Sending purchase orders to suppliers by email

Luminous includes a built-in email composer for purchase orders. You can send one PO or many at once — Luminous groups them by supplier, pre-fills recipients, and attaches the PO PDF automatically.

Send from the PO list (single or bulk)

  1. Go to Purchase Orders.
  2. Check the box(es) next to the POs you want to send.
  3. Open Bulk Actions and choose Email (one per supplier).
  4. The composer opens. Luminous groups the selected POs by supplier and shows a preview for each group:
    • To — pulled from the supplier's contact list in Luminous. Add or remove addresses as needed.
    • Subject / Body — rendered from your email template, with merge fields filled in.
    • PDF attachment — the PO PDF, generated with the same export template you use for downloads.
  5. Review the preview, adjust the body or recipients if needed, then click Send.

Each supplier group is sent as a separate email. Sending is queued in the background; the PO's activity log records the send.

Send from a single PO

  1. Open a PO's detail page.
  2. Click Compose email in the Email to supplier section.
  3. Click New Template.
  4. Under Used for, choose Every supplier for a default, or One supplier and pick one. This can't be changed after saving.
  5. Write the subject and body, inserting merge fields from the placeholder menu.
  6. Turn on Attach the PDF and pick a PDF layout if you have more than one.
  7. Click Save template.

Set up email templates

Email templates let you standardise the subject line and body and avoid retyping the same message every time.

  1. Go to Settings → Email Templates.
  2. Select Purchase orders as the document type.
  3. Click Create template.
  4. Write your subject and body. Use the placeholder picker to insert merge fields such as:
    • {{company.name}} — supplier name
    • {{#documents}}PO #{{number}} — {{amount}}{{/documents}} — loop over every PO in the email
    • {{document.requested_ship_date}} — requested ship date (first PO)
    • {{sender.company_name}} — your company name
  5. Toggle Attach PDF on (recommended) and choose an export template if you have more than one.
  6. Save and optionally click Set as default to make it the fallback for all suppliers.

You can also create a supplier-specific template by selecting a supplier when saving — Luminous will use that template automatically whenever you email a PO for that supplier.

Recipient management

Recipients are drawn from the supplier's contact list in Manage → Suppliers. To add or update email addresses, edit the supplier record and add contacts with email addresses. You can also type ad-hoc addresses directly in the composer's To field before sending.

Troubleshooting

SymptomWhat to check
No recipients shownAdd email contacts to the supplier record in Manage → Suppliers
Wrong template appliedCheck whether a supplier-specific template is set for that supplier under Settings → Email Templates
PDF not attachedEnsure Attach PDF is enabled on the template
Send appears stuckDelivery is queued; wait a moment and refresh the PO — the activity log will show the result