Can't link purchase orders to bills if PO date is later than bill date

Your need for an efficient workflow that reflects the exact service dates while aligning with your pay periods is valid, and I’m here to help clarify why QuickBooks Online works this way and explore possible solutions with you.

QuickBooks Online (QBO) does not allow linking a purchase order (PO) to a vendor bill if the PO date is later than the bill date because the system expects the PO to precede with the billing date to maintain accurate transaction flow and inventory or service receipt tracking.

While we can't override this date restriction, a common workaround is to align PO dates with your billing periods. However, we understand this may compromise the accuracy of your PO’s service dates. To help preserve the correct service date information, you might consider adding detailed notes or using custom fields on your POs, so the original service dates remain documented without changing the PO date itself.

Additionally, I encourage you to share your feedback directly with our product development team. To do so, navigate to the Expenses window and click on the Give Us Feedback option. Your insights are valuable and help drive improvements that can better accommodate your workflow and other customers facing similar challenges.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions or need additional assistance.

Thanks for your reply. I do note the correct PO date in the memo section on the PO. However, since I don't know what the contractor's bill date is going to be when I'm creating the POs, I still end up having to change PO dates when the time comes. Last week I had to change 22 PO dates before I could enter one bill.

This happens to me twice a month, so I do submit feedback each time, and someone has actually responded to me asking for more details. It will be interesting to see what else they can tell me and if QBO will make any changes.