Purchase Orders and bills for job costing

Good afternoon, @Casey A123! Thank you for coming to the Community with your question. I'd love to help you with your purchase orders. :)

I have a couple of questions that'll help me troubleshoot further with you. Can you explain what you mean by assigning an expense account to that purchase order? Do you want to use an expense account but also want to make those items billable? 

I'm looking forward to your response. All of us here in the Community are eager to help!

I'm not sure if I need to make the items billable per se, however, I need to be able to see them in my job costing, so I know how much its costing for me to build a house based on the materials included in that purchase order, that was then ordered/invoiced from our vendor.   

Hello there, @Casey A123.

Allow me to share some details why you're unable to show the purchase orders on the job costing reports.

The purchase order is a non-posting transaction, therefore it's not considered as an expense to the job. You may want to use Bills, Check, or Credit card charge to assign these expense items or services. 

Then, you can enter your estimates. With this, you'd be able to use the full range of Job Cost reports to ensure that your project budgets us on track. 

Once done, you can check Step 4 in this article to know more details on how to track job costs appropriately: Tracking job costs in QuickBooks Desktop. 

You may also check out this reference about getting the right report to get the details you need: Understand reports. This contains sub-topics on how to customize and combine reports from two data files.

I'll be around if you have other questions or concerns. Feel free to let me know in the comment section. Take care!

Hello @Casey A123! Just checking in with you about what my colleague suggested and whether that workflow made sense to you. Let me know. :)

Hello - I am having a similar problem.  We don't have any inventories to track or sell.  I've created a service item list and create Purchase Orders to send to our vendor once I received their approved bid to work on our projects.  Once they receive their PO, they will then send me their invoice, and usually it's the first 50% deposit.  The whole purpose of the PO is for us to forecast what's left to be paid to our vendors.  When I run my P&L, the costs paid to the vendors wasn't added to the COGS account but rather to the Purchases account at the bottom of the list.  This is not helpful, since those costs are part of the project costs.  Please advise.  Thank you

Hello there, @SterlingAcct.

Let me share some information about the purchase order in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

The purchase order is a non-posting transaction, therefore it's not considered as an expense to the job. You may want to use Bills, Checks, or Credit card charges to assign these expense items or services.

In the meantime, you can consider sending feedback to our developing team. This way, they can check and improve the feature of QuickBooks.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Help menu.

2. Hover over Send Feedback Online.

3. Choose Product Suggestion.

4. Click the Type of Feedback and Product Area drop-down arrow.

5. Enter your suggestion.

6. Click Send Feedback.

I've also added this link about the reports in QuickBooks Desktop: Understand reports.

Please know that you can always get back to us if you have other questions. I'm always here to help.

Hi - thank you for the reply.  I know that PO are non posting.  What I am trying to say is, when a bill was posted against an open PO, that cost didn't get coded to COGS when I run the P&L.  Why is that so? The PO is not for items but services.

Good afternoon, @SterlingAcct. 

Thanks for reaching back out to us about this problem. Allow me to share some insight. 

Cost of Goods Sold is meant for physical items. You can't use a COGS account for services items. This is why you aren't seeing the information on the report. 

I recommend reviewing this guide for additional information that's similar to this situation.

I hope this helps in the end. I'm only a post away if you need me. Bye for now! 

I didn't see a response to the response about COGS.

Cost of Goods Sold is the title on the job cost reports on the Projects tab - regardless of selling items or not - it includes all expenses/bills etc.

I agree here - even if the PO does not show up on the standard Job Costing reports - they should show up somewhere as they are usually 'committed costs' - you have a contract - obligation and this should deduct from the budget.

My suggestion is that they are included in the COGS on the Project Overview page.

Expenses and Bills are an accounting function - that are based on historical data - that is, usually, the goods or services have already been received.  The point of the Purchase Order is to see what still remains of a budget/estimate after having committed to a purchase.

I see this is kind of an old posting.  Did this issue ever get corrected or solved.  I am having the same issue I am not getting the items I purchase on a PO on the job costing report.  I have created the po then receive the items, then create a bill and pay it.  Still nothing in the job costing report.

Hi there, violetflu.

Allow me to join you here and help with your job costing reports.

I also want to ask if you used inventories in the purchase orders or Bills? If so, you will need to create an invoice or sales receipt first so the expenses will flow in the reports. This is because QuickBooks will only post the expense or increase COGS once the items are sold. 

Use this article as a guide: Create an Invoice in QuickBooks Desktop.

Aside from that, you also need make sure that the assigned account in the Expense Account is set to COGS or any cost-related expense accounts. 

Additional details about this are discussed here: Track Job Costs in QuickBooks Desktop.

Let me also share these articles for additional guidance in case you might need them: 

• Customize Customer, Job, and Sales Reports in QuickBooks Desktop
• Understand Reports

The Community is always here if you need anything else. 

I noticed the same thing on one of my job profitability reports, and at first it threw me for a loop.  The bill that you generate using the PO will post the transaction to the item that is on your Purchase Order.  In my case, the items on my PO were "Other Charges" that were posting to an asset account (because the costs were actually capital improvements, not COGS or job expense).  Thus because the item was not an expense or COGS, it will not post to the Job Profit report.