How to Reopen a Purchase Order | Latner Software Documentation

Reopening a purchase order takes a confirmed order back to Open status so you can correct a quantity, a cost or a missing line before the goods arrive, then confirm it again.

Overview

A purchase order stops being editable the moment it is confirmed, and that is deliberate - once the order has gone to the supplier, Latner treats the lines as a commitment. Reopening is the controlled way to unwind that commitment when something on the order turns out to be wrong.

Reopen Purchase Order sets the status back to Open and clears the Approved By and Approved Date fields.
It is available on purchase orders in Pending Approval, Confirmed, Partly Received and Fully Received status.
It is not available on an Open order (there is nothing to reopen), and it is greyed out on an Invoiced or Cancelled order.
Reopening releases the outstanding backorder that confirming the order created against your stock, and removes any serialised stock items that were still on order.
Quantities that have already been received are kept. Reopening does not reverse a receipt.
Nothing else about the order changes - the PO number, supplier, lines, documents and receipt history all stay as they are.

The Details tab of a Confirmed purchase order - there is no row selection column, so lines cannot be edited or deleted until the order is reopened

Before You Begin

Reopening is an option on the purchase order itself, so there is nothing to switch on first - you just need the right permission and an order in a status that allows it.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Purchase Orders permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › <group> › Financials › Screen. Lets the user search and view purchase orders.
Confirm Purchase Order permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › <group> › Financials › Option. The same permission covers confirming, reopening and cancelling.
A purchase order in the right status	Financials › Purchase Orders. The order must be Pending Approval, Confirmed, Partly Received or Fully Received.

The Confirm Purchase Order permission - its description spells out that it also grants Reopen and Cancel

There is no separate "Reopen Purchase Order" permission. If a user can confirm purchase orders, they can also reopen and cancel them. If you need to stop someone reopening orders, you have to take Confirm Purchase Order off their permission group entirely.

Reopening a Purchase Order

Step 1 - Open the purchase order

Go to Financials › Purchase Orders and click the purchase order number you need to amend. The Status column tells you at a glance which orders can be reopened.

The Purchase Order list - Open orders are already editable, so it is the Confirmed, Partly Received and Fully Received ones you would reopen

Step 2 - Check the status and what is locked

The header shows PO Status, and General Details shows who confirmed the order and when. These are the two fields reopening will clear.

PO Status - must be Pending Approval, Confirmed, Partly Received or Fully Received.
Approved By - the user who confirmed the order. Cleared on reopen.
Approved Date - when it was confirmed. Cleared on reopen.

A Confirmed purchase order - Approved By and Approved Date are stamped with whoever confirmed it

Scroll down to the Details tab and you will see why reopening matters. While the order is not Open, the lines have no selection column, so there is no way to edit or delete one, and Add Purchase Order Details is greyed out on the Options menu.

Step 3 - Choose Reopen Purchase Order

Click Options in the top right, then Reopen Purchase Order.

The Options menu on a Confirmed purchase order - Reopen Purchase Order sits between the greyed-out Add Purchase Order Details and Receipt Purchase Order

Reopening happens as soon as you click - there is no confirmation prompt and no undo. If you only wanted to look at the order, close the menu instead.

Step 4 - Check the order is back to Open

Latner confirms with a Purchase Order Reopened message. The header now reads Open, and Approved By and Approved Date are empty.

The same purchase order after reopening - the status is Open and the approval fields have been cleared

Step 5 - Make your amendments

With the order Open, the Details tab gets its selection column back. Tick a line and use the pencil icon to edit it, or the bin icon to delete it. Options › Add Purchase Order Details is available again for new lines.

Qty - editable again, but it cannot be set lower than the quantity already received or invoiced on that line.
Unit Cost (excl.) - editable again, but not on a line that has already been invoiced.
Description, Tax Type, ETA and Assign Cost to Equipment - editable as normal.

