Purchase order statuses

Every purchase order has one of five statuses. The Purchase orders page has a tab for each group: All, Drafts, Open, Received and Cancelled. Open means Ordered or Partially received — orders you’re still waiting on.

The five statuses

Status	What it means	What you can do
Draft	Not placed yet. Nothing has changed in Shopify.	Edit it, email it, Mark as ordered, Delete draft
Ordered	Placed with the supplier. Its products show as incoming in Shopify.	Email it, Receive stock, Cancel purchase order
Partially received	Some of it has arrived.	Email it, Receive stock, Close purchase order, Cancel purchase order
Received	Everything arrived, or you closed it.	Email it, print it, print labels
Cancelled	Called off.	Print it

Received and Cancelled are final: an order can’t be reopened. And only drafts can be edited — try to change a placed order and you’ll see “Only draft purchase orders can be edited.” If a placed order changes, receive what arrives and close the rest, or cancel it and create a new one.

Placing an order

Mark as ordered (or Also mark as ordered when you email a draft) asks “Mark PO-1001 as ordered?”: “Its products will show as incoming at [location] in Shopify until they are received.”

The order becomes Ordered, and Shelfcast adds its quantities to Shopify’s incoming figure at the destination. An order needs at least one product: “Add at least one product before placing the order.”

Cancel, close or delete?

Three ways to stop an order, for three different situations.

Delete draft

For a draft you don’t need. Delete draft asks “Delete draft PO-1001?” — “This cannot be undone.” The draft is gone for good. Nothing changes in Shopify, because nothing had.

Only drafts can be deleted. A placed order has to be cancelled instead.

Cancel purchase order

For an order that isn’t coming — the supplier couldn’t fill it, or you called it off. Works on Ordered and Partially received orders.

Shelfcast asks “Cancel PO-1001?” — “Stock still expected on this order will no longer show as incoming in Shopify.” Press Cancel purchase order to confirm, or Keep purchase order to back out.

The order becomes Cancelled. Anything already received stays in your stock; only what was still expected is taken off Shopify’s incoming figure.

Close purchase order

For an order that’s arrived short and the rest won’t follow. Works on Partially received orders only.

Shelfcast asks “Close PO-1001?” — “Nothing more will be received against this order, and what has not arrived will no longer show as incoming.”

What each step changes in Shopify

Step	In Shopify	In History
Mark as ordered	Incoming goes up at the destination	Ordered
Receive stock	Incoming moves to available	Received
Cancel or close	What’s still expected comes off incoming	Order cancelled
Delete draft	Nothing	Nothing

Incoming changes show in History when you choose All quantities. → Read your inventory history

Totals and additional costs

An order’s Total is the sum of its lines plus its additional costs — freight, duties, surcharges and other costs added on, discounts taken off. You add costs while the order is a draft. They appear on the printed order, but they aren’t spread across the products’ unit costs, and product costs in Shopify are never changed. → Create a purchase order

Finding an order

Search by number, supplier or reference finds an order by its number, its supplier, or the supplier’s reference, and you can filter the list by supplier. The list shows each order’s supplier, status, destination, expected date, units received out of units ordered, and total.

An order’s Details show who created it, when it was emailed, and where it came from if it wasn’t created by hand: “Created from reorder suggestions” or “Imported”.

Shelfcast doesn’t flag orders that are past their expected date. Expected deliveries on Home lists your open orders with the soonest expected first, which is a quick way to spot late ones.