FAQs

Q: What is AWS Purchase Order Management and how does it work?

AWS Purchase Order Management gives you the ability to define and manage your purchase orders (POs) for AWS services in a way that meets your unique business needs. You can configure multiple POs and define the rules of how they map to your invoices through PO line item configurations. You can define separate POs for different time periods, invoices, and AWS seller entities. You can also track the status as well as balance of your POs, and configure email contacts to receive PO balance tracking and expiration notifications. You have complete control to update your PO configuration at any time.

Learn more about AWS Purchase Order Management here, or reference the Managing your Purchase Orders user guide.

Q: What are purchase order line items?

Purchase order line items give you the flexibility to define various PO configurations according to your needs. By selecting different line item start and end periods, as well as line item types, you can define multiple configurations to match your POs to invoices, as well as track balances over different time periods and invoice types. To learn more, see Setting up purchase order configurations.

Q: How does purchase order balance tracking work?

Purchase order balance tracking is a feature that enables you to report and track the balance of your POs against your invoiced amounts. When adding/editing your PO details, you have the option to enable balance tracking and input amounts for your PO line items. Whenever an invoice is generated and matched with your PO, the balance of the corresponding line item as well as your PO will be reduced. If you have configured contacts on your PO, they will receive email notifications when the PO line item balance falls below a 75% threshold.

Q: Will my purchase order no longer be used for invoices once it runs out of
balance?

Your invoices are matched to your POs based on various criteria, such as effective and expiration periods, AWS seller entity (“Bill from”), line item type (e.g. AWS subscription, AWS Marketplace, AWS Monthly usage, or ALL), and line item start and end periods. PO balance is not an important criteria used for determining invoice association. When your PO runs out of balance, and in case you have not taken any action, such as updating the balance or adding a different PO, your PO will continue being associated with the same types of invoices as before.

Q: What are purchase order notifications?

You can configure contacts on your POs to receive email notifications for your POs running out of balance or nearing expiration. PO notifications enable you to proactively take actions to ensure the validity of your POs, and achieve on-time and accurate payments.

Q: What is purchase order status management?

You can easily track the status of your POs on the Purchase Orders dashboard. When adding/updating your PO, you can input its effective and expiration periods. Your PO is Active during this time period and is used for matching with invoices. Once your PO is past its expiration date, it’s status is automatically updated to Expired and it is no longer used for your invoices.

If you want to pause using an Active PO for your invoices, you can update its status to Suspended at any time by choosing Change status from your Purchase Order Details page. Suspended POs are not used for invoice association. You can change the status back to Active at any time to activate the PO for invoicing. This feature is helpful if you want to use a one-time PO for a specific purchase. You can do so by adding your one-time PO and suspending your other active POs. Once your purchase is complete and invoice is generated with your one-time PO, you can again activate your other POs, and suspend (or delete) the one-time PO.

Q: How many purchase orders can I add?

You can add up to 100 active purchase orders with up to 100 line items for each purchase order.

Q: How many email contacts can I configure to receive PO alerts?

You can add up to 10 email contacts for each purchase order.

Q: Is there a cost associated with using this feature?

No, the feature is provided free of charge.

Q: Can I update my invoicing and payment terms using this feature?

AWS Purchase Order Management is provided by AWS for your convenience. Any use of AWS Purchase Order Management does not modify the agreement between you and AWS governing your access or use of AWS services. For any questions related to payment terms, please reach out to Customer Support.

Q: Can I add purchase orders to my AWS Marketplace transactions? 

AWS Marketplace gives you the option to add purchase order numbers when subscribing to SaaS contracts. If you add a purchase order number that matches with one of the existing purchase order IDs in AWS Purchase Order Management console, then AWS will create a new line item type called “AWS Marketplace Transaction” under the same purchase order ID. A “purchase order number” in AWS Marketplace is synonymous with “purchase order ID”. For example, if you have an existing purchase order ID “1234” in AWS Purchase Order Management console and enter purchase order number “1234” in AWS Marketplace, a new line item type “AWS Marketplace Transaction” will be automatically created under “1234” in AWS Purchase Order Management console. However, if you are entering a new purchase order number is AWS Marketplace that does not match with a purchase order ID, AWS will create a new purchase order ID in the AWS Purchase Order Management Console. For example, if you enter “poc1” as the “purchase order number” in AWS marketplace and if it does not match with an existing purchase order ID, AWS will create a new purchase order ID “poc1”.

Refer to the AWS Marketplace homepage to learn more about transacting in AWS Marketplace.