Purchase order status reference
A purchase order (PO) tracks five status dimensions independently — order, submission, receipt, shipment, and invoice — so any real PO reads as a combination of five values at once. For example, PO-DOCS-0001 (supplier Acme Supplies, destination Main Warehouse) might show Open / Submitted / Unreceived / Unshipped / Uninvoiced all at the same time.
This page is the lookup for every value in each dimension. For the concepts behind why a PO carries five statuses and which ones SKU.io calculates for you, see How purchase order status works.
The five status chips
On a purchase order's detail page, the header shows five color-coded chips — one per dimension. Each chip is a popover: click it to see a step-by-step breakdown of that dimension's states, which state the PO is in now, and a next-step hint. For example, the Unreceived chip suggests clicking Receive to record incoming inventory (stock you've ordered but not yet physically taken in).
Two chips adapt to the PO type:
- On Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) POs, the Receipt chip's steps describe receiving through Amazon's inbound system rather than a manual receive, and the chip drops the Dropship step.
- When the Invoice chip reads Partially invoiced, its popover offers a Mark final invoice action that settles the remaining billing in bulk. See Record a supplier invoice.
The same five values appear as columns and filters on the PO list. See List columns and filters.
Order status
Order status is the primary lifecycle and the one dimension you set directly.
| Value | Meaning | How it's set |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Editable, not yet committed. Doesn't reserve incoming inventory or cover backorders (customer orders waiting on out-of-stock items). | The starting state of every new PO. |
| Open | Approved and active. Items can be received, shipped, and invoiced. | Approve or submit the PO. |
| Closed | Finalized. No further receiving or changes. | Close it by hand, receive it in full, or fully invoice a dropship PO. |
How order status changes:
| Transition | What triggers it | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Draft → Open | Approving the PO (or submitting it, which approves first) | Stamps the approval date, locks in the currency exchange rate for the order, updates your incoming-inventory figures, and reserves this PO as coverage for any planned backorders. |
| Open → Draft | Reverting to draft | Releases this PO's backorder coverage, so those backorders count as uncovered again. Blocked if the PO has any receipts, and blocked if it's closed. |
| Open → Closed | Closing by hand (with an optional reason, saved as a note), the moment every line becomes fully received, or a receiving shortfall (Received For Less) | The order is finalized. |
| Closed → Open | Reopening by hand, or automatically when a receipt is reversed on a fully received PO and it drops below fully received | The order becomes active again. |
Receiving a PO in full closes it automatically — but only on the transition into fully received. If you deliberately reopen a fully received PO, later unrelated changes (a price edit, invoice matching) won't silently re-close it. Your choice to keep it open sticks.
Reopen the PO first (Closed → Open), then revert it to draft. Reverting a still-closed PO is blocked.
Duplicating a PO always resets the copy to Draft, regardless of the original's state. See Approve and submit a PO and Close, reopen, and short-close a PO.
Submission status
Submission status tracks the conversation with the supplier — the paperwork — not the flow of goods. New POs start Unsubmitted.
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Unsubmitted | Not yet sent to the supplier. |
| Queued | Held so several orders to the same supplier can be sent together; will go out shortly. Used when the supplier doesn't receive orders one at a time. |
| Submitted | Sent to the supplier and awaiting confirmation. |
| Change Request (Buyer) | You have requested changes to the submitted PO. |
| Change Request (Supplier) | The supplier has requested changes. |
| Finalized | The supplier has confirmed, or the PO is far enough along that no further submission changes are expected. |
| Canceled | Canceled by the supplier after submission. |
| Voided | Voided by you (the buyer) before submission. |
How submission status changes:
- Submitting a PO advances it to Submitted — or straight to Finalized when the submission format is Manual (you contact the supplier outside SKU.io, so nothing is emailed). If the supplier's orders are batched to send together, it becomes Queued and sends later.
- Submitting only moves submission status forward when it's currently Unsubmitted or Queued. A Change Request state survives a resend rather than being overwritten.
- Submission status moves to Finalized on its own the first time the PO becomes fully shipped, fully received, or fully invoiced.
Receipt status
Receipt status is calculated from the quantities you've received across the PO's product lines. You don't type it in — record receipts and the status follows. "Receiving" means recording that stock physically arrived.
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Unreceived | No product line has any received quantity yet. |
| Partially Received | At least one line has been received, but not every line is complete. Also forces order status to Open. |
| Received | Every product line is fully received. Stamps the received date, finalizes the submission status, and auto-closes the order. |
| Received For Less | The PO was closed short — the supplier delivered fewer units than ordered and you accepted the shortfall. This is a final state (see below). |
| Dropship | Items ship directly from the supplier to the customer rather than into your warehouse. |
For Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) and AWD (Amazon Warehousing and Distribution) destinations, the received figure comes from Amazon's inbound records rather than a manually keyed receipt, but the status values are the same. A PO with no lines is never considered fully received.
