Quick start: process your first order

This walks the whole path once, with a real purchase order. Pick a straightforward one for your first run — a PDF from a buyer you already have as a company in Shopify is ideal.

1. Send the order in

Go to Orders and choose New order. You will see two tabs: Upload document and Describe order.

On Upload document, drop your file into the drop zone or click it to browse. When the file is attached, the page confirms it is ready and the button becomes Upload purchase order.

2. Wait while it reads the document

The order appears immediately and shows a processing state while the document is read and matched against Shopify. This usually takes a few seconds. A large scan can take longer.

You do not need to stay on the screen — the order is in your Orders list either way — but there is nothing to do until it finishes.

3. Work through what it asks

When processing finishes you land on the review screen. At the top is a summary of what still needs you, counted as blockers: things that must be settled before a draft can be created.

Each one names a specific decision, such as Choose a Shopify company and location or Choose a Shopify product. Open one, make the choice, and save it. The count drops as you go.

Warnings are different from blockers, but most of them still have to be dealt with. They point at something to check against the source rather than a choice to make — an arithmetic oddity, a line that may not have been read — and you acknowledge them once you have looked. Inventory warnings are the exception and never hold an order up.

When you choose a company or a product, look for the Create a mapping for future orders option. Taking it is what stops the next order from the same buyer asking you the same question. See What happens after you confirm a match.

4. Check the warnings

With the blockers gone, anything left is a warning. Read each one against the source document and acknowledge it.

If any line’s price differs from Shopify’s, you are asked to acknowledge that too, line by line.

5. Create the draft order

Choose Create Shopify draft order. One action prices the order through Shopify and creates the draft from those numbers.

When it succeeds, the screen shows the created state with a link through to the draft in your Shopify admin.

From here it is an ordinary Shopify draft order. Complete it, invoice it, or edit it exactly as you would one you made by hand.

What to do next

Run two or three more orders from the same buyer. You should notice the second one asking fewer questions than the first, because of the mappings you agreed to along the way.