Editing a stock line on the reopened order - Unit Cost and Qty accept changes again

Step 6 - Confirm the purchase order again

An Open purchase order is not on order with anyone, so finish the job: choose Options › Confirm Purchase Order, or Options › Request Approval if it has to go back through an approver first. Confirming stamps Approved By and Approved Date with your name and reinstates the backorder against your stock.

The Options menu on the reopened order - Request Approval and Confirm Purchase Order are back, and Generate and Email are greyed out until it is confirmed

Reopening an Order That Has Been Received

You can reopen a Partly Received or Fully Received purchase order, and Latner protects everything that has already come in. The Options menu shows a tooltip warning about received quantities, but the option itself stays available.

Received quantities, receipts and stock movements are untouched, and Received Cost (incl.) stays as it was.
Only the outstanding balance is released - if 4 of 6 units have been received, 2 come off backorder.
Serialised stock items that have already been received are kept. Only the ones still sitting at Ordered status are removed.
You still cannot reduce a line's quantity below what has already been received.

A Partly Received purchase order - the tooltip warns about received quantities, but Reopen Purchase Order is still selectable

Reopening is not how you undo a receipt. If the goods were receipted in error, use Options › Reverse Purchase Order Receipts instead - that is the action that puts the quantity back.

After Reopening

The order shows as Open on the Purchase Order list, and Approved By and Approved Date are blank on the header.
For each stock line, the outstanding quantity comes off Qty Backordered on the stock item's Warehouses tab, and the warehouse Avg. Cost is recalculated without that backordered value. Both are restored when you confirm the order again.
Serialised stock items created at confirmation that are still at Ordered status are deleted. Confirming again recreates them for whatever is still outstanding.
Receipt Purchase Order is unavailable until the order is confirmed again, so the goods cannot be booked in while it sits Open.
Generating and emailing the purchase order PDF are both greyed out while the order is Open. Previously generated PDFs stay on the Purchase Order PDF History tab.

A reopened purchase order is no longer approved, so nobody downstream is expecting the goods. Reopen it, amend it and confirm it again in one sitting - an order left sitting in Open cannot be receipted, and the supplier has no idea the order changed until you resend it.

FAQs

Reopen Purchase Order does not appear on the Options menu. Why?

The order is already Open - there is nothing to reopen, so Latner hides the option. If the option is showing but greyed out, the order is Invoiced or Cancelled, and neither can be reopened. If the option is missing on every purchase order, your permission group is missing Confirm Purchase Order.

Can I reopen a cancelled purchase order?

No. Cancelling is final. Use Options › Duplicate Purchase Order on the cancelled order to raise a fresh one with the same lines.

Can I reopen a purchase order that has been invoiced?

No - Reopen Purchase Order is greyed out once the order reaches Invoiced status. The supplier invoice has to be dealt with first. A partly invoiced order in Partly Received or Fully Received status can still be reopened, but you will not be able to change the quantity or unit cost on the lines that have been invoiced.

What happens to a purchase order sitting in Pending Approval?

Reopening takes it straight back to Open so you can amend it. The approval request is not withdrawn from the approver's notifications, so let them know, and use Options › Request Approval again once the order is right.

Will the purchase order keep its number after being reopened?

Yes. The PO number, supplier, supplier site, branch, warehouse, memo, documents and receipt history are all unchanged. Only the status and the two approval fields move.

Do I need approval again after reopening?

Confirming stamps whoever clicks Confirm Purchase Order as the new Approved By. If Enforce Purchase Order Approval Limits is switched on under Security › Settings, that user's approval limits are checked against the amended order - so if your amendment pushed the total past your limit, confirming will fail and the order has to go back through Request Approval.

Why can I not email the purchase order after reopening it?

Email Purchase Order and the PDF generation option are only available from Confirmed status onwards, so they are greyed out while the order is Open. Confirm the amended order and they come back.

Watch the Demo

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