Worked example: What "Partially Received" looks like
Say PO-DOCS-0001 has two product lines:
| Line | Ordered | Received |
|---|---|---|
| Bottles | 100 | 100 |
| Caps | 50 | 0 |
Because the Caps line hasn't been received at all, the whole PO is Partially Received — not Received — even though the Bottles line is complete. Receipt status only reads Received once every line is fully received. Recording 50 caps flips the PO to Received, stamps the received date, and auto-closes it.
Received For Less is a final state
You reach Received For Less by closing a PO short with Close with Receiving Discrepancy — the supplier shipped fewer units than ordered and you accept the shortfall. This sets receipt status to Received For Less, closes the order, marks it Shipped to Warehouse, and posts a receiving-discrepancy write-off to accounting (visible on the Accounting tab). A write-off records the value of the units you'll never receive so your books stay accurate.
Once set, later line edits or automatic status updates leave Received For Less alone. The only way out is to undo the receiving discrepancy, which returns the PO to Partially Received and Open. Undo is blocked once the discrepancy has posted to accounting — a settled financial record is never rewritten.
See Close, reopen, and short-close a PO and Receive stock against a PO.
Shipment status
Shipment status is calculated from the quantities on the PO's inbound shipments (the records of stock in transit from the supplier). New POs start Unshipped.
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Unshipped | Nothing shipped and nothing planned. |
| Planned | At least one inbound shipment line is marked planned, but none has shipped. |
| Partially Shipped | Some, but not all, of the ordered quantity has shipped. |
| Shipped to Warehouse | Everything has shipped and is in transit to your warehouse. |
| Shipped to Customer | The dropship equivalent — goods go straight to the buyer. |
A PO closes only once it's fully received, never merely because it's fully shipped. Automatic shipment-status updates never change order status.
Other things to know:
- On the header Shipment chip, the fully shipped state is labeled simply Shipped; the list filter spells the same value out as Shipped to Warehouse.
- Cancelled or closed inbound shipments release their unreceived quantity back and are left out of shipped counts.
- Crossing into shipped, and reaching fully shipped, are the moments that can trigger vendor-deposit installments (staged prepayments to the supplier). See Vendor deposits.
Invoice status
Invoice status is calculated from invoices, active vendor credits, and billing settlements against the PO's product lines. A vendor credit is a supplier credit note that offsets what you owe; a settlement is you marking a line as "no more bills expected." New POs start Uninvoiced.
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Uninvoiced | No invoice, credit, or settlement progress on any product line. |
| Partially Invoiced | At least one line shows a real invoiced quantity, an active vendor credit, or a billing settlement, while the PO isn't yet fully invoiced. |
| Invoiced | Every product line is fully accounted for by an invoice, credit, short-close, or billing settlement. Finalizes the submission status and auto-closes dropship POs. |
| Invoice Paid | The invoice has been fully paid. Set by the sync from your accounting software, not inside SKU.io. The header Invoice chip labels this same state Paid. |
A PO with no product lines is never fully invoiced. For the full reconciliation logic — how each line is checked against what you ordered and received (the 3-way match) — see Invoicing and the 3-way match.
The Invoices section verdict
The PO detail page's Invoices section leads with a verdict chip — Fully invoiced, Partially invoiced, or Not invoiced — that mirrors the header Invoice chip. The verdict is driven by the invoice status, never by amount alone, so the two surfaces never contradict each other.
When the PO is partially invoiced, the section shows how much is left: the outstanding units and the number of lines still to bill (for example, "12 units across 2 lines outstanding"). If any units were resolved by vendor credits rather than invoices, a note reports the credited unit count and links to Vendor Credits. An Invoice / Create Invoice button starts a new supplier invoice; it's hidden on FBA POs and when the PO is fully invoiced with nothing outstanding. See Record a supplier invoice.
ETA and age indicators on the list
The PO list highlights timing on two columns so overdue orders stand out.
The ETA column (the estimated delivery date) is color-coded and carries a relative label beneath the date:
| Condition | Appearance | Relative label |
|---|---|---|
| Past the ETA | Red | "today", or "N days overdue" |
| Due within 7 days | Amber | "tomorrow" or "in N days" |
| Due more than 7 days out | Neutral | "in N days" |
Closed POs suppress ETA coloring and the relative label entirely — a finished order is never flagged as late.
The Age column shows how long a PO has been open as "Nd open" (days since the purchase order date), and only for POs that aren't yet closed.
Separately, a warning icon appears next to the PO number when the PO has an approved vendor deposit that's overdue and unpaid, so payment obligations surface at a glance. See Vendor deposits.