Formatting a Purchase Order (Design)

Hello there, @GBE.

Let me provide some insights about customizing the Purchase order template in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

Currently, there are certain limitations on the changes that can be made to the Purchase order template in QBO. 

If you're using QuickBooks Online Advanced, the changes you can make for now are to have customized transaction numbers and messages on the Purchase order.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Gear icon in the upper right-hand. 
2. Choose Account and Settings. 
3. In the left menu, tap Expenses.
4. In the Purchase orders section, select the ✎ icon.
5. Put a check on the Use purchase orders box.
6. Enter titles for the custom fields. 
7. Tap Save, then Done. 

Moreover, I'm adding this helpful article as your reference in creating and editing custom fields in QBO Advanced: Create and edit custom fields in QuickBooks Online Advanced.

Come back to this post if you have further concerns and follow-up questions about customizing purchase orders in QBO. I'll be here to lend a helping hand.

@GenmarieM  RE: Currently, there are certain limitations on the changes that can be made to the Purchase order template in QBO. 

Can you make it looks like a normal, professional business form, or will it always look like a cartoon?

@GenmarieM  We have QB Plus. Just to get the formatting right, I would not pay an extra thousand dollars a year. To me, it is like buying a car and to get the gear shift lever, I'd have to pay extra.

This is basic functionality that I have been requesting Intuit for nearly 2 years. It is a basic HTML improvement to allow proper width. To suggest a $1,000 upgrade for it is like asking a kidney.

@GBE  RE: To me, it is like buying a car and to get the gear shift lever, I'd have to pay extra.

You're describing a Tesla, which is not a real car just like QuickBooks Online is steadily becoming not a real accounting system with each new "improvement".

There's no way to change this. All my items have long descriptions as we are in a custom business. QB squishes everything together making it hard to read and unprofessional. If you have adobe acrobat you can edit the PDF, but its not an actual fix, and just wastes more time doing something that QB should handle on its own. Its unfortunate QBO gives the customer little to no customization, then they implement new features that break existing features, then they pull the features back. What a cluster -

Then we have to rely on their terrible support , which is essentially just human robots with pre selected answers at this point.

we are ready and looking for new software options. 

we are ready and looking for new software options. 

 - Let me know what you find.

We're still using QuickBooks Desktop API and trying to transfer to QuickBooks Online.  Between the lack of features, customization, and overall dumbing down from Desktop we are looking to NOT use QuickBooks Online.  Right now we just finished an API to connect to online BUT still use the old API to connect to Desktop - running the old while testing the new.

We are giving Online an honest 6 month trial but we will most likely start using the QuickBooks Monthly Fee to pay for a Virtual Cloud Computer and just keep running the Desktop API connection. 

Intuit has cornered 80+% of the small business market. At this point rectifying / improving / adding features is not in the best interest of Intuit's BS or P&L. When less than 0.5% complain about the problems and threaten to leave, Intuit probably just thinks, "good, go ahead and leave". This is the case with most companies when they become too big. Products like Xero are a distant competition, that they are not even seen in the rear view mirror.