Last Updated on February 18, 2026 by maximosecrets
Good afternoon and welcome to Maximo Bite Size, a podcast on the functionality of Maximo Manage. Today is the fourth episode in the series on Inventory and the second article discussing the features of the Item Master application.
In this episode we will focus on Item Statuses which apply to all three types of items and their applications, Item Master, Tools and Service Items. The same set of statuses also exist at the Item/Organization level and at the Inventory level. An item that exists in a storeroom has a status, a tool that exists in a storeroom, which will be seen in the Stocked Tools application, also uses the same statuses.
We have mentioned before that the Item Master does not have a delete item action, this also applies to Service Items and Tools. The delete action is also missing from the Inventory and Stocked Tools applications. The Status field then plays an important role which is why it has its own episode.
The item statuses are PENDING, PLANNING, ACTIVE, PENDOBS (Pending Obsolescence) and OBSOLETE. You can change statuses quite freely between all these statuses except for OBSOLETE, the status must be at PENDOBS (Pending Obsolescence) before you can change status to OBSOLETE and once you have reached OBSOLETE you will not be able to change the status back to anything else, you are at the end of the road. There is no history field, the applications filter out obsolete items though a filter on the status field, !=OBSOLETE. Obsolete items and inventory records are also filtered out of the lookups on the item field across Maximo applications.
If you change status at the Item level, then the Change Status dialog will have the option to – Roll New Status to OrganizationsA structural element of a Maximo database which is used for data sharing. More and Inventory? This applies in the Item Master and Tools applications but there is no inventory for service items and so in the Service Items application the Change Status action has the option to – Roll New Status to Organizations? The Change Status action can also be applied from the List tab against multiple selected items, tools or service items.
The default item status is PENDING. It can be defined at the item level in the SetsA set is used to share data across the Maximo Database. There are two types an Item Set and a Company Set. More application – Default Item Status, a mandatory field. The same field exists in the Organizations application where it is also a mandatory field. When you create an item in any of the three item based applications the status is defaulted from the Default Item Status in the Sets application. However, the status field in the Item/Organization Details is derived from the organization and not the set. This allows the default status for the same item to be different between organizations. The Default Item Status in the Sets and Organizations applications can only be PENDING, PLANNING and ACTIVE.
Items at PENDING status can be added to a storeroom, but it will not appear in lookups across Maximo so you wouldn’t be able to add it to a job plan, work order, or any purchasing documents.
Items at PLANNING status will be visible in lookups, so you can add to a job plan and make it active, you can add to a work order and allow a reservation to be created, however, you cannot issue, or transfer the item from the storeroom, you would not be able to approve a PO that references the item and you cannot receive the item, there are also some inventory adjustments that you cannot make.
At ACTIVE status there are no restrictions across Maximo. While PLANNING allows you to start setting up records that will reference the item, when you want to start using the item on financial transactions it needs to be at ACTIVE status.
If you wish to retire an item, you must first move it to PENDOBS – Pending Obsolescence. You can still use the item on issues, returns and transfers but you will not be able to reorder the item or approve a PO where the item is referenced. You are likely to move to PENDOBS at the inventory level first and only move to PENDOBS at the organization level when there is no stock remaining. For non-stocked items, there should be no inventory records, in which case you change status to PENDOBS at the Organization level, this would also be the case for Service Items.
To move an item to OBSOLETE you would again start at Inventory level, before moving on to change status at Organization level, and finally changing status on the Item Master, Tools or Service Item applications, the Item level. To change status to OBSOLETE Maximo will perform several validations. You cannot change status to OBSOLETE if the item exists on a work plan, a job plan, a desktop requisition line (MRLINE), a purchase requisition line, a purchase order line, or if there exists an item balance. It does these validations at Inventory, Item/Organization and Item level, the end of the validation error will point to the level where the item reference exists.
If you changed status to OBSOLETE at the Item level, you would find the checkbox – Roll New Status to Organizations and Inventory will also be set. The same applies at the Item/Organization level, the checkbox to roll the status down to Inventory will be set. You may not wish this to happen, so take care, my preference is to start making items OBSOLETE at the Inventory level first and then move back up to organization and item level.
The level is important. When reordering you are working at the inventory level, you will not be able to reorder an item at the GARAGE storeroom if it is at PENDOBS or OBSOLETE status, but you could reorder at the CENTRAL storeroom if its status for the same item were ACTIVE.
The level also effects lookups. On a Job Plan Material, you could enter an item while the storeroom field is null, you are looking up at the Item level and will find items where the status of the item is ACTIVE. The same item may be OBSOLETE at the CENTRAL storeroom, and if you enter the Storeroom before the Item, then the item will not exist in the Select Value lookup, you are looking up at the Inventory level.
In the Invoices application you can select an OBSOLETE item, but you will receive a warning. This means that you cannot hide an obsolete standard service from being used, not without adding some configuration.
There is a status history for the item at all three levels, Item, Item/Organization and Inventory.
I hope you enjoyed this podcast and I look forward to seeing you back on the next episode when we will discuss Rotating Items.
The music is called Smoke Jacket Blues from the talented group called TrackTribe, please check them out on TrackTribe.com, all one word.
Until another time, goodbye.
Links
Item Statuses – https://maximosecrets.com/2020/07/24/item-statuses/
Quiz
Quiz – Item Statuses – https://maximosecrets.com/2026/02/13/quiz-item-statuses/