What does open purchase order mean?

A supplier order that has been issued but not yet fully received or closed. The remaining quantity is still expected.

What is the difference between an open PO and a past-due PO?

Every past-due PO is open, but not every open PO is past due. A past-due PO is an open line whose promised date has already passed.

How do I get an open purchase order report?

Every ERP has one: list purchase order lines with a remaining quantity, with supplier, item, quantity and promised date. Our ERP guides show where to find it.

When should an open purchase order be closed?

When the full quantity is received, or when the remaining quantity is no longer needed and the supplier agrees. Old open lines make planned supply look larger than it is.

Glossary

What is an open purchase order? Meaning, report and examples

Open purchase order: An open purchase order is a supplier order that has been issued but not yet fully received or closed.

By Roufaida Bouchamha, founder

The definition

An open purchase order (open PO) is an order you have sent to a supplier that is not yet complete: some or all of the quantity has not been received, and the order has not been closed or cancelled. Each open line carries an item, a quantity still to receive and a date the supplier promised or you requested.

Together, your open purchase orders describe the supply you expect to receive. That is why they matter for planning: every reorder point, shortage check and delivery promise assumes those lines arrive on their dates.

Open, past-due, closed: the statuses

Open and on time: quantity still to receive, date in the future.
Open and [past due](/resources/glossary/past-due-purchase-order): quantity still to receive, date already passed.
Open with no date: the line has no promised date, or only the date you requested. Nobody knows when it will arrive.
Partially received: part of the quantity arrived; the rest stays open.
Closed: fully received, or short-closed because the remaining quantity is no longer needed.

Some ERPs also use "open" for blanket or framework orders that cover a period. This page is about standard orders with a quantity and a date.

The open purchase order report

Every ERP can list open PO lines: supplier, item, quantity still to receive, order date, promised date. It is the starting point for a buyer's day. It becomes hard to use when it holds hundreds of lines, many with dates that were never confirmed.

To make it useful, add two columns your ERP knows but does not show on the same report:

[Days of cover](/resources/glossary/days-of-cover) of the item: stock divided by average daily usage.
Days late: today minus the promised date, for lines already past due.

Then the lines where cover runs out before the order arrives are the ones to chase first. The rest can wait, or can be cleaned up.

Common data problems

Stale lines: orders that will never arrive but were never closed. They make supply look larger than it is.
Unconfirmed dates: the date on the line is your request, not the supplier's commitment. See our guide on supplier order confirmations.
Wrong quantities: partial receipts recorded on the wrong line, or units of measure that differ from the item master.
Missing lines: goods ordered by phone or email and never entered.

Illustrative example, not a customer result

A buyer has 420 open PO lines, 60 of them past due. Adding days of cover shows that 9 of those 60 are for parts that will run out before the order arrives. Among the lines still on time, 14 have no confirmed date. The buyer calls the 9 suppliers first, asks for confirmations on the 14, and closes 11 old lines for items no longer used.

Step-by-step guides by ERP

We wrote guides to export and read open and late purchase orders in SAP, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Odoo and Epicor, among others.

How WERISCO uses it

WERISCO reads your open purchase orders with stock and usage, from your ERP or your exports. It shows parts that will run short, ranked by days of cover, and flags late or undated supplier orders by severity, with each part's days of cover shown as evidence. It does not send anything to suppliers and nothing is written back to your ERP; your team decides.

Questions people ask

What does open purchase order mean?: A supplier order that has been issued but not yet fully received or closed. The remaining quantity is still expected.
What is the difference between an open PO and a past-due PO?: Every past-due PO is open, but not every open PO is past due. A past-due PO is an open line whose promised date has already passed.
How do I get an open purchase order report?: Every ERP has one: list purchase order lines with a remaining quantity, with supplier, item, quantity and promised date. Our ERP guides show where to find it.
When should an open purchase order be closed?: When the full quantity is received, or when the remaining quantity is no longer needed and the supplier agrees. Old open lines make planned supply look larger than it is.