Purchase Order statuses and what each means

A purchase order moves through several statuses as you create, send, and receive inventory. Each status tells you where the order stands in its lifecycle.

The five statuses

Draft The PO exists but hasn't been confirmed yet. You can still edit it freely—add or remove items, change quantities or prices, or even delete the whole order. No one outside your company sees it yet.

Open You've confirmed the order, and it's active. The vendor has (or will have) been notified. You can no longer edit the line items, but you can add notes or change metadata like the delivery date. The system now tracks what's been received against this order.

Partial You've received some of the items on the order, but not all. This is a natural state while deliveries are coming in over time. Once everything arrives, the order moves to Received.

Received All items on the PO have been received. The order is complete from an inventory perspective. You may still be waiting for the vendor's invoice, but the physical goods are in.

Completed The order is fully resolved: all items received, and typically the vendor's invoice has been matched and processed. This is the final state for a closed-out order.

How statuses flow

Draft → Open → [Partial*] → Received → Completed
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* A PO skips the Partial state if everything arrives in one shipment.

What you can do at each status