Submitting a purchase order to the factory
Send a draft PO to your factory through the portal or by email, see who was told, and keep track of the spec the factory was sent.
A draft purchase order is invisible to the factory. Submitting it is the moment the factory is asked to make the goods. You can submit through the factory portal or, for a factory without a login, by email.
#Before you submit
Open the draft PO and check:
- each line's quantities and buy prices (look for $0.00 lines),
- the Factory ETD and Customer required by dates,
- Deliver to (your warehouse or direct to the customer — see Choosing the delivery address on a PO),
- Notes to factory, and any Attachments.
#Step by step: submit to a factory on the portal
- Open the draft PO.
- Press Submit to Factory, then confirm.
What happens:
- The status becomes Submitted.
- The PO appears on the factory's board in their portal.
- People at the factory with factory emails on are emailed, in English and Chinese.
- The confirmation message tells you who was emailed, or why nobody was.
- The exchange rate and the per-unit freight and branding costs are captured for margin reporting.
Good to know
If your account has invoicing switched on and an order on the PO is on hold for an unpaid deposit, submission is refused with a message naming the order. Nothing goes to the factory. Release the hold once the deposit is paid, then submit. See Invoices, deposits and credit notes.
#Step by step: email a PO to a factory not on the portal
- Open the PO and press ✉ Email factory.
- Choose the recipients, add an optional message, choose artwork to attach, and optionally include a PO summary PDF.
- Check the preview, which shows English and Chinese.
- Press Send email.
From Draft or Not Approved, this email is the submission. The PO becomes Submitted exactly as if you had pressed Submit to Factory.
The PO then shows an ✉ Emailed to Supplier badge with the date it last went out, and below it the delivery state:
| Shown | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Sent | The email left Flyte. |
| Delivered | The factory's mail server accepted it. Treat this as fact. |
| Opened | An open was detected. Treat this as a hint only. |
| Email bounced | They do not have the PO. Chase it the same day. |
Good to know
Many business mail systems block open tracking, and it often cannot load from China. No "opened" mark tells you nothing; the PO may well have been read.
Each PO email carries its own reply address, so when the factory hits reply their answer lands in that PO's Factory messages, marked with ✉.
Because an emailed factory cannot press buttons in Flyte, you move its PO along yourself. See Purchase order statuses.
#Spec as sent, and Compare
Each time a PO is sent (Submit, Resubmit or Email factory), Flyte records each product's spec at that moment. On the PO's Products tab, each card shows Spec as sent on
If you edit the product afterwards, the card shows Product has changed since this PO was sent. Press Compare to see Sent on
The factory keeps seeing the as-sent spec. If a change matters, tell them in the PO's messages or resubmit the PO.
Drafts always show the live product, because nothing has been sent yet.
#Resubmitting
When the factory requests changes, the PO goes to Not Approved. Make your changes with Edit PO, then press Resubmit to Factory. See Factory change requests and price proposals.
#Common questions
The factory got no email. Read the message shown after submitting; it says who was emailed or why not. Check Factory emails on the factory's people.
Does emailing a PO that is already in production change its status? No. Emailing only acts as the submission from Draft or Not Approved.