Billable line created from entering a PO in Quickbooks Online

Good day, @JDM100.

Having the option to determine whether an item is billable or not to customers is imperative. I see that the latest updates can be overwhelming.

Our goal is to cater to all business needs. If enough users request this feature, our product developers can consider adding it in future updates. Follow the steps below to submit:

1. Go to the Gear icon.
2. Under the Profile column, select Feedback.
3. Share your suggestion, then click Next.

Visit this website to track your requests. Our blog will also update you with recent events and developments.

Here's an article that will walk you through emailing or modifying the status: Create and send purchase orders in QuickBooks Online.

See this guide to learn more about connecting the PO to a bill or expense: Add purchase orders to expenses, bills, or checks in QuickBooks Online.

I'm always here to listen if you have other concerns about purchases or bills. You're always welcome to post again. Have a fantastic day!

I am not looking for an improved tool with new features.  I am simply looking to go back to the way the tool was prior to the recent changes where each PO creates a billable entry.  I am now unable to simply pull up the unbilled activity and invoice off of this activity since it includes lots of billable events that are in error coming from the PO.  Why  has this started happening?  And, how can I turn it off? 

Hello there, @JDM100.

I am here to assist you in achieving your goal. 

To provide you with the most effective solution, it would be helpful if you could kindly share the specific error message or attach a screenshot. This will enable me to better understand the issue and provide you with accurate guidance.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could share any additional information that you might have. I am eagerly looking forward to your response.

I tried to upload an image, but this tool is saying I don't have permission.  So, I will type out what I am seeing under a project when you look at the transactions tab:

12/18/23 Billable Expense Charge

12/18/23  Purchase Order

12/18/23 Billable Expense Charge

12/18/23  Purchase Order

12/18/23 Billable Expense Charge

12/18/23  Purchase Order

As you can see, for each PO created, a billable expense charge is automatically added as a transaction line item.  This is not given a specific error code or message.  But, it is very much an issue with using the Customer unbilled income tab to issue out invoices.  These billable expense charge transaction line items created when a PO is issued appear as Customer unbilled income that I need to issue an invoice to, but that is not accurate since they were just created when the PO was issued.  Before this latest change with QBO, the only time these billable expense charge transaction line items were created was when you entered a bill and marked it billable.  How can you turn off or stop these billable expense charges from being created when you are simply entering a purchase order? 

 This is a screen shot from a project transaction list.  You can see that for each purchase order created, a billable expense charge is automatically created which is a poblem.  These billable expense charges should only be created when a bill, not a purchase order, is entered and marked as billable.  How can we stop these billable expense charge transaction line items from being created when a purchase order is entered?

I appreciate you sharing your query here today, JDM100. I've come to provide information to help you manage vendor transactions and billable charges in your account.

As per checking, we currently have an ongoing investigation relating to billable expenses charges automatically creating on purchase orders in QuickBooks Online. I see the need to efficiently keep track vendor entries and balances in your account. Please know that our engineers are already aware of this issue and are implementing measures to provide timely resolution.

For now, I recommend contacting our Customer Care Team to have your account information added to the list of affected users. This way, you'll receive updates through email notifications regarding the status of the investigation. To do this:

1. In your QBO account, click Help.
2. Click the Search tab, and click Contact Us.
3. Enter the error message in the description box, and select Continue.
4. Start a chat with a support expert.

In addition to that, I'm sharing these relevant guides in case you want to add purchase orders to vendor bills and add customizations to your vendor reports:

• Add purchase orders to expenses, bills, or checks in QuickBooks Online.
• Customize vendor reports.

I'll keep this conversation available, so you can always reply below whenever you need additional assistance managing vendor forms. Just let me know, and I'll make sure to get you covered. Keep safe!

Please explain why a purchase order entry now creates a billable expense charge.  Why did this change happen?  How can we reverse this change? I think there is some confusion about what I am discussing.  These comments have nothing to do with connecting a PO to a bill.  It is expressing the problem with using QBO with a purchase order entry, when no material has been delivered, creating a billable expense charge, which is a significant matter since no billable expense has happened.  This billable expense charge should only be added when a bill is entered which shows that material has been delivered and is being charged against that project.  Does this further explanation help to drive an understanding of my concern with the QBO adding this billable expense charge when no expense has been charged and only a purchase order has been issued.  Makes sense?

I know this has been challenging on your end, @JDM100.

Please know that my colleague @FateCandylaneT edited her answer above. 

Currently, there's an ongoing investigation (INV-94173) about "Auto-billable expenses created upon creating a Purchase Order on a project."

With that in mind, we recommend talking to our representative in QuickBooks Online (QBO) Care Team to include you as one of the affected users of the issue. Once an update is available, you'll be notified through email.

If you want to get a report on all money paid to a vendor for the year, you can read this article: Run a report with vendor totals.

Feel free to return here if you have additional questions about managing your vendor transactions. I'll be willing to help. Keep safe.

I have to agree with JDM100 on this!! The new update has made my life using QBO a miserable experience. It now takes me at least 2-3x the time to create invoices from billable expenses. This needs to be fixed ASAP. FYI, I am already exploring alternative software solutions because of the lack of awareness the support team shows in threads like this and the lack of concern for how this nonsense update has impacted users.

