Link Sales Orders to Purchase Orders in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

Learn how to link sales orders to purchase orders to get orders to customers faster.

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise 24.0 release R9 helps you get orders to customers faster and track products purchased more efficiently with sales orders linked to purchase orders.

Turn link sales orders to purchase orders on

1. Go to Edit, and select Preferences...
2. Select Items & Inventory, then Company Preferences.
3. Select Link and track sales order line items with purchase orders.
4. Select OK. QuickBooks will close all the open windows to change the preferences.

Create Sales Order

Sales orders help you track what your customers want to buy. You can use them to generate purchase orders and invoices, which helps you fulfill orders on time.

1. Go to Customers, select Create Sales Orders.
2. Select a Customer:Job and the date.
3. Select the items with their details like quantity, amount, etc. that need to be fulfilled.
4. Select ‌Save.

Create Purchase Order from the Sales Order

1. Select Create Purchase Order.
2. You can either create a purchase order for all allowed items or select items in the sales order.
   • If you chose the option to create a purchase order for selected items in the sales order, you will see a screen to select the items. Select the item and select OK.
3. Select on OK.
4. A new purchase order is now created with a unique purchase order number (P.O. NO.). 

View Purchase order linked in the Sales Order

1. Go back to the same sales order.
2. You’ll now see a new LINKED PO column that has a hyperlink to the purchase order that was linked to the selected line item. You can double-click to go to the purchase order.

You can continue to select other items in this sales order and repeat the steps to create and link other purchase orders.

Note: When you're fulfilling the same item from multiple vendors, it's best to split the quantities into separate line items. Each line item should have its own linked purchase order. This will help you keep track of your orders and make sure you're getting the right items from the right vendors.

Customize Sales Order form 

If you print sales orders and want the Linked PO column to appear on your printed forms, you can format the form.

1. Go back to ‌the same sales order.
2. Select Formatting.
3. Select Customize Data Layout.
4. Go to Columns.
5. You can select Linked PO to show the new column in Print Preview.
6. Select ‌OK.

You can select Linked PO to show or hide it in the Sales Order Screen and Print. You can also modify the Order number to arrange it as per your business needs.

Track all the linked transactions in a Report

1. Go to Reports, then Sales.
2. Select the Sales Orders Linked to Purchase Orders report. 
3. You’ll now see:
   • The purchase order number is in the Linked PO column for any item that is linked to a purchase order. This helps you decide which items need to be ordered.
   • The quantity of items that have been received is in the Item Received column. This helps see the number of items that have been received as per the purchase order.

You can also customize the report to show or hide columns or filter it based on a specific column.