PO Engine help

Last updated 2026-09-07

These are the questions merchants actually ask, including the awkward ones. If yours is not here, write to me@majedesigns.dev. Support is in writing, and answered in writing.

Getting an order in

What can I send it?

A purchase order as a PDF, an Excel file, or a CSV. There is no template: your buyers keep sending whatever they already send you.

It says my PDF has no text in it. What does that mean?

Your buyer sent a scan or a photograph of a printed order rather than the original file. There is nothing in it for the app to read, in the same way there is nothing to copy and paste from a photograph. Ask them for the PDF their system produced and it will read straight through. Nothing was charged for the attempt.

It read an old .xls file as unreadable.

The old Excel format from before 2007 is the one thing the app does not read. Open the file and save it as .xlsx or .csv and it will read. Every program that can open an .xls can do this.

I dropped the same order in twice. Have I been charged twice?

No. The app recognises the same file arriving again and gives you back the order it already read, rather than reading it a second time. One purchase order is one order, however many times it is dropped on the page.

When it is not sure

Why is it asking me about a line instead of just matching it?

Because two of your products fit it about equally well, or because the code on the line disagrees with the description next to it. It could guess, and a guess that goes out on a real order is worse than a question. Pick the right one once and it will not ask again for that customer.

Do I have to correct the same thing on every order?

No. A correction is remembered against that customer, so the next order from them matches it without asking. Corrections are kept per customer, so teaching it what one buyer means by a word never changes what another buyer's orders mean.

I taught it something wrong. How do I undo it?

Everything the app has learned is listed under “What this app has learned”, grouped by the buyer it was learned from and searchable by the wording, the product, or the customer. Change it to point at a different product, or forget it entirely. The next order uses the new answer immediately.

One of my learned lines says the product is no longer in my catalogue.

You deleted or archived that product in Shopify after teaching the app to use it. Point that line at the product you sell now, or forget it and let ordinary matching take over.

It could not work out which of my customers sent an order.

A name on its own is not enough to be sure, because two businesses can share one. The app wants the name plus something that agrees with it, usually the delivery postcode or the email domain. Pick the customer yourself and the order carries on normally.

The draft order

Where do the prices come from?

Your own catalogue, and your B2B price lists where the customer has one. Never from the buyer's document. If their paperwork says one price and you charge another, the order is priced at yours and the difference is shown to you as a warning.

Will it send anything to my customer?

No. The app creates a draft order and stops. It never completes an order, takes a payment, sends an invoice, or emails your buyer. Those are all yours to do in Shopify, in your own time.

How do I find everything this app has created?

Every draft order it writes is tagged po-engine. Filter your draft orders by that tag in Shopify and you have all of them.

It will not create an order and says the company has several locations.

A B2B order is priced by location, so the app needs to know which one. The delivery address on the order did not single one out. Add the postcode to the right location in Shopify, or create that one order in Shopify yourself.

What it costs

What counts as an order?

A purchase order that actually became a draft order. A file that could not be read, a document you discarded, and a retry all cost nothing. You are never charged for something that did not work.

What happens when I reach my limit?

The app tells you before you get there, and stops rather than charging you past your plan. Nothing already in the queue is lost, and your allowance renews at the date shown on the plan card. Upgrading takes effect immediately if you would rather carry on now.

Does the free plan run out?

No. Fifteen orders every month, renewed every month, for as long as the app is installed. It is not a trial.

If I downgrade, do I lose the rest of the month I paid for?

No. A downgrade takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for. An upgrade takes effect at once, because you asked for it now.

Your customers' data

Do you keep the files my customers send me?

No. The file is read when you upload it and then discarded. What is kept is the order lines read out of it, and a fingerprint of the file used to recognise a duplicate so you are not charged twice.

How do I delete an order and everything read from it?

Open the document and choose Delete. It asks you to confirm, because it cannot be undone: there is no copy of the file to restore. The record that a draft order was created stays, because you were charged for it and it still exists in your Shopify.

What happens if I uninstall?

Everything for your shop is removed straight away, without you having to ask. Reinstalling later starts you exactly where a new shop starts.

A customer has asked what you hold about them.

Shopify passes that request to the app, and it appears in the app under Privacy requests with everything held about them, ready to send on. If they ask to be forgotten, Shopify passes that too and their orders, the corrections on them, and what the app learned from them are all removed.