The purchase order lifecycle

Every purchase order moves through four statuses — Draft Ordered Partially Received Received. The status is the one thing that decides what you can edit, receive, or delete, and when an order touches expected supply and inventory.

Explore each status

Select a status to see what it means, what’s allowed, and where it can go next.

Draft Editable. No inventory impact. Ordered Placed. Adds expected supply. Partially Received Some lines received into stock. Received Fully received. Still editable.

There is no “cancelled” status

An order is removed by deleting it, which is only possible while it’s Draft or Ordered — before any receipt. Deleting an ordered order releases its expected supply in the same step.

What happens when you receive

Receiving is the most consequential action in purchasing — it’s where a promise on paper becomes real, costed, traceable stock. It only ever adds: you can receive more, never “un-receive.” One receipt does five things, in order:

1. Each received line writes inventory history. Lot-tracked items get a new lot for the received quantity. Lot-untracked items append to their internal shared lot. Receipts arrive as available; move a lot to blocked afterward from inventory if it needs to be held out of use.

2. The lot is costed at the line’s landed cost per stocking unit. Any by-value additional costs you entered before receiving are already baked into that value.

3. The receipt becomes permanent history. This is why a partially or fully received order can no longer be deleted, and why received lines can’t be removed.

4. Expected supply for what you received is released. Planning instantly reflects what actually landed instead of what was still due.

5. The status advances only when the receipt completes the order. Receiving part of an ordered order makes it Partially Received. Receiving another partial batch keeps it Partially Received until every line is complete, then it becomes Received.

You can't receive more than remaining

The receive dialog caps each line at its remaining quantity. A larger value is flagged invalid and cannot be submitted. Increase the ordered quantity first if more stock arrived than the order currently allows.

Note

Blank quantities are ignored, and a received quantity must be greater than zero. Marking an order Received from the status control isn’t a shortcut that skips receiving — it opens the same receive dialog and prefills every remaining line. If you leave the prefill unchanged, the order completes; if you reduce or clear rows, it records only those quantities and may remain Partially Received. Stock lands in the Receive into location you choose, while expected supply is released from the default planning location.

Valid & invalid transitions

These are the only moves the system allows. Anything not listed is blocked to protect inventory history.

Action	From	To	Notes
Order	Draft	Ordered	Registers the remaining quantity as expected supply.
Receive some	Ordered	Partially Received	Each received line writes stock history; tracked items get a new lot.
Receive all	Ordered	Received	The receive dialog is prefilled with the remaining quantities.
Receive another partial batch	Partially Received	Partially Received	More stock arrives, but a remainder still exists.
Receive the rest	Partially Received	Received	Completes the remaining lines.
Add a line / increase a quantity	Received	Partially Received	Reopens the remainder.
Delete	Draft · Ordered	Removed	Deleting an ordered order releases its expected supply.
Reduce below received	—	Blocked	A quantity can’t drop under what’s already received.
Remove a received line	—	Blocked	Receipt history must be preserved.
Delete after any receipt	—	Blocked	The order keeps its inventory and costing history.

Why can’t I delete this order?

Delete is allowed only before any receipt exists — that means a Draft or an Ordered order with zero receipts. The moment a single line is received, the order is Partially Received or Received, and its receipt history must be preserved, so deletion is blocked.

If you need to back out a received order, reverse the stock through inventory rather than deleting the order — the order stays the audit trail for what was actually received, and at what cost.