---
title: Close or reopen an order
summary: >
  Closing a purchase order means stop expecting the rest of it. Open the order,
  click Close PO, give a reason, confirm. It is paperwork, not a stock movement —
  nothing already received changes, and no ledger entry is written. The order
  leaves Awaiting receipt and stops being offered when booking deliveries.
  Reopen puts it back exactly where it was.
type: task
group: buy
step: 1
permission: pos.approve
prerequisites: []
related:
  - /help/buy/raise-a-purchase-order
  - /help/receive/receive-a-delivery
  - /help/reference/what-each-status-means
last_updated: 2026-08-07
---

**Closing an order says "stop waiting for this".**

Some orders never finish. A supplier discontinues a line, a shipment is
cancelled, half arrives and the balance is written off. Without a way to end
them, those orders sit in the awaiting-delivery pile forever and quietly ruin
every number built on it.

Closing is the ending. It is administrative: no stock moves, nothing is
destroyed, and it can be undone.

This page covers:

- [Close, delete, or neither](#close-delete-or-neither)
- [Close one order](#close-one-order)
- [What closing changes and what it does not](#what-closing-changes-and-what-it-does-not)
- [Close a backlog in one pass](#close-a-backlog-in-one-pass)
- [Reopen a closed order](#reopen-a-closed-order)

## Close, delete, or neither

Three endings exist, and picking the wrong one loses information.

| The order is | Do this | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A draft | Delete it | It was never a commitment, so there is nothing to keep |
| Authorised, Incoming or Partial | Close it | It was a real commitment that will not complete |
| Fully received | Leave it | It already ended properly |
| Already closed | Reopen it, if it turns out goods are coming after all | |

The rule of thumb: if a supplier ever saw it, close rather than delete. The app
enforces this — a draft cannot be closed, and an authorised order cannot be
deleted.

## Close one order

1. Open the order from **Purchase orders**.
2. Click **Close PO**.
3. Type a **reason**. It is optional and you should write one anyway — in six months it is the only thing that explains the gap between what you ordered and what you got.
4. Confirm.

If the order is **partially received**, the dialog says so. Closing writes off
whatever has not arrived. Stock already booked in stays exactly as it is, at the
cost it was booked at.

Closing needs the approval permission — the same one that authorises orders, not
the one that creates them. If the button is missing, send the order number and
the reason to whoever approves purchase orders.

### If it refuses to close

One thing blocks a close: **material you sent out to the supplier has not come
back**. Those units are sitting at the supplier and still belong to you, so
ending the order would strand them outside your records. Record the return
first, then close.

## What closing changes and what it does not

Closing is bookkeeping, and it is worth being precise about the boundary.

**What changes:**

- The status becomes **Closed**, with the reason, the timestamp and who did it.
- The order drops out of **Awaiting receipt**.
- It stops being offered when someone books a delivery, so nobody can receive against it by accident.
- It moves to the **Closed** tab in the list, where it stays findable.

**What does not change:**

- No entry is written to the stock ledger. Closing is not a movement.
- Goods already received stay received, at the location they were received into.
- Costs already recorded stay recorded.
- Nothing is deleted. Every line, price and delivery against it is still there.

That last point is why closing is safe to do in bulk while deleting is not.

## Close a backlog in one pass

A backlog is the normal case — orders accumulate one at a time and get tidied all
at once.

1. On **Purchase orders**, tick the orders you want to end.
2. Click **Close**.
3. Give one reason, which is applied to all of them.
4. Confirm.

You get a per-order result. Anything that could not be closed is listed with its
own reason — already received, still a draft, or material still out at the
supplier — so nothing fails silently and you know exactly what is left.

## Reopen a closed order

Only a closed order can be reopened, and the reopened order lands where it would
have been had it never closed.

1. Open the order.
2. Click **Reopen PO**.

Where it lands depends on its history. If stock was already received against it,
it returns to **Partial** — some arrived, some is still owed. If nothing ever
arrived, it returns to **Authorised**. Either way it becomes receivable again and
rejoins Awaiting receipt.

Reopening clears the close reason and the closing audit trail, because the order
is no longer closed and a stale reason would be misleading. If the same order is
later closed again, write the reason again.

## Explore

**Raising the order in the first place.** Where the statuses come from, and why
a draft cannot be received against.
[Learn more →](/help/buy/raise-a-purchase-order)

**Recording a delivery.** Closing removes an order from this flow, so it is worth
knowing what the flow does.
[Learn more →](/help/receive/receive-a-delivery)