Posto vs. Shopify's built-in purchase orders

The short version

Choose Shopify's built-in purchase orders if you already know what to order and how much, and you want everything inside the Shopify admin. Choose Posto if the hard part is deciding what to reorder, when, and how much, and you want the order sent to your supplier from the same place.

What Shopify's purchase orders do well

• They live in your Shopify admin, with suppliers, payment terms, and supplier currencies.
• Costs and supplier SKUs fill in from your previous orders with the same supplier.
• You can add products by search, by CSV, or with a barcode scanner.
• You can export a purchase order as a PDF to send to your supplier.
• Receiving happens on a linked inventory transfer, where you can accept, reject, or cancel items across multiple shipments, with a barcode scanner if you like.
• You can add shipping, customs duties, and other fees to each shipment and compare the agreed cost with the actual cost.

Where Posto goes further

• It tells you what to reorder. Posto forecasts demand from your sales, plans for Black Friday and the holiday peak, and leaves stockout days out of demand. Shopify's purchase order documentation doesn't include forecasting or reorder suggestions.
• It tells you how much, and why. Every recommendation shows its working, plus the sales at risk if you wait.
• It applies supplier rules for you. Quantities round up to each supplier's minimum order and case pack. Shopify's migration guide says these details can only be stored as metafields, which purchase order calculations don't use.
• It uses real delivery times. Once 3 orders from a supplier have arrived, Posto times your orders by how long deliveries actually took, not the lead time you were quoted, and labels it "measured."
• It sends the order. Posto emails the purchase order to your supplier with the PDF attached, and replies come back to your store's inbox. With Shopify, you export the PDF and send it yourself.
• It works out cost per unit. Posto spreads freight, duty, and fees across the order's lines, by value or by units, for a landed cost per unit. Shopify's documentation describes totaling cost adjustments per shipment, not splitting them per unit.
• It can keep cost per item current. If you turn it on, Posto updates Shopify's cost per item when stock arrives, to the latest landed cost or a weighted average. Shopify's migration guide says cost per item stays fixed when you receive a purchase order.
• It warns you early. Optional daily or weekly low-stock emails list what's at or below its reorder point.
• It keeps your history. Posto imports past purchase orders from a CSV, including Stocky exports. Shopify's own migration guide says historical Stocky purchase orders can't be imported into Shopify.

Where Shopify is ahead

• Barcode scanning for adding and receiving products. Posto doesn't have barcode scanning.
• Supplier currencies on purchase orders. Each Posto order is in one currency, your store's by default.
• Multiple shipments per order, with accept, reject, and cancel on each item.
• No extra app. It's already in your Shopify admin.

Can you use both?

You can, but pick one place to manage purchase orders. Posto keeps its own purchase order records and doesn't read Shopify's purchase orders or transfers, so running the same order in both means tracking it twice.

Sources

Shopify Help Center pages on purchase orders, creating and managing purchase orders, inventory transfers for purchase orders, and migrating from Stocky. Checked September 30 and October 3, 2026. Shopify updates these features often, so check the linked pages for the latest.