AW1921, good morning.  Not sure why the Quickbooks team can not solve and fix this matter immediately, but here we are having to plow through this very difficult change.  I only hope it was a byproduct change from another tweak and not a change they did intentionally.  FYI, my work around to make the system functional given this matter is to create place holder invoices valued at $0.02 where I link these billables created by POs.  This clears them out of the unbillable system and eliminates the clutter.  Once actual bills come in and true billable lines are in the system for the job, I then use that same invoice to attach the true billable items.  Not the ideal approach, but an essential approach until QBO can fix things.  Hope this insight helps.  Still very much need QBO to solve this matter of billable line items being created when a PO is generated!!!

Thanks JDM100 for the work-around. I was doing invoices this morning so this was top of mind. As I was working through, I found an even more concerning issue. On 2 projects, the PO has been fully received and closed BUT now both the PO and the Bill show up as billable. I've tried everything I can to think of to get these 2 POs off the billable list. Not sure why these 2 did this and a host of others did not. Been using QBO for 4+ years and this has been hands-down the worst software change they have ever made. 

AW1921,

Are you able to link both the PO billable and the bill billable to the invoice and clear the PO billable off, but keep it linked?  This is what I am having to do when I get both billable items showing up.  I have not checked to see if the PO billable line item goes away when you close out a PO.  Do you have any insight on this front?

I am experiencing the same. One of my employees spent time on the phone & with screen share with Quickbooks. They told her they had heard this was a problem, but the first time seeing it in action. They said that they were going to use the information they learned from watching the problem in action and take it back to their tech team. They gave no timeline on the fix as they seemed very stumped by the issue to begin with.

In the past when you converted a PO to a Bill you had to manually click the "Billable" button on each line item on the Bill. Now it is automatically clicked once you convert, so I think the issue is somewhere in the code that allows this to happen.

In the meantime, I have taken your idea & adapted a workaround. I create the POs needed for the Project. Next I create an invoice & name in HOLD. Then I add in all of the Billable Expenses (my POs have multiple line items). I zero out the rate to $0 so it says that the invoice is $0. Hit "Save & Close". This makes the now the new "Billable Expense Charge" that shows up that is not supposed to be there as "Converted" and then the HOLD Invoice as "Paid". This helps remove the extra billable items making invoicing easier after as well as doesn't throw off my books.

I hope this helps and there is a fix very soon.

I am experiencing this same issue and it's creating confusion! Not only is each PO duplicating into a billable expense charge, but each line item of each PO is creating a billable expense charge. Has this issue been resolved yet?

cv19,

No, this issue of PO entries created billable line items has not been resolved.  I am not sure why it continues to be an issue that remains unresolved, but it appears to not be a priority for the Quickbook folks to resolve.  If only they knew how significant and impactful this issue is on the entire tool.  We and others have continued to reach out to them to explain the severe impact. I suggest you do the same so we can get this resolved as soon as possible!!

cv19, I am not sure if my previous post I just sent through went in, but I don't think it did, so I will respond back.  If it is a close duplicate, my apologies.  This issue has not been resolved and remains an open item that is having significant impact on system use and productivity.  We continue to get billables created when PO line items are entered.  Prior to whatever change the Quickbooks gods did, these billable line items only came into the system when a bill was entered and you selected each line item to be billable.  I am not sure why the Quickbooks team can not fix this to the correct approach as before, so I would continue to contact them through these communitie sites so they fully understand the large number of folks having severe issues with this matter.

Hello there, everyone.

I heard all your sentiments and understand the necessity of getting this fixed as soon as possible. Let me share some updates about the auto billable expense created upon creating a Purchase Order in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

Upon checking, the investigation status of the issue is still ongoing. Our engineer is diligently working on it. We appreciate your patience as we investigate this further. You'll want to reach out to our Technical support team so that they can add you to the list of affected users and get notified via email when there's an update.

In the meantime, you can create a Purchase Order from the +New icon and add the Project name under the Customer column on each line of the Purchase Order. It will tie the PO to the Project without creating a Billable Expense.

I'm leaving you this article to help you track and manage your expenses in QuickBooks: Enter Expenses, Pay Bills, Write Checks, and Add Suppliers.

Feel free to come by anytime if you have other questions or concerns. I'm always happy to help.

GebelAlainaM, I appreciate the short term work around option.  Realize this is not a sufficient long term work around since you lose the ability to use the information from previous POs to populate on future POs when you create the PO from the new option and put it into a project.  The use of previous POs in a project is a solid feature that we would like to continue using and eliminate this billable creation with a PO like we had before this was tweaked by your team to create this current significant problem.  Thanks.

I was able to find another work around that will help me going forward.  If you select the COG icon from the Top Right of the screen.  Then select Lists > Products and Services.  I have a large list of items that I use from Raw Material to purchased items to fabricated components.  If I select each one of those and scroll down there is a field name "Description" and it includes a phrase "I Sell this product/service to my customers" If you uncheck the box it will not create a billable expense.  I don't know what this changed but it does help with the problem