Short answer: treat an incoming buyer purchase order as a source document, not an instruction to create an order automatically. Extract the lines, match them to your Shopify catalog, check the buyer, quantities, packs and price basis, then create a Shopify draft only after someone has reviewed the result.
That distinction matters for wholesale teams. A PDF may say “12 cases,” a buyer may use an old SKU, and a price may be listed per case while Shopify stores the product price per unit. If the conversion happens silently, a tidy-looking order can still be wrong.
This guide covers a practical workflow for incoming buyer POs that you sell against. It is not about supplier purchase orders used to replenish your own inventory.
What a Shopify draft order is for
A Shopify draft order is a working sales order inside Shopify. Shopify describes draft orders as useful for sales made through channels such as phone, chat or in person, and for wholesale-rate sales. A merchant can update a draft, send an invoice from it, or complete it later. Creating a draft does not automatically reserve inventory unless a separate reservation is used. Shopify’s DraftOrderCreate documentation explains the available actions and that default inventory reservation limitation.
For a wholesale operation, that makes the draft a useful destination for a reviewed buyer PO. It still needs review: a draft is not proof that the source document was interpreted correctly.
The problem with a “PDF to order” shortcut
Consider a fictional PO from Northline Outdoor Supply:
| PO line | What it appears to say | What still needs checking |
|---|---|---|
TRAIL-OLV-7 |
3 cases | How many sellable units are in a case? |
TRAIL-SND-7 |
8 each | Does the old buyer SKU map to an active Shopify variant? |
TRAIL-OLV-7 |
$450 | Is that $450 per case or per individual unit? |
The document is evidence, not a database record. The safe process is to preserve its original meaning, identify what is uncertain, and make a person decide before Shopify receives a draft.
A practical six-step workflow
1. Keep the original PO and give it a reference
Start with the original PDF, spreadsheet, pasted text or inbound email. Keep its buyer reference and source intact. Tradefold accepts PDF, CSV, Excel-compatible spreadsheets, text and inbound-email order content, retaining the source with the review workspace. Do not overwrite the PO with a corrected interpretation; record the correction in review.
2. Extract lines, but leave uncertainty visible
Read the item description, SKU, quantity, stated unit and stated price. Extraction can reduce retyping, especially for a consistent format, but it should not invent missing details. A PDF scan, faint table, abbreviations or a price column without a label are all reasons to stop and review.
In Tradefold, a line can remain unresolved while the rest of the order is prepared. This is preferable to guessing a product match or assuming a dollar-denominated amount is USD. Tradefold supports Shopify store currencies; Tradefold does not convert between them.
3. Match against the Shopify catalog
Match the buyer’s SKU or description to an active Shopify variant. Check the product title, option, SKU and catalog currency. If the buyer calls an item “Olive Trail 7” while Shopify calls it “Vela Trail Shield – Olive / 7,” the match should be visible to the reviewer. Do not approve a lookalike just because the name is close. A checked buyer-specific alias can be saved for later imports, but a changed PO still needs review.
4. Convert cases to Shopify units explicitly
Shopify draft lines count units of the selected variant. When that variant represents one individual item and the PO requests 3 cases of 6, the resulting draft needs 18 units. If the variant itself represents a complete six-item case, the correct quantity is three; do not multiply it again.
The reviewer should confirm two things:
- The PO line truly means cases rather than individual items.
- The pack contains six units for this buyer and product.
For the fictional Northline order, 3 cases × 6 units per case = 18 Shopify units. Tradefold shows the case multiplier and keeps the case-versus-each decision in review. Buyer-specific case rules can be saved once they have been verified, then checked again when the incoming order changes.
5. Decide which price is authoritative
Wholesale POs often expose the hardest question: should the draft use the PO price, the current Shopify catalog price, or a separately agreed buyer price?
Tradefold presents these as a review decision. The reviewer can use a reviewed source price, catalog price, or an explicitly saved buyer price agreement. A buyer price list requires a reference and is stored per individual unit with a currency and optional expiry date. It is not a synchronization with Shopify B2B company catalogs or quantity tiers.
For example, if the PO says $450 per case and the confirmed pack is six, the reviewer can see the arithmetic as $450 ÷ 6 = $75 per unit before approving it. If the document only says $450 with no basis, the right action is to check the source or buyer agreement, not divide it automatically.
6. Review, calculate and explicitly approve the draft
Before creating anything in Shopify, check the buyer, product matches, final unit quantities, price choice, currency and any remaining warnings. Then prepare the calculation and approve draft creation.
Once approved, Tradefold creates a Shopify draft order. The draft can then be reviewed in Shopify for addresses, tax, shipping and payment terms. Those values depend on the merchant’s Shopify setup and the available order data; they should not be assumed from the PO.
If you need a pre-payment document, Tradefold can prepare a pro-forma PDF from an approved Shopify draft. It labels the document as a pro forma, not a tax invoice or payment receipt.
A short checklist for the reviewer
Before clicking approval, ask:
- Is this the correct buyer and PO reference?
- Does every buyer SKU point to the intended Shopify variant?
- Are “case” and “each” correctly identified?
- Is every case multiplier confirmed?
- Is the price per unit, per case, catalog price or an agreed buyer price?
- Does the currency match the Shopify catalog and buyer agreement?
- Are tax, shipping, addresses and payment terms checked in Shopify where required?
That keeps a questionable assumption visible while it can still be corrected.
Start with a real incoming buyer PO
Tradefold is for merchants who receive wholesale buyer POs and want a controlled route into Shopify drafts. Eligible stores can try the workflow for 14 days with up to 10 successfully created draft orders. Paid plans are $99 USD/month for up to 100 drafts and $199 USD/month for up to 300 drafts.
Install Tradefold from the Shopify App Store and run one representative PO through review before making it part of your team’s process.
Keep reading
Read our guide to case packs and buyer prices, check pricing and the trial allowance, or get help with your first order.