# Fishbowl: "Cannot cancel - items already shipped"

> You cannot cancel a sales order that has any shipped items.

## What it means

Fishbowl prevents canceling orders with shipped items. Once fulfillment has started, the system requires a separate inventory transaction (return or receive) rather than order cancellation to reverse the shipment.

## What to check

- **Which items shipped**: Review the order detail to see which items show as Shipped and which remain unshipped.
- **Partial vs. full shipment**: Confirm whether this is a partial or complete shipment. If partial, check whether you can close or cancel just the unshipped lines.
- **Return or receive process**: Check whether you need to process a return or receive transaction to undo the shipped items before attempting order cancellation again.

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*From Israel Lopez Consulting (ILC). Custom Fishbowl Inventory integrations and software, and Fishbowl experts since 2015. Written by Israel Lopez. Questions about this topic, or want to reach the people who wrote it? Visit https://israellopezconsulting.com/contact*