Fishbowl: "Cannot void purchase order" — PO isn't in Issued state
Cannot void purchase order with status of
What triggers it
You opened a purchase order and tried to void it, but the PO is not in the Issued state. Void is the tool for cancelling a PO that was issued to a vendor and then didn’t happen. The dialog ends with the PO’s current status, so read the last word: Fulfilled or Received means product has already come in against this PO, Closed Short means it was finished with less than ordered, and Void means someone already voided it.
Why Fishbowl blocks it
Voiding is a clean cancel. It is safe only while nothing downstream has moved. Once a PO is Received or Fulfilled, Fishbowl has already added the received quantity to inventory and created a cost layer at the received cost. Letting you void from there would remove a purchase order whose receipts are still driving your on-hand quantity and valuation, leaving inventory that exists physically but no longer traces to a document. For Closed Short and Void there is simply no open state left to cancel.
What to do
Identify the status first, then work backward from it. If the PO is Received or Fulfilled, go to the receipt and reverse the receipt (unreceive the line quantities). That pulls the inventory and its cost back out. When the PO returns to Issued with nothing received against it, void becomes available. If it is Closed Short or already Void, stop — the PO is closed and there is nothing to undo.
If it is already reconciled or exported
Reversing a receipt is where accounting integrity comes in. If that receipt has already synced to QuickBooks or Xero as a bill or an inventory adjustment, unreceiving it in Fishbowl does not automatically walk back the entry on the accounting side. Treat it as a two-system correction: reverse in Fishbowl, then reconcile the matching bill or journal entry in your accounting system so on-hand value and payables agree. Do this deliberately rather than voiding your way out, or the two systems will quietly drift apart.