The units available for tracking quantity: weight, length, volume and count.
Sortly API
The Sortly API lets you work with your inventory from your own systems: add and update items, keep stock levels in sync, and track what goes out on a job.
Available on the Sortly Enterprise Plan. All requests go to https://api.sortly.co over HTTPS and return JSON. Email dev-support@sortly.com with questions or issues.
New here? Start with Getting Started, then read Items and Folders so the vocabulary in the endpoint reference makes sense. Once you know what you're building, jump to the matching Use Case Guide.
A job is any unit of work that needs inventory: a work order, a project, an event, a service call. Jobs is the Workflow that lets a team track and log the items, assets, equipment, tools, parts and materials tied to or used on that work, all in one structured place. In the Sortly app it sits under Workflows, alongside purchase orders.
Every job is backed by a job folder. Creating a job creates the folder, and the items assigned to the job live in it. Logging usage is therefore just moving items into and out of that folder.
With jobs, a team can:
- Create a job and capture its key details in one record
- Organize items into optional subfolders that match how they work, by room, stage or material family
- Log what was used by moving items into and out of the job folder
- Close the job to lock a tamper-proof record of the items and materials it consumed
Three stages. The app shows them as Draft, In progress and Completed. Through the API the same three are not_started, in_progress and completed, so expect not_started where the app says Draft. Completing a job locks its folder.
In the Sortly app, purchase orders sit under Workflows, alongside jobs.
A purchase order records what you have ordered from a vendor and on what terms: the vendor and ship-to details, the payment and delivery terms, and a list of line items drawn from your own inventory. You don't need to send amount, sub_total or total: Sortly works them out from the lines.
When you would use one. Reach for a purchase order when stock is coming in. A typical run:
- A low stock alert fires, and someone raises an order for the items that are short
- It goes out for approval
- It is placed with the vendor
- The warehouse receives against it as the delivery lands, which is what tells Sortly how much of each line has actually arrived
Purchase order statuses
| Status | Means |
|---|---|
draft | Being put together. Where every new order starts. |
ready_for_review | Finished and waiting on approval. |
approved | Approved, and still editable if a line needs correcting. |
ordered | Placed with the vendor. Sortly records ordered_date, and the order can no longer be edited. |
partially_received | Some of the ordered quantity has arrived. |
received | All of it has arrived. |
voided | Cancelled. Final. |
closed | Done with. Final, and what Sortly calls a completed order. |
How an order moves between them:
draft,ready_for_reviewandapprovedcan each move to one another, or on toordered- From
orderedyou can requestvoidedorclosed - From
ordered, receiving stock also moves the order topartially_receivedand thenreceived. That happens through the receive flow rather than a status call - From
partially_receivedorreceived, the only status you can request isclosed
Receiving sets two of these statuses. partially_received and received are never requested through the status endpoint. Sortly sets them when a delivery is recorded against the order, in the app or through the receive endpoint. Every other transition is one you make yourself. See Manage PO Statuses.
Goal: keep Sortly jobs in step with the work orders in your external system, from the moment one is raised to the moment it closes, so field staff work against accurate inventory and nobody keys the same movement in twice.
A job is a work order. Creating one also creates a folder to hold the items assigned to it. Jobs move through three statuses: not_started, in_progress, completed.
Each subsection below maps to one event in your system. Your system owns the job lifecycle and drives each of these calls; where you need to see the state on the Sortly side, read it with GET /api/v1/jobs on whatever schedule suits you.
Goal: keep Sortly purchase orders in step with the accounting or ordering system you buy through, so both sides agree on what was ordered, what it costs and where it has got to.
A purchase order records what you ordered from a vendor and on what terms, with a list of line items drawn from your inventory. You don't need to send amount, sub_total, total or line_number: Sortly works them out from the lines.
How an order moves:
draft,ready_for_reviewandapprovedcan each move to one another, or on toordered- From
orderedyou can requestvoidedorclosed - From
ordered, receiving stock also moves the order topartially_receivedand thenreceived, through the receive flow rather than a status call - From
partially_receivedorreceived, the only status you can request isclosed voidedandclosedare final
For the transitions themselves, see Manage PO Statuses.
Goal: move a Sortly purchase order to match where it has got to in your own process, whether that decision was made in another system or over email.
Every transition uses the same endpoint and the same two fields: the target status and the version you got from your last read.
- A stale
versionis rejected with409. Read immediately before writing, and retry with the new one. - Sending a status the order already has changes nothing, so a retried delivery is safe.
| From | Can move to |
|---|---|
draft, ready_for_review, approved | each other, or ordered |
ordered | voided or closed |
partially_received, received | closed |
voided, closed | final |
Anything outside that returns 400. received and partially_received cannot be requested here at all: Sortly sets them when a delivery is recorded against the order, either in the app or through the receive endpoint.
Items are the things you track: stock, tools, assets, supplies. Each one has a quantity and can carry a price, photos, tags and custom fields.
Items and folders share these endpoints; type is what tells them apart. Pass "type": "item" here. For the folder side of the same endpoints, see Folders.
Operations
Folders are how you organize inventory by location, category, job, or whatever fits how you work. They can be nested, and items live inside them.
Folders use the same endpoints as items, with "type": "folder" and no quantity or price. Nest one inside another by setting parent_id; leave it out for the top level. To list a folder's contents, pass its id as folder_id when listing items.
Operations
Purchase orders record what you have ordered from a vendor and on what terms. Each one carries vendor and ship-to details plus a list of line items drawn from your inventory.
How an order moves:
draft,ready_for_reviewandapprovedcan each move to one another, or on toordered- From
orderedyou can requestvoidedorclosed - Receiving stock moves an
orderedorder topartially_receivedand thenreceived, through the receive flow rather than a status call - From
partially_receivedorreceived, the only status you can request isclosed voidedandclosedare final
Use the status endpoint for these transitions rather than the update endpoint.
Operations
Aug 5, 2026. Added Purchase Orders: list, create, fetch, update and change status.
Jul 31, 2026. Added Jobs: list, create, fetch, update, change status and delete, plus adding items to a job and returning them.
Jun 17, 2021. Added yard and gallon units of measure.
Jun 5, 2021. Added support for item variants (Item Groups).
Jan 4, 2021. Renamed attribute_value to value on custom field values (attribute_value still works). Added tags to item reads and search.
Sep 1, 2020. Added the search endpoint.
Jun 15, 2020. Added alerts.
Mar 2, 2019. First release.