Quickbooks Online and Purchase Orders from Customers

Thank you for your continuous support in QuickBooks Online, Blue.

I'd like to provide a deeper understanding of how to handle your vendor transactions in QuickBooks Online (QBO). 

Within QBO, your customers use the Purchase Order feature to systematically track all orders they are placing with their vendors. These orders are recorded and managed on the platform to ensure clear visibility and accurate account handling.
 

On the other hand, vendors use a Sales Order feature to manage incoming orders from customers, it's important to note that this feature is not available in QBO. However, there's an effective workaround that you can utilize. You can use the Estimates feature as an alternative to Sales Orders. These are non-posting transactions in QBO that can be tracked and later converted into Invoices once the order is finalized and ready to be billed.
 

For instances where you need to handle partial payments from your customers, QBO offers the Progress Invoicing feature. This functionality allows you to enter and track partial payments against customer purchase orders. Once these entries are made, you can convert these recorded Invoices into Estimates for comprehensive record-keeping and easier accounting management. Additionally, regardless of the subscriptions that you have acquired, Purchase Order will only be use for customers when tracking their orders towards their vendor. 

Moreover, you can read this article to give you further information about the necessary steps on how to set up invoices and estimates in QBO: Set up and send progress invoices in QuickBooks Online

Furthermore, here's an article to guide you how to personalize your sales forms in QBO: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online

These tools and resources are designed to streamline your transaction management processes in QBO, making your accounting practices more efficient and reflective of your actual business operations If you have further questions or clarifications with regard to your transactions, you can always Reply to this thread. We're here to extend help. 

Thank you so much for the detailed response! In my case, there are times where I send partials to a customer as part of a larger order. These partials are not billed out at the time. The job is billed out when it is completed. How can I track these sent partials from an estimate versus what is still left to complete from the same estimate? I am hoping there is some tracking method where I can print out daily reports showing how many open estimates are in place with a breakdown of what has already been sent and what is still left to complete. Thank you again for your assistance!

Thank you so much for the detailed response! In my case, there are times where I send partials to a customer as part of a larger order. These partials are not billed out at the time. The job is billed out when it is completed. How can I track these sent partials from an estimate versus what is still left to complete from the same estimate? I am hoping there is some tracking method where I can print out daily reports showing how many open estimates are in place with a breakdown of what has already been sent and what is still left to complete. Thank you again for your assistance!

Thank you for chiming back in! Yes! If you follow the steps to do the progressive invoicing as my colleague mentioned above, you can use the Estimates and Progress Invoicing Summary by Customer report to track. Here's how:

1. Go to Reports 
2. Search for and open your Estimates & Progress Invoicing Summary by Customer report.

Let us know if you have further questions! We are happy to help. See you soon. 

Thank you for the reply. The estimate and progress invoicing report does not seem to have the granular detail I require. I need to be able to generate a report that totals how many of each type of each product I need to manufacture from open estimates I have for customers. And ideally be able to account for any partials that I have sent to a customer which I will not bill out until total completion of estimate (sales order). Is this even feasible in QuickBooks Online? 

Generating a detail report showing both the product totals to manufacture and partially shipped items would be convenient, Blue Domino. I'm here to discuss how QuickBooks Online (QBO) generates the Estimates & Progress Invoicing Summary by Customer report.

When you use this report, you'll see a comprehensive list of all estimates and their corresponding progress invoices. However, it doesn't directly show totals for each product type needed for manufacturing from open estimates. As a workaround, you can open the estimate transaction to check both the invoiced amounts and remaining quantities for each item.

We know that every company has its own specific needs, and I understand how the feature you’re interested in could really benefit your business. As we work on enhancing our services, I suggest you share your request with our product team. Your feedback is important in helping us improve our features.

Here's how you can send us your feedback:

1. Go to the Gear icon at the top.
2. Select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions.
4. Then select Next to submit feedback.

As for your additional concern about keeping track of any partial estimates sent to your customer that you won't bill until the work is complete, I suggest exploring third-party applications. There are a variety of tools that can help you with this process.

Should you wish to personalize your sales transactions to include the business details you require, you can check out this article: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online.

Are you facing any challenges with your other transactions in QuickBooks Online? Just give us a reply, and I'll be glad to help you out!