Please add a feature that will allow end-users to delete Purchase Orders

[Erica Rohlfs]

Evergreen Version 2.4.6 and 2.5.2

Currently, end-users cannot delete purchase orders.

As an example for the need to delete a PO:
Some libraries have a lot of providers and / or a lot of accounts set up for the same provider (for various reasons). Not being able to delete a PO can be particularly frustrating if a staff member accidentally chooses the wrong Provider (and there is currently not a way to edit the provider on the PO).

Please create a feature that will allow end-users to delete POs. Thank you for your time!

[Jennifer Pringle (jpringle-u)]

It should only be possible to delete pending POs. Once a PO is activated it should have to be cancelled so there is a record in the system of the order existing.

[Kathy Lussier (klussier)]

I agree that activated PO's should not be delete-able. However, we do have people who would like to be able to delete a PO after it is cancelled, so maybe it could be an option?

Also, for the use case cited in Erica's original report, I almost would prefer to see a way to change the Provider on the PO when it is still in a pending state. It seems like it would be much easier to change the provider than to delete the PO and then build it again with the new provider.

[Christine Morgan (cmorgan-z)]

I agree with Kathy. There should be an option that would allow cancelled PO's, that no longer have encumbered money, to be deleted.

The ability to change the provider on a pending PO is also important.

[Martha Crawley (mcrawley)]

Ability to delete a PO when necessary and ability to change the vendor on a pending PO would be very useful to us.

[Jennifer Pringle (jpringle-u)]

I agree that being able to delete a completely cancelled PO would be useful. In this instance the PO should be flagged as deleted so it still exists in the database and can be retrieved by those with database access rather than completely gone.

[Fiona Borthwick (fiona-borthwick)]

We have a customer who frequently asks us to delete pending purchase orders as they may have been created in error or they have somehow ended up with duplicates. I would like to see this functionality in Evergreen in the future. Thought I would comment here to raise this issue again.

[Martha Crawley (mcrawley)]

Should be able to delete any PO whether it's cancelled or just pending -- anything that hasn't been activated yet. Being able to change the Provider would be great! It would eliminate the need to delete or cancel a PO in many cases, but not always.

[Chris Sharp (chrissharp123)]

I think changing the provider needs to be its own bug. Currently concentrating on being able to delete them.

[Jason Stephenson (jstephenson)]

We have a database function to delete purchase orders at CW MARS.

I'm attaching it to the bug for reference. It could be used as the basis for a back end call that could be used in the client.

[Tiffany Little (tslittle)]

I'm interested in others' thoughts about whether purchase orders should be deleted in a "burn it with fire" type of approach where it's completely wiped from the database, or whether they should remain in the database with a deleted flag.

I'm personally not in favor of deleting cancelled purchase orders that use an EDI provider. If it ever touches a vendor, it shouldn't be able to be deleted, IMO. I'm not *particularly* in favor of being able to delete cancelled POs at all, but would definitely disagree with deleting cancelled POs using EDI vendors.

[Christine Morgan (cmorgan-z)]

I tend to think that "cancelled" purchase orders should remain in the database with a deleted flag so that the data can still be retrieved through an acquisitions search or report, if necessary. If the PO still encumbers money because of the cancel reason used, however, a deleted flag should not be applied.

Pending POs, however, can probably be deleted in the "burn it with fire" approach Tiffany mentions as they are usually errors and have not touched the money stream or been associated with a vendor.

[Jennifer Pringle (jpringle-u)]

I agree that cancelled POs should remain in the database in some form, whether it's that they can't be deleted or that they have a deleted flag.

For pending POs I vote "burn it with fire".

[Sarah Childs (sarahc)]

Agreed, I think cancelled POs should be retained one way or another (no
real preference, I personally would not delete those), and burning pending
POs with fire sounds good to me. Those are the ones which are super
annoying. Being able to edit the provider on pending POs would also be a
nice wishlist item, since that tends to be the main issue with those.

On Wed, Jun 9, 2021 at 3:29 PM Jennifer Pringle <email address hidden>
wrote:

> I agree that cancelled POs should remain in the database in some form,
> whether it's that they can't be deleted or that they have a deleted
> flag.
>
> For pending POs I vote "burn it with fire".
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1286340
>
> Title:
> Please add a feature that will allow end-users to delete Purchase
> Orders
>
> Status in Evergreen:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Evergreen Version 2.4.6 and 2.5.2
>
> Currently, end-users cannot delete purchase orders.
>
> As an example for the need to delete a PO:
> Some libraries have a lot of providers and / or a lot of accounts set up
> for the same provider (for various reasons). Not being able to delete a PO
> can be particularly frustrating if a staff member accidentally chooses the
> wrong Provider (and there is currently not a way to edit the provider on
> the PO).
>
> Please create a feature that will allow end-users to delete POs. Thank
> you for your time!
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1286340/+subscriptions
>

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[Lindsay Stratton (lstratton)]

This is still a problem in 3.6.

It would be VERY helpful to be able to delete POs, particularly pending POs, when an error has occurred when the order was placed.

[Tiffany Little (tslittle)]

As an interim solution until development on this bug is done, PINES has been running this script nightly for the past couple of years and we're really happy with it.

https://git.evergreen-ils.org/?p=contrib/pines.git;a=commit;h=f99a615ef7ca05d8cca71a666620cbfc20735386

This will auto-delete any purchase orders that are: pending status, have no direct charges, no line items, no notes, and the name contains "delete". Having these multiple criteria is a guardrail against something getting deleted automatically, since librarians have to affirmatively make sure it meets all those criteria before it's deleted.

[Brandt Ensor (baensor)]

Just this week, I accidentally added the same selection list twice into two different purchase orders. One was submitted but of course can't delete the pending duplicated one.

This should be available. Mistakes do happen. I agree not being able to delete active and submitted purchase orders, but pending ones should be deletable.