How to Process PO Acknowledgments and Backorders in Epicor Prophet 21
A purchase order is not confirmed until the supplier acknowledges it, and an acknowledgment only counts if it agrees with what you ordered: same item, unit and quantity, an acceptable price and a ship date on or before the date you need. In Epicor Prophet 21 the buyer checks each acknowledgment against the open PO, records the supplier's promise date on the line and keeps a note of what was confirmed.
Acknowledgments that do not match are where stockouts and surprise invoices start: a partial shipment, a quiet price increase or a supplier who never replied. This guide follows a conceptual walkthrough of a distributor's morning run over five open POs: two clean confirmations, one partial with a backorder, one price change held for the buyer and one overdue reply.
- Who does itBuyer or purchasing coordinator
- How oftenDaily
- Steps12 steps · 7 systems
Watch the full workflow
a conceptual walkthrough of the agent's run, with sample data.
In this conceptual walkthrough, an AI agent works five open POs, 8041–8045, against the written acknowledgment policy ACK-01. It reads each supplier's acknowledgment PDF from the purchasing inbox, opens the PO in a Prophet 21-style PO inquiry screen and compares vendor, item, unit, quantity, price and promise date, logging each check in an evidence workbook. Ridgeline Bearing (PO 8041) and Ironwood Power Transmission (PO 8045) pass, so the agent enters the supplier promise dates and a note, saves, and reopens each PO to confirm the change stuck. Northfield Pneumatics confirms only 60 of 100 on PO 8042, so the agent notes the partial and creates backorder task T-2291. Coastal Seal raises PO 8043 from 18.40 to 19.85 (+7.88%), outside the ±2.00% tolerance, so the agent posts an approval request to the buyer in Teams and leaves the PO price alone. Harbor Fastener has not replied to PO 8044, so the agent schedules one reminder from the approved template, then emails the buyer an exception report.
Conceptual walkthrough: the screens are generic stand-ins modeled on how Epicor Prophet 21 lays out this work, not the product's own interface, and every company, vendor and value is sample data. Workflow and screens vary by ERP version and configuration. No vendor partnership is implied.
- 0:20Sort the purchasing inbox against the open POs
- 0:42Read the supplier acknowledgment
- 0:57Open the PO in Prophet 21
- 1:17Does the acknowledgment pass the policy?
- 2:07Record promise dates and a note, then reopen to verify
- 2:49Work the next clean acknowledgment the same way
- 3:51Is the full quantity confirmed?
- 4:21Create a backorder follow-up task
- 4:59Is the acknowledged price within tolerance?
- 5:28Buyer decides on the price change
- 5:47Send one reminder for an overdue acknowledgment
- 6:23Email the buyer an exception report
Systems involved
You need access to each of these before you start. In the walkthrough the agent works in all of them from one desktop, signed in as the user.
- Epicor Prophet 21 – PO inquiry/maintenanceOpen POs, line quantities and prices, supplier promise dates, internal notes and PO history
- Epicor Prophet 21 – follow-up queueBackorder follow-up task for the unconfirmed quantity
- Microsoft Outlook (web)Purchasing inbox with supplier replies, Sent Items, scheduled reminder and the exception report
- PDF viewerSupplier order acknowledgment PDFs
- ExcelPO-ack-evidence-2026-11-01.xlsx evidence log, one row per PO line
- Microsoft TeamsPurchasing approvals channel for the out-of-tolerance price change
- LaunchAI agent run panelRun plan, policy ACK-01 v3 and the closing summary
What you start with
- Open purchase orders 8041–8045 in Prophet 21
- Supplier acknowledgment emails and PDFs in the purchasing inbox
- Sent PO email for any PO with no reply (to get the sent and due dates)
- Acknowledgment policy ACK-01: quantity and UoM exact, price within ±2.00%, promise on or before required
- Approved supplier reminder template
What you end with
- Supplier promise dates and an internal note on each verified PO
- Backorder follow-up task T-2291 for PO 8042
- Approval request to the buyer for the PO 8043 price change
- Scheduled reminder to Harbor Fastener for PO 8044
- Evidence workbook and exception report emailed to the buyer
The workflow at a glance
Action Decision Human review Select a step to jump to how it's done.
- 01 Action · Microsoft Outlook (web) Sort the purchasing inbox against the open POs
- 02 Action · PDF viewer Read the supplier acknowledgment
- 03 Action · Epicor Prophet 21 – PO inquiry/maintenance Open the PO in Prophet 21
- 04 Decision · Epicor Prophet 21 + Excel Does the acknowledgment pass the policy? Yes Record the promise dates on the PO. No Treat it as an exception: partial, price change or late date.
