# Fishbowl: "Purchase order cannot be issued in this status"

> A purchase order can only be issued when its status is bid request or pending approval.

## What it means

Purchase orders follow a workflow with multiple statuses. The system restricts the issuance action to only two statuses: bid request and pending approval. If your PO has moved to a different status—such as approved, sent, received, or completed—Fishbowl won't let you issue it.

## What to check

- Review the current status on the purchase order record.
- Confirm whether the status shows as 'bid request' or 'pending approval'.
- If it shows a different status, the PO may have already progressed past the point where issuance is allowed. Check whether the PO should remain in one of those two statuses or whether you need to take a different action instead.

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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*