> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.flowretail.com/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.flowretail.com/docs/advanced-features/inter-store-trade/buy-from-another-store.md).

# Buy from another store

Order stock from your central warehouse, or take goods off another shop's incoming delivery for a waiting customer.

For a shop in a chain this is the everyday job: ordering replenishment from the central warehouse. The same screens also let you take goods off another shop's incoming delivery when a customer is standing in front of you.

***

{% hint style="info" %}
These steps use Flow Client. For Flow Assistant, see [Inter-store trade in Assistant](/docs/getting-started/software-clients/assistant/inter-store-trade.md).
{% endhint %}

## Before you start

* Inter-store trade set up for both stores — see [Set up inter-store trade](/docs/advanced-features/inter-store-trade/set-up-inter-store-trade.md).
* A supplier in your store that represents the store you are buying from.

***

## Order stock from the warehouse

This is an ordinary purchase order. The only thing that makes it inter-store is the supplier.

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

#### Start a purchase order

In **Purchasing and receiving**, create a purchase order against the supplier that represents the warehouse.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Add what you need

Add products as normal. If the warehouse has the goods coming in from its own supplier, the form shows what they have and offers **Reserve against purchase** — pick the line you want to draw on and the price fills in from it.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Send it

The order is a draft until you send it to the supplier, and the warehouse sees nothing until then. Sending it is what creates their sale and puts your order in front of them.
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

You do not have to tie the order to a specific incoming line. Send it as it is and the warehouse covers it from stock they already hold.

{% hint style="warning" %}
A fixed package cannot go on a purchase order to another store. Order the components instead, or ask the sending store to put the package on their side of the sale.
{% endhint %}

***

## Take goods for a waiting customer

When a customer wants something you do not have, you can reserve it off another store's incoming delivery without leaving the sale.

{% hint style="info" %}
This finds goods that are **on their way in** to another store, not goods already sitting on their shelf. If the warehouse has it in stock, raise a purchase order against them instead and they will cover it from stock. In Flow Assistant, with the **Central warehouse** extension, the warehouse's shelf is listed too, and ordering from it creates that purchase order for you.
{% endhint %}

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

#### Add the product to the order

Add it as you would on any sale. Flow Client asks you to add a customer if the order does not have one — the goods are being ordered for someone. An offer cannot reserve goods, so make it an order first.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Open Order / reservation on the line

Select the line and choose **Order / reservation**.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Switch to Other locations

The dialog opens on **My store**. Switch to **Other locations** to see what your other stores have on order.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Pick a line

Each row is one store's incoming purchase order line: the purchase order number, how much of it is still free to take, the expected delivery date, and any note that store wrote about the goods — a delay, a quality remark, who they were meant for.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Confirm

Flow Client reserves the quantity and creates the purchase order to that store for you. The line is now marked **Inter-store** and names the purchase order and store it is linked to.
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

{% hint style="info" %}
Only lines you can actually draw on are listed: purchase orders at other stores that are on their way in, bought from a real supplier, with something still free. An order that is itself an inter-store purchase is left out — those goods are already promised to someone internally, and passing them on again would stack a markup at every step.
{% endhint %}

***

## Changing an order you have sent

For a line reserved to a customer, **the sale is in charge**. Change the customer line, release it, or delete it, and the purchase order follows — down to nothing if the customer line goes. That is why such a purchase order line cannot be edited directly. If you want an extra one for stock, add a **new line** to the purchase order; it then lives on its own.

Increasing the quantity is checked against what the other store still has free, and refused if it is not enough.

Lines you ordered for stock rather than for a customer stay ordinary: edit them on the purchase order and the change reaches the sending store.

If the sending store credits the sale before you have received the goods, your line shrinks to match once the return is settled. After that, the quantity on the line can no longer be changed.

***

## Receiving the goods

When the sending store ships, your purchase order moves to <kbd>On the way</kbd> and a goods receipt appears on it, already filled in with their order number and packing list. Nothing has reached your stock yet — the goods are on the road.

Register the receipt as normal when they arrive. Stock goes up at the price on the purchase order line, and any customer line waiting on it flips to covered from stock, ready for collection.

{% hint style="info" %}
Ship in several deliveries and you get one receipt per delivery, each covering only its own lines. Receive whatever actually turned up — Flow Retail does not insist the quantity matches what was ordered.
{% endhint %}

*Last updated 13.10.2026*


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