Documentation/ Purchase orders and projects/ Order statuses
A purchase order's statuses
An order passes through six possible statuses, and you cannot jump from any one to any other: each status allows only a few destinations. Knowing the map settles the most repeated question, which is why a button is not there.
Management › Purchase Orders › the Status column
On this page
The six statuses
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | Prepared but not sent. It can be edited freely. |
| Sent | It has gone to the supplier, by email or by WhatsApp. It has a sent date. |
| Partly received | Some of the goods have arrived; the rest is outstanding. |
| Received | Everything ordered has arrived. |
| Closed | The order is treated as finished. A final status. |
| Cancelled | The order was called off. A final status. |
Which moves each one allows
| From | You can go to |
|---|---|
| Draft | Sent · Cancelled |
| Sent | Sent (send again) · Partly received · Received · Cancelled |
| Partly received | Received · Closed · Cancelled |
| Received | Closed · Cancelled |
| Closed | Nothing. It is final. |
| Cancelled | Nothing. It is final. |
Three rules come out of that, worth holding on to:
- There is no going back. An order marked as received does not return to sent.
- Part delivery can be skipped. From sent you go straight to received when everything comes at once.
- Cancel is available in every non-final status, even after goods have been received.
The buttons on the screen follow this map: where a move is not allowed, the action is not shown.
The two final statuses
Closed and cancelled have no way out. An order in either takes no further change of status. If you need to go on with that supplier over the same thing, the way is to create a new order.
The difference between the two is one of meaning, not mechanics: closed says the order did its job; cancelled, that it was dropped.
Part delivery
This is the status for real life's commonest case: the supplier sends part of it and leaves the rest outstanding. Marking it has one concrete advantage over doing nothing: the order leaves the group of sent orders with no news and joins the group of half-finished ones.
From there, two ways out: received, when the rest turns up, or closed, when you decide what was delivered will do and stop waiting.
Cancel against delete
| Cancel order | Delete | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Leaves it in the cancelled status. | Removes it from the system. |
| Stays in the list | Yes. | No. |
| Leaves a trace | Yes. | No. |
| Can be undone | No, but the order stays visible. | No. |
As a rule it is better to cancel rather than delete: a cancelled order explains why nothing turned up; a deleted one leaves a gap nobody can interpret six months later.
Deleting makes sense for orders created by mistake that were never sent.
The confirmations
Changes of status ask you to confirm and name the order, so there is no doubt which one you are touching:
| Action | Message |
|---|---|
| Change of status | Change the status of order N to "…"? |
| Cancel | Cancel order N? It will be left in the cancelled status. |
| Delete | Delete order N? This cannot be undone. |
Using the statuses to chase
The list's filter by status turns these six values into a working routine:
- Draft — orders prepared and forgotten about. Look at it daily.
- Sent — orders with no news. Compare against the sent date: anything past what was agreed is a phone call.
- Partly received — waiting to be completed. This is the chasing list.
- Received — waiting to be closed, usually pending the invoice.
Things that come up
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The button you are looking for is not there | The current status does not allow that move. | Look at the table of moves. |
| A closed order cannot be reopened | Closed is a final status. | Create a new order. |
| An order shows as sent without having gone | It was sent by WhatsApp: the status changes as the chat opens. | Send it again and actually send it this time. |
| Received was marked too soon | There is no going back on the status. | Note it in the notes and carry on; the status will not return. |
| The change of status gives an error | Another user changed it in the meantime. | Reload the order and see what status it is in. |