCommerce platform

Ask your Customer Success Manager to add the new eCommerce features to your portal. You set up each portal in your realm separately.

One-time setup: add a purchase order option

This setup lets you create a purchase order with default fields for order details. To add further fields, see the Metafield Definitions link in the Display settings page.

As part of an initial migration to eCommerce powered by Spree, see eCommerce: migrate to the new eCommerce platform . 

Add the purchase order option when you set up other payment providers.

Adding a purchase order option to an existing store

1. From main navigation select Go to eCommerce.
2. From eCommerce’s main navigation select Settings > Payments.
3. From Available Payment Methods, for Purchase Order,  select + Add.
4. From Purchase Order > Display settings setup page:
   • choose a Name for your purchase order
   • for Display choose if you want the purchase order visible in the admin panel, the storefront or (default) both areas
   • for Auto Capture: this setting manages recording payment methods. For use in LearnUpon leave the setting at default. LearnUpon manages the transaction so payment only occurs when an admin records the payment
   • select Create to show additional fields you can add to the purchase order
5. Select the additional fields you need, and optionally drag and drop the fields to change their display order.
6. Select Update to confirm the purchase order settings.
7. Select Back to Dashboard to finish.

The following screenshot shows the setup page with default settings, with Create highlighted.

The following screenshot shows the setup page after selecting Create, and after selecting the additional fields.

Confirm availability of a purchase order

1. From the eCommerce admin page select Settings > Payment Methods, and confirm that Purchase Order is now available as a payment option.
2. Open a new browser window and navigate to your store. Select an item to buy to test the purchase order workflow with a sample customer account.

One time setup: add the email templates for the purchase order workflow

LearnUpon provides 2 default templates for eCommerce powered by Spree:

• Invoice email (via Store). This email provides your invoice with payment terms
• Purchase Confirmations (LearnUpon eCommerce powered by Spree). This email goes to buyers automatically when the admin reviews the purchase order and changes its status to paid

See Manage custom email templates for instructions about setting up email templates.

1. Review the default template content. You can send the template emails with default wording, or edit the templates as required for your organization’s needs.  
2. Save your changes.

Admin task: mark orders as paid

When your organization receives payment, an admin needs to manually mark your customer’s orders as Paid.

1. From main navigation select Go to eCommerce.
2. From eCommerce’s main navigation select Orders.
3. Optional - select Filters to create a filter for orders, for example:
   • Payment State of Balance Due
   • PO Number
4. Select each order to view its full details.
5. From Payments select More (aka 3-dot menu) > Mark as paid.
6. In the confirmation dialog select Confirm.

The order page refreshes and shows the order as Paid.

The following screenshot shows a sample order, with the Mark as paid option highlighted.

See:

• eCommerce: migrate to the new eCommerce platform
• eCommerce: synchronize customer and learner accounts
• Manage custom email templates