Submit, Approve, Send Back, Cancel or Close a Purchase Order
Orders move Draft > Submitted > Approved; only users with the “approve procurement” permission (Administrators) can approve or send back, and not their own order unless they are the administrator.
For School administrators, Accountants. Updated 2026-10-09.
Overview
Submit: on a Draft row use Submit and confirm; the order becomes Submitted and shows in the Overview "Waiting for approval" count. Approve and Send back appear on Submitted orders only for users with the “approve procurement” permission, which is held by the school Administrator. Approve sets the status to Approved and records approver and time.
Send back returns the order to Draft so the raiser can edit it. A person who raised an order cannot approve it ("Someone other than the person who raised it must approve this order.") unless they are an Administrator.
Others get "You cannot approve purchase orders." Cancel is available on Draft, Submitted and Approved orders once you confirm "Cancel PO-xxxx?", but not once any goods have been received ("Goods have already been received against this order."). Close is available on Partially received or Received orders and finalises them.
Invalid transitions return a message such as "A draft order cannot be approveed." with the status in lowercase. Approvals, rejections, cancellations and closes are written to the audit log (procurement.po_approve, and so on). Accountants can raise, submit, receive and cancel, but approval stays with the Administrator.
Before you start
- A Draft order with at least one line
- The “approve procurement” permission for approvers (Administrator)
- The “edit procurement” permission to submit, cancel or close
Steps
- On Purchase orders, find the Draft order and select Submit, then Submit for approval
- The approver opens the same list and selects Approve (or Send back)
- If sent back, the raiser selects Edit, corrects it and submits again
- Use Cancel on an order that is no longer needed, if nothing has been received
- Use Close on a received or part-received order when no more is expected
Common problems
I do not see Approve on a submitted order
Approve and Send back need the “approve procurement” permission, which only the Administrator has. Accountants and Directors cannot approve.
Someone other than the person who raised it must approve this order
A non-administrator cannot approve their own order. Ask another approver; an Administrator is the only exception.
Cancel says goods have already been received
Once any quantity is received the order cannot be cancelled. Close it instead, and handle the supplier bill or a void as needed.