Say what the job needs. The PO follows.
Traditionally, turning a field request into a finished purchase order takes hours — sometimes days — of relaying between the field and the office. With Punch, it takes 60 seconds: talk to Punch from a phone, an email, or the portal, and the PO is built with cost codes applied and materials assigned to the right areas and budgets. Whether it routes internally for approval first is your company's call — you configure it. From there, the order stays tracked.
Every order is a relay race between the field and the office
The field calls or texts what they need. Someone in the office translates that into a PO by finding the right job, cost code, and supplier, then emails it out and hopes for a confirmation.
Under load, that relay breaks: orders go out late, cost codes get guessed, confirmations go unchased, and nobody can say what was actually committed until the invoices arrive.
One conversation. 60 seconds to a finished PO.
Chat with Punch in the portal, email it like a coworker, or submit from the mobile app on site.
- 01
Talk
Tell Punch what you need in chat, by email, or from a quick form on the job site.
- 02
The PO takes shape
Watch Punch create and edit the purchase order in real time as you chat. Cost codes are applied automatically, and materials can be assigned to different project areas and budgets — no lookups, no guessing.
- 03
Punch checks it against your playbook
Punch analyzes the order against your company’s playbook: it suggests items you might be missing, adds relevant notes, and flags anything that looks incorrect — before anyone signs off.
- 04
Approval runs on your rules
Your company configures how orders move — including whether a PO routes internally for approval first. When it reaches you, review and approve with one click.
- 05
The order stays tracked
Supplier confirmations and delivery updates flow back in, and Punch sends order-status follow-ups so nothing goes quiet. When the truck arrives, anyone can snap the delivery ticket — Punch reads it and logs the delivery against the PO, so “delivered to date” reflects what actually came off the truck. When the order ships in pieces, each partial-shipment invoice rolls up against the PO — and every PO carries a running summary of what’s been billed and delivered to date, all in one place.
- 06
Every PO becomes spend data
Each order adds to a structured record of what you paid, for what, and from whom. That history rolls up across jobs by material, supplier, or cost code, with price drift visible over time and spend reports you can pull whenever you need them.
Order what's approved, from the right supplier, at the agreed price.
Before Punch sends a single PO, it checks the order against the rules your team set. Three hard guardrails mean no workarounds and no surprises.
Off-list orders don't go out
Admins and purchasing coordinators define which materials can be ordered per project or company-wide. If the order contains something not on the list, Punch blocks it before it reaches the supplier.
Orders only go to vetted vendors
Your approved-supplier list travels with every project. Punch will not send a PO to a supplier who isn't on it, preventing unapproved substitutions and rogue vendor relationships.
Pre-negotiated rates, automatically applied
Upload your negotiated price books per project, and Punch applies those rates when the PO is built. Field teams benefit from contracts the office negotiated without needing to look anything up.
Procurement controls are configured by admins, purchasing coordinators, and other approved users. Read the full guide to procurement controls →
Where this sits in the flow
Purchase orders are the commitment step in bid-to-books: what the field needs becomes a clean, tracked commitment on its way to the books.
How work moves through this step
In to Punch
- Supplier quotes and uploaded price books
- Order confirmations
- Delivery updates
Out from Punch
- RFQs sent to suppliers
- Purchase orders emailed to suppliers
- Order status follow-ups
- PO and commitment data synced to accounting
Connection: Supplier pricing arrives by email or file upload; committed costs sync to your accounting system
From a real job
“I can place an order from the truck in the time it used to take to find the right cost code.”
Related reading
Construction Purchase Orders
How POs work in construction, common mistakes, and manual vs. automated workflows.
Read moreGuideMaterial Order Tracking
The delivery side of the order covers tracking, supplier coordination, and delay prevention.
Read moreProductSupplier Pricing & RFQs
Get competitive pricing before the PO goes out.
Read moreProductWarehouse Inventory
Orders routed to your warehouse or yard stay tracked as stock or staged for a job.
Read moreSee Punch work on your own workflow.
It's a working session, not a slide deck. Bring a real PO, an invoice, or a daily report. You'll use Punch on it live.