Create and send purchase orders

by Intuit •

879 •

Updated 5/26/2026 13:36

Purchase orders (POs) tell vendors you intend to buy specific products in specific quantities. When your vendor accepts the PO and agrees to the terms, you can add it to an expense or bill in QuickBooks Online. This keeps your transactions connected and your accounts balanced.

Learn how to create purchase orders and send them to vendors.

Purchase orders are only available in QuickBooks Online Plus and QuickBooks Online Advanced. If you need to, you can upgrade your plan.

What you'll need

Before you create a purchase order, make sure you have:

An active QuickBooks Online subscription on a supported plan
Inventory items set up in QuickBooks Online
The purchase order feature turned on in your settings

Turn on purchase orders

If you haven't already, turn on the purchase order feature.

Go to Settings and select Account and settings. (Take me there).
Select the Expenses tab.
In the Purchase orders section, select Edit.
Turn on the Use purchase orders switch.
(Optional) Enter up to three custom fields and a default message for vendors.
Select Save, then select Done.

Create and send a purchase order

Select + Create.
Select Purchase order.
From the Vendor ▼ dropdown, select your vendor.
Review the Mailing address.
To ship products directly to a customer, select the Ship to ▼ dropdown. Enter details in Ship Via, then check the Shipping address.
Enter the purchase order date.
To add custom fields to this purchase order, select Settings ⚙ on the form. On the Choose what you use panel, select the link to add your fields.
In the Item details section, enter the products you want to purchase. Note: You can only add products or services marked as "I purchase this product/service from a vendor." Learn more about editing products and services.
When you're done, select Save and close. Or, to send it now, select Save and send.

Save your changes as a custom template

To save your design changes as a reusable template:

Select Settings ⚙ on the form.
Select the Design dropdown.
Go to Other Templates and select Add/Edit.
Select New style , then select Purchase order.
Make your changes, then select Done.

Your new template will appear in Other Templates.

Result

Your purchase order is created with a status of Open. If you selected Save and send, the vendor receives it by email.

If you selected Save and close, you can send the purchase order later:

Go to All apps , then Expenses & Bills, then Expense transactions (Take me there).
Find your purchase order.
Select Send in the Action column.

Next steps

Once your vendor accepts the purchase order, add the purchase order to an expense or bill to make the transaction official. QuickBooks automatically changes the status to Closed.

To track open purchase orders:

Go to Reports , then Standard reports (Take me there).
Search for and run one of these reports:
- Open Purchase Order List
- Open Purchase Order Detail
- Purchases by Product/Service Detail
- Purchases by Vendor Detail report.

Send a reminder for an overdue purchase order

If your vendor doesn't fulfill a purchase order in time, you can send a reminder.

Go to All apps , select Inventory, then select Purchase orders (Take me there).
Look for purchase orders with a status of Overdue and Open. This means the due date has passed and you haven't received your items.
To review all overdue purchase orders, select Review Reminders. To send a single reminder, select the Action ▼ dropdown for that purchase order, then select Send Reminder.
Review the drafted reminder email. QuickBooks adjusts the tone based on how overdue the purchase order is.
Edit the email if you want, then select Send Reminder.