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How to send purchase orders (PO) or Request for quotes (RFQ) to suppliers
How to send purchase orders (PO) or Request for quotes (RFQ) to suppliers

Send POs and RFQs to suppliers directly via email from Katana, tracking status.

Dayvid Lorbiecke avatar
Written by Dayvid Lorbiecke
Updated over a week ago

Katana offers sending of purchase orders (POs) and Requests for Quote (RFQs) directly to suppliers via email. This feature allows you to attach documents and ensure that communications are tracked within Katana. Once the initial email has been sent, any replies will continue via the email Inbox that was added to the Reply to field.

Using this feature helps you to make sure that PO documents are attached to the right emails and it gives you an overview of which orders do or do not have documents sent (also applies to outsourced purchase order documents sent to suppliers).

How to email documents for orders

  1. Navigate to a PO card.

  2. Click the Email icon at the top right corner.

    Highlights the mail icon on a purchase order

  3. A side panel will open, allowing you to send order documents with pre-filled data.

    Side panel showing email with documents on a purchase order

    1. Send to - For the recipient's email address where documents will be sent. You can add additional email addresses (up to 10) by separating the addresses with a comma or by pressing "Enter". By default, the email address from the Supplier card will be added.
      A blind carbon copy (Bcc) is also sent to the sender's Katana login email address.

    2. Reply to - The email address where replies will go. This is pre-filled with the sender's login email address. You can add additional email addresses (up to 10) by separating them with a comma or by pressing "Enter".

    3. Subject - Auto-filled field with a default subject. *Maximum length of 78 characters.

    4. Email body - Auto-filled with default text from Katana. *Maximum length of 30,000 characters.


      Note: At the moment, Katana doesn't offer template creation for Subject and Body.

    5. Add documents button - Opens a dropdown that lists all the document types that have been set visible under Settings screen > Print templates tab > Purchase order templates. To add more documents as email attachments, click on each one. *At least one document has to be added.

      Dropdown of documents that can be added to a purchase order email

      To customize print templates, Katana offers a flexible PDF Editor, which allows complete customization of design, data fields and special components (barcodes, images, logos). See how to create print templates.

      Tip: To view a document preview, generate a PDF from the PO card top corner. Any changes made here will not save when closing the document sending side panel.

      Print option in a purchase order

  4. Click Send.

    Send option for a email sending from a purchase order

    1. Email is sent from Katana's delivery service email address.

      Example email

    2. A blind carbon copy (Bcc) is sent to the sender's Katana login email address.

    3. Replies are sent to the address(es) added to the Reply to field.

  5. The Email icon on the PO shows the status of the last sent documents.

    1. Not sent - No documents have been sent for this order

      Failed email status
    2. Sending - Sometimes takes several minutes to send documents. During this time the Sending status will display

      Sending email status
    3. Failed - The documents failed to send. You will need to try again.

    4. Sent - Documents have been sent.

      Sent email status
  6. You can send documents from a PO as many times as needed by clicking on the Email icon.

Note: You can only send 1 PO documents email at a time. Katana doesn't currently support bulk sending.


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