What do the purchase order statuses mean, and how does a purchase order move between them?

A purchase order’s status records where the order is, and it changes only when someone sets it.

• Draft: being prepared. Every new purchase order starts here.
• In Review: being checked inside your team before it goes to the supplier.
• Issued: sent to the supplier.
• Confirmed: the supplier accepted it.
• In Production, Quality Control, and Awaiting Shipment: the supplier is making, checking, and preparing the goods.
• In Transit: the goods are on the way.
• Partially Delivered and Delivered: some or all of the goods have arrived.
• Closed: finished.
• Canceled: will not be fulfilled.

When a supply shipment goes In Transit or is received, set Partially Delivered or Delivered on the purchase order yourself.

On the purchase order page, “Update Status” lists every status and accepts any of them from any current status. You can move back to an earlier one or go straight from Draft to Delivered. The milestone follows the new status.

In Review is a label only. It does not lock anything, and you can change lines, costs, and dates at In Review and at every later status. Anyone allowed to update purchase order status can set any status, including Issued, without an approval step.

To change the status of many purchase orders at once, export with “Purchase Orders + Items,” change PO Status, and import the file. Endless applies each status and records it on the purchase order.

Automations run on sales order and fulfillment order events. To act on purchase order or supply shipment status changes, your developer or an AI coding tool can read them through the Endless API with a Read Only Data Integration. API access must be in your plan. Contact Endless support to discuss an approval step, or automations for purchase orders and supply shipments.

The purchase order’s Activity tab lists each status change with who made it and when.