QuickBooks HelpQuickBooksHelpIntuit

Add purchase orders to expenses, bills, or checks in QuickBooks Online

by Intuit•62• Updated 2 months ago

Learn how to add an accepted purchase order to a transaction for your vendor.

After a vendor accepts a purchase order and sends the products, record it as a bill or expense in QuickBooks. You can easily add the purchase order as a line item. This closes the original purchase order, connects it to the bill or expense, and records the accounting accurately.

Turn on itemization on bills

First, make sure your bills are set up to display the items table so you can itemize your products and services.

  1. Go to Settings Settings gear icon., then select Account and settings.
  2. Select Expenses.
  3. In Bills and expenses, select edit ✎.
  4. Turn on the following :
    • Show Items table on expense and purchase forms
    • Track expenses and items by customer
    • Make expenses and items billable
  5. Select Save, then Done.

Add a purchase order to an expense, bill, or check

Follow these steps after your vendor accepts the purchase order:

  1. Select + New.
  2. Select Expense, Check, or Bill. Learn when to use expenses or bills.
  3. From the Payee ▼ dropdown, select the vendor. This opens a window with their open purchase orders.
  4. Select Add for the correct purchase order. This adds the items from the purchase order. They appear in the Item details section.
  5. If you plan to bill a customer for a specific item, select the Billable checkbox. Then add the customer you plan to bill in the Customer column.
  6. Select Save and close.

Add part of a purchase order to an expense, bill, or check

If you're received only part of a purchase order, or make a partial payment, you can add just those parts to a bill or expense. This links multiple transactions to the same purchase order:

  1. Select + New.
  2. Select Expense, Check, or Bill. Learn more about when to use expenses or bills.
  3. From the Payee ▼ dropdown, select the vendor. This opens a window with their open purchase orders.
  4. Select Add for the correct purchase order. This adds the items from the purchase order. They appear in the Item details section.
  5. Adjust the quantity or amount for each line item to reflect the portion you received or plan to pay for.
  6. Select Save and close.
Tip: You can link multiple transactions to a single purchase order. QuickBooks Online automatically closes purchase orders when all quantities are added to bills, expenses, or checks.

If you haven't saved the bill or transaction yet, simply select Delete from the dropdown from the Actions column.

If you already saved the expense or bill, go to Expenses and select Expenses (Take me there) to open it. Select Delete from the dropdown of the corresponding purchase order. This unlinks the purchase order.

The purchase order status, however, stays closed. You need to manually change it back to Open:

  1. Go to Expenses and select Expenses (Take me there).
  2. Select and open the purchase order you added by mistake.
  3. Under the Vendor ▼ dropdown, select the dropdown that says Closed.
  4. Change the status to Open.
  5. Select Save.
QuickBooks Online AdvancedQuickBooks Online EssentialsQuickBooks Online PlusQuickBooks Online Simple Start

Sign in now for personalized help

See articles customized for your product and join our large community of QuickBooks users.

More like this