- 05 Action · Epicor Prophet 21 – PO inquiry/maintenance Record promise dates and a note, then reopen to verify
- 06 Action · Epicor Prophet 21 – PO inquiry/maintenance Work the next clean acknowledgment the same way
- 07 Decision · Epicor Prophet 21 – PO inquiry/maintenance Is the full quantity confirmed? Yes Record the promise dates as a confirmation. No Note the partial and open a backorder follow-up task.
- 08 Action · Epicor Prophet 21 – follow-up queue Create a backorder follow-up task
- 09 Decision · Epicor Prophet 21 + Excel Is the acknowledged price within tolerance? Yes Record it as a confirmation. No Hold the PO unchanged and ask the buyer to decide.
- 10 · Human review · Microsoft Teams Buyer decides on the price change
- 11 Action · Microsoft Outlook (web) Send one reminder for an overdue acknowledgment
- 12 Action · Microsoft Outlook (web) Email the buyer an exception report
Step-by-step: how to do it
-
Action · Microsoft Outlook (web) · 0:20 in the video
Sort the purchasing inbox against the open POs
Start from the list of open POs waiting on an acknowledgment. Open the purchasing inbox and match each supplier reply to a PO number, setting aside anything unrelated. For any PO with no reply, find the PO you sent in Sent Items and note the date it went out and the date you asked the supplier to acknowledge by.
In the videoFive open POs, four replies, one silence.
- PO 8041 · Ridgeline Bearing Co. Acknowledgment attached
- PO 8042 · Northfield Pneumatics 'RE: PO 8042 confirmation (partial)'
- PO 8043 · Coastal Seal & Gasket 'revised pricing'
- PO 8045 · Ironwood Power Transmission 'Confirming PO 8045'
- Weekly vendor fill-rate report Unrelated, no action
- PO 8044 · Harbor Fastener Supply No reply
- Sent
- 10/27
- Ack due
- 10/30
-
-
Action · PDF viewer · 0:42 in the video
Read the supplier acknowledgment
Open the acknowledgment attachment and capture the supplier ID, your PO number, and for every line the item, unit of measure, quantity, unit price and ship or promise date. Read the notes at the bottom too; that is where suppliers mention partials and price changes.
In the videoACK-P21-8041 from Ridgeline Bearing Co.
- Supplier ID
- RID-0418
- Your PO
- 8041
- Ack date
- 11/01/2026
- Ln 1 · 6205-2RS Ball bearing, 2RS seal
- Qty
- 120 EA
- Price
- 4.85
- Promise
- 11/07/2026
- Ln 2 · 6305-ZZ Ball bearing, ZZ shield
- Qty
- 60 EA
- Price
- 7.20
- Promise
- 11/07/2026
- Ln 3 · LUB-EP2-14 EP2 grease, 14 oz
- Qty
- 48 EA
- Price
- 6.15
- Promise
- 11/08/2026
- Note: 'All lines confirmed in full at PO price.'
-
Action · Epicor Prophet 21 – PO inquiry/maintenance · 0:57 in the video
Open the PO in Prophet 21
Open the PO inquiry or maintenance screen your role uses and search by PO number. Note the vendor ID, required date, and each line's item, unit, ordered quantity, received quantity and unit price.
In the video- PO
- 8041
- Vendor
- RID-0418 · Ridgeline Bearing Co.
- Order date
- 10/24/2026
- Required
- 11/10/2026
- Ship-to
- Branch 02 · Dayton
- Lines
- 3 open, 0 received
-
Decision · Epicor Prophet 21 + Excel · 1:17 in the video
Does the acknowledgment pass the policy?
Put the acknowledgment beside the PO and compare field by field: vendor, item, unit of measure and quantity must match exactly, the price must be within your tolerance and the promise date must be on or before the required date. Write each line's comparison and result into an evidence log rather than relying on memory.
- If yes Record the promise dates on the PO.
- If no Treat it as an exception: partial, price change or late date.
In the videoACK-01: qty/UoM exact · price ±2.00% · promise ≤ required. PO-ack-evidence-2026-11-01.xlsx:
- 8041 · Ln 1 · 6205-2RS PASS
- Qty
- 120 EA | 120 EA
- Price
- 4.85 | 4.85
- Promise | Required
- 11/07 | 11/10
- 8041 · Ln 2 · 6305-ZZ PASS
- Qty
- 60 EA | 60 EA
- Price
- 7.20 | 7.20
- Promise | Required
- 11/07 | 11/10
- 8041 · Ln 3 · LUB-EP2-14 PASS
- Qty
- 48 EA | 48 EA
- Price
- 6.15 | 6.15
- Promise | Required
- 11/08 | 11/10
-
Action · Epicor Prophet 21 – PO inquiry/maintenance · 2:07 in the video
Record promise dates and a note, then reopen to verify
Enter the supplier's promise date on each PO line and add an internal note saying which acknowledgment you checked and what it confirmed. Do not change the ordered quantity or price. Save, close the PO, search for it again and confirm the dates, the note and a history entry are on the reopened record. Received quantity should still be 0: an acknowledgment is not a receipt.
