Purchase orders created using the Purchase Orders option in Web Link modern experience move through a series of statuses that indicate their progress. The available purchase order statuses are:
Draft
Ready to Order
Posted
The workflow sequence for the purchase order status is: Draft —> Ready to Order —> Posted
Draft Status:
Overview:
Purchase orders with a status of Draft:
Initially being created and saved in Web Link modern experience.
Able to be edited.
Not ready to be processed by the Business Office.
Draft purchase order batches are not accessible in Accounts Payable (or Web Link classic experience, if applicable).*
*Although a draft purchase order batch cannot be viewed within the Purchase Orders option in Accounts Payable, purchase orders with a status of Draft can be viewed in a few options in Accounts Payable, such as the Purchase Order Inquiry option and the Vendor Inquiry option, if needed.
Details:
When a purchase order is first entered in Web Link modern experience within the Purchase Orders option, it is saved with a status of Draft. A purchase order with a status of Draft can be viewed and edited within Web Link modern experience by the user who initially entered the purchase order.
A batch is automatically created behind the scenes containing the purchase orders with a Draft status (the batch is not accessible in Accounts Payable or Web Link classic experience). The draft purchase order batches are created for each user with a processing month based on the Expected Date of the purchase order and named “YYYY/MM Purchase Order Draft-USERID”.
For example, if a user (with a User ID of SAS) enters three purchase orders saved with a status of Draft in Web Link modern experience, one with an Expected Date in March 2026 and two with an Expected Date in April 2026, two draft batches are automatically created:
Batch “2026/03 Purchase Order Draft-SAS” - containing the one draft purchase order with an Expected Date in March
Batch “2026/04 Purchase Order Draft-SAS” - containing the two draft purchase orders with an Expected Date in April
Once a purchase order is ready to be processed by the Business Office and posted from within Accounts Payable, the status must be updated from Draft to Ready to Order.
Ready to Order Status:
Overview:
Purchase orders with a status of Ready to Order:
Previously entered and saved in Web Link modern experience.
Finalized but can still be edited if needed.
Ready to be processed (posted) by the Business Office.
Ready to Order purchase order batches are accessible in Accounts Payable (and Web Link classic experience, if applicable), but can only be posted from within Accounts Payable.
Details:
When the status for a purchase order is changed to Ready to Order from within Web Link modern experience, it automatically moves out of the draft batch and into a new batch that can be accessed and posted from within Accounts Payable.
The ready to order purchase order batches are created for each user with a processing month based on the Expected Date of the purchase order and named “YYYY/MM Purchase Order-USERID”. For example, if a user (with a User ID of SAS) changes the status in Web Link modern experience for a purchase order (with an Expected Date in April 2026) to be Ready to Order, the purchase order moves from the batch named “2026/04 Purchase Order Draft-SAS” to a batch named “2026/04 Purchase Order-SAS”.
Tip: If a user enters additional purchase orders with Expected Dates in the same processing month as existing batches and the status is changed to Ready to Order, the purchase orders will be added to the existing batches if the batches are not yet posted; however, once the existing batches have been posted by the Business Office, additional batches will be created for the user for those processing months (with a dash and four numbers (starting with 0001) appended to the end of the batch description).
A purchase order with a status of Ready to Order can be viewed and edited in Web Link modern experience by the user who initially entered the purchase order (or by any user from within Accounts Payable, if needed).
Posted Status:
Overview:
Purchase orders with a status of Posted:
Have been posted from within Accounts Payable.
Not able to be edited.
Posted purchase order batches are accessible in Accounts Payable (and Web Link classic experience, if applicable) in order to generate reports.
Details:
After a batch containing purchase orders is posted (from within Accounts Payable), the status for the purchase orders in Web Link modern experience automatically changes from Ready to Order to Posted. A purchase order with a status of Posted can be viewed in Web Link modern experience by the user who initially entered the purchase order, but cannot be edited.
The posted purchase order batches are accessible in Accounts Payable (and Web Link classic experience, if applicable) for purposes of generating reports.