---
title: How to move a purchase order through its stages
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/purchasing/move-a-purchase-order
description: Drag an order across the board or set its stage on the order, and read why a stage is unavailable.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# How to move a purchase order through its stages



A **stage** is where an order sits in your own workflow: Draft, Awaiting approval, Sent, and
whatever else your workspace has named. The board's columns are those stages. See
<Ref to="purchasing" /> for how the order lifecycle fits together.

## Before you start [#before-you-start]

Moving a stage needs the purchase order update permission. For read-only viewers the Stage row
is a plain label rather than a picker.

Your workspace's stage names are set in **Settings › Stages**, covered in
<Ref to="objects/stages" />. Rename them and every screen follows.

## How do you move an order? [#how-do-you-move-an-order]

Two ways, and they do the same thing.

Drag its card between columns on the **Board**. Or open the order and use the **Stage** row in
the **Properties** panel.

The change is recorded in the order's activity feed using your workspace's own stage names.

## Why is a stage greyed out? [#why-is-a-stage-greyed-out]

Because it cannot be reached from where the order is, and hovering tells you why in plain
words:

* **Only reachable from Draft** means the step has to be taken in order.
* **Needs approval first** means the order is set to require approval and nobody has signed it
  off yet. See <Ref to="purchasing/approvals" />.
* **Set automatically once someone approves** means you do not choose that stage by hand: it
  is applied for you when an approval is granted.

That last idea covers two stages. The approved stage is set when an approval is granted, and
the closed stage is set when you close an order short. Neither is picked from the menu.

## Why can I not drag an order into the closed column? [#why-can-i-not-drag-an-order-into-the-closed-column]

Because closing an order is a decision about the goods rather than about the workflow. Use
**Close short** on the order instead, which records that you have stopped chasing the rest.

That is covered in <Ref to="purchasing/receive-a-delivery" />.

## What if a stage was renamed or removed? [#what-if-a-stage-was-renamed-or-removed]

Orders whose stage no longer exists land in a **No stage** column and stay visible rather than
disappearing.

You cannot drag anything into that column, so it drains as you move those orders to real
stages. Orders written before your workspace had stages behave the same way.

## What happens if two people move the same order? [#what-happens-if-two-people-move-the-same-order]

The second person is told that somebody else already moved it and asked to refresh and try
again.

Nothing is silently overwritten, which matters on an order book several people work at once.

## Does the stage stop anything happening? [#does-the-stage-stop-anything-happening]

Only sending. An order that requires approval cannot move into a work-is-underway stage until
somebody has actually signed it off, which is the point of the gate.

**Receiving is never blocked by a stage.** If the goods are on the dock you can always book
them in, whatever the order's workflow says. That is deliberate: a stage is your paperwork and
the delivery is a fact.

## What are the exception badges on a card? [#what-are-the-exception-badges-on-a-card]

Warnings worked out from the order itself rather than set by anybody: **Closed short**,
**Late**, **No supplier reply**, **Waiting on sign-off** and **No owner**.

They are the fastest read of a board. Scan for badges rather than reading columns, and see
<Ref to="purchasing/find-late-orders" /> for working through them.