In the video- Promise dates
- Ln 1 11/07/2026 · Ln 2 11/07/2026 · Ln 3 11/08/2026
- Note
- 11/01 Supplier ack ACK-P21-8041 received. 3/3 lines confirmed at PO price. Promise 11/07–11/08. Checked against ACK-01
- Saved
- 08:17:12
- History
- 11/01/2026 08:17 · Supplier promise dates set on lines 1–3
- Received
- 0 on all lines
-
Action · Epicor Prophet 21 – PO inquiry/maintenance · 2:49 in the video
Work the next clean acknowledgment the same way
Repeat the read, compare, record and reopen steps for every other acknowledgment. Speed up only where the checks allow it, never by skipping the reopen.
In the videoACK-P21-8045 from Ironwood Power Transmission: 'Confirmed as ordered.'
- 8045 · Ln 1 · B-3V500 V-belt PASS
- Qty
- 40 EA | 40 EA
- Price
- 9.75 | 9.75
- Promise | Required
- 11/12 | 11/14
- 8045 · Ln 2 · SH-1610-125 Sheave PASS
- Qty
- 10 EA | 10 EA
- Price
- 38.40 | 38.40
- Promise | Required
- 11/12 | 11/14
- Promise dates 11/12/2026 saved 08:20:31 and present on the reopened PO
-
-
Decision · Epicor Prophet 21 – PO inquiry/maintenance · 3:51 in the video
Is the full quantity confirmed?
If the supplier confirms less than you ordered, it is a partial, not a confirmation. Record only what the supplier committed to in the internal note, keep any backorder date marked as an estimate, and do not post a receipt or reduce the PO.
- If yes Record the promise dates as a confirmation.
- If no Note the partial and open a backorder follow-up task.
In the videoACK-P21-8042 from Northfield Pneumatics, FRL-050-AF filter-regulator.
- Ordered
- 100 EA @ 42.10, required 11/12
- Confirmed
- 60 EA ship 11/05/2026
- Backorder
- 40 EA, est. 11/19/2026 (not a commitment)
- Note
- PARTIAL. 60 of 100 ship 11/05. 40 backordered, est. 11/19 (not committed).
-
Action · Epicor Prophet 21 – follow-up queue · 4:21 in the video
Create a backorder follow-up task
Create a follow-up task for the outstanding quantity in whatever task list or queue your purchasing team uses. Give it the PO, vendor, item, quantity outstanding, a follow-up date before the required date, an owner and a note with the decision needed and the source document.
In the video- Task
- T-2291 · Backorder follow-up
- PO / vendor
- 8042 · NOR-1120 Northfield
- Item
- FRL-050-AF
- Qty outstanding
- 40
- Follow up on
- 11/08/2026
- Owner
- buyer01
- Note
- 40 on backorder, est. 11/19 vs required 11/12. Decide: wait, split or re-source.
-
Decision · Epicor Prophet 21 + Excel · 4:59 in the video
Is the acknowledged price within tolerance?
Compare the acknowledged unit price with the PO price and work out the percentage and extended difference. Inside tolerance, carry on as a confirmation. Outside it, do not accept the new price or change the PO; it needs the buyer's decision.
- If yes Record it as a confirmation.
- If no Hold the PO unchanged and ask the buyer to decide.
In the videoACK-P21-8043 from Coastal Seal & Gasket: 'Pricing revised: raw material surcharge effective 10/15/2026.'
- Item
- VK-382 Viton O-ring kit × 50 KT
- PO price
- 18.40
- Ack price
- 19.85
- Difference
- +1.45/kit (+7.88%) · +72.50 total
- Promise vs required
- 11/09 vs 11/12
- Evidence log
- HOLD
-
Human review · Microsoft Teams · 5:28 in the video
Buyer decides on the price change
Post the price change where your buyers approve exceptions, with the PO price, the supplier's price, the percentage and dollar change, the promise date, the rule it breaks and both documents. Leave the PO price as it is until the buyer records a decision, then check the PO still shows the original price.
In the video- Channel
- Purchasing approvals
- Card
- PO 8043 · Coastal Seal & Gasket · Needs approval
- Rule
- ACK-01 price tolerance ±2.00%
- Attached
- ACK-P21-8043.pdf · PO 8043
- Buttons
- Approve new price · Reject · Open PO
- PO price after
- Still 18.40
-
Action · Microsoft Outlook (web) · 5:47 in the video
Send one reminder for an overdue acknowledgment
For a PO past its acknowledgment due date, send the supplier one reminder from your approved template, scheduled for business hours. Ask them to confirm quantities, pricing and ship date for every line by a specific date, and log the reminder against the PO.
