Software reviews

Yes. Purchase orders are included in every Xero UK plan, from Ignite at £18 a month. You can raise, send and approve a PO, then turn it into a bill. Xero does not show the order against a construction budget line or flag when a job is over budget, which is why contractors on Xero often add a construction tool or an approvals app on top.

Built-in purchase orders come with Xero (from £18 a month), QuickBooks Online Plus (£56) and Sage 50 Accounts Professional (£234). Zahara publishes plans from £159 a month for its Teams plan. Planyard includes purchase orders in its Professional plan at £123 per project manager per month. LiveCosts, Archdesk, Access Coins Evo and CloudB2B price on application, and ApprovalMax sizes UK plans by the number of documents approved. All prices exclude VAT.

A purchase order buys goods or a defined service at an agreed price: materials, plant hire, a skip. A subcontract order lets a package of work under a subcontract, usually paid through monthly applications with retention and variations. Some tools handle both in one place. In Planyard, purchase orders are in the Professional plan and subcontract orders in Ultimate.

Three-way matching checks the supplier invoice against the purchase order and the delivery note before the invoice is approved. It catches short deliveries, wrong prices and items that were never ordered. Our guide to three-way matching before Xero explains how to set it up.