How to cancel a purchase order in ApprovalMax

Purchase orders get into ApprovalMax in two ways. Some are created in ApprovalMax itself. Others are created in Xero, submitted for approval there and pulled into ApprovalMax with their details. Only the first kind can be cancelled in ApprovalMax, and only while it's still going through approval.

That rules out three kinds of order: drafts, orders that are already fully approved, and orders pulled from Xero. An unwanted draft is handled differently, because a request in Draft status is the one kind ApprovalMax lets you delete outright.

Check who should do it, too. ApprovalMax's purchase order article gives the job to the order's Requester, and its note on deleting requests says Reviewers can also cancel requests that aren't approved yet. Support is the fallback: ApprovalMax can delete requests on its side when asked.

1. Open the purchase order in ApprovalMax, signed in as its Requester or as a Reviewer on it.
2. Confirm the order was raised in ApprovalMax, not pulled in from Xero.
3. Check its status: it should be submitted and waiting on approvals, not a draft and not fully approved.
4. Click the CANCEL button in the purchase order.

Timing is what matters for Xero. Once an order raised in ApprovalMax has collected all its approvals, it's created in Xero with the status Authorised and appears on Xero's Approved list. An order cancelled before its final approval hasn't reached that point, so ApprovalMax hasn't sent it to Xero.

The stages that follow approval don't apply to it either. In ApprovalMax, delivery tracking (Not Received, Partially Received, Fully Received), matching a bill to the order and marking it as Billed are all for approved orders, so a cancelled order won't be part of them.

An order that's already fully approved is a different case: it has been created in Xero and ApprovalMax won't cancel it. If you no longer want an approved order, check with your accountant how to deal with it in Xero.

Can't cancel the order? Work through the blockers: it may still be a draft, it may have had its final approval, it may have come from Xero, or you may not be its Requester or a Reviewer. If none of those apply and the order still can't be stopped, contact ApprovalMax support, which can delete requests on its side.