In the video- PO
- 8044 · Harbor Fastener Supply, 4 lines
- Status
- 2 business days past the 10/30 due date
- To
- orders@harborfastener.test
- Subject
- PO 8044 — acknowledgment overdue (sent 10/27)
- Asks for
- Confirmation of all 4 lines by 11/03
- Scheduled
- Mon 11/2 8:00 AM
-
Action · Microsoft Outlook (web) · 6:23 in the video
Email the buyer an exception report
Send the buyer one summary covering every PO in the run: the outcome, the discrepancy, who owns the next step and where the evidence is. Attach the evidence log and check Sent Items afterwards.
In the video- To
- buyer01@midwest-mro.test
- Subject
- PO acknowledgments 11/01 — 2 verified, 3 need attention
- Attachment
- PO-ack-evidence-2026-11-01.xlsx
- 8041 · Ridgeline Bearing Verified · 3/3 lines
- 8045 · Ironwood Power Trans. Verified · 2/2 lines
- 8042 · Northfield Pneumatics Partial · 60/100 · buyer01 · T-2291
- 8043 · Coastal Seal & Gasket Held · price 18.40 → 19.85 · buyer01 approval
- 8044 · Harbor Fastener No reply · reminder 11/02
Rules, exceptions and controls
Rules to follow
- Vendor, item, unit of measure and quantity on the acknowledgment must match the PO exactly.
- The acknowledged unit price must be within ±2.00% of the PO price (policy ACK-01).
- The supplier promise date must be on or before the PO required date.
- Only supplier promise dates and an internal note are recorded; ordered quantity and price are never changed to match an acknowledgment.
- A change counts as recorded only after the PO is reopened and the change is still there.
- A PO with no acknowledgment past its due date gets one reminder from the approved template, sent in business hours.
When something doesn't match
- Partial confirmation: Northfield Pneumatics PO 8042 confirmed 60 of 100, 40 backordered est. 11/19 — backorder task T-2291 for buyer01.
- Price above tolerance: Coastal Seal PO 8043 at 19.85 vs 18.40 (+7.88%, +72.50) — approval requested, PO unchanged.
- No acknowledgment: Harbor Fastener PO 8044, due 10/30 — reminder scheduled for Mon 11/2 8:00 AM.
- Backorder date given as an estimate — recorded as an estimate, never as a promise date.
- Unrelated mail in the purchasing inbox (weekly fill-rate report) — left alone.
Controls and audit trail
- Line-level evidence log of every check, with the acknowledgment file name.
- Reopen-and-verify after every save, including the PO history entry.
- Received quantity stays at 0; acknowledgments never post receipts.
- Price changes outside tolerance need a recorded buyer decision before the PO changes.
- Every exception in the report has a named next owner.
Practitioner tips
- Read the notes section of every acknowledgment; partials and surcharges are usually explained there, not in the line grid.
- Keep backorder estimates out of the promise date field so expediting reports do not treat a guess as a commitment.
- Set the backorder follow-up date before the required date, so there is still time to split or re-source.
- Check Sent Items for the original PO before chasing a silent supplier, so the reminder quotes the right dates.
- Write the tolerance down as policy; a buyer deciding case by case at the end of the day is how small increases slip through.
About this walkthrough
In the walkthrough, the agent checks five acknowledgments against policy ACK-01, records and verifies promise dates on POs 8041 and 8045, opens backorder task T-2291 for the PO 8042 partial, holds the PO 8043 price change for the buyer, schedules one reminder for PO 8044 and emails the buyer the exception report.
Documented the way you'd train a new hire — and the same way an agent learns it.
Frequently asked questions
How do you process a PO acknowledgment in Epicor Prophet 21?
Open the PO, compare each line of the supplier's acknowledgment for item, unit, quantity, price and promise date, then record the promise dates and an internal note on the PO if it matches. Reopen the PO to confirm the change saved.
What should you do when a supplier only confirms part of a PO?
Treat it as a partial. Note what the supplier actually committed to, keep the backorder date marked as an estimate, and create a follow-up task for the outstanding quantity with an owner and a date before the required date.
What if the acknowledgment shows a higher price than the PO?
Compare it to your tolerance. If it is outside, leave the PO price alone and send the buyer the PO price, new price, percentage and dollar change and both documents to decide.
Does an acknowledgment count as a receipt?
No. It is the supplier's promise to ship. Received quantity on the PO should stay at 0 until the goods are actually received.
How do you follow up on a supplier who has not acknowledged a PO?
Check when the PO was sent and when the acknowledgment was due, then send one reminder from an approved template in business hours asking for confirmation of every line by a set date.
Can an AI agent process PO acknowledgments in Epicor Prophet 21?
This video is a conceptual walkthrough with generic stand-in screens and sample data, not a recording. It shows how an agent could work the same inbox and PO screens a buyer does, recording clean confirmations and sending partials, price changes and no-replies to a person.