Purchase Orders - How do i get SKU to show up on my purchase orders?

Hello there, @jmcconnico. 

Welcome to the Community. To get the SKU show up in the purchase order, you'll need to turn on this feature in the Account and Settings page. Here's how: 

1. In the Gear icon, click Account and Settings.
2. Go to the Sales tab, then go to the Products and Services section.
3. Mark the box to Show SKU column.
4. Click Save, then Done.

Next, let's enable the SKU option on the Standard template. Here's how: 

1. In the Gear icon, choose Custom Form Styles.
2. Search the Standard or Master template, then click Edit.
3. Go to the Content tab, then click the middle part of the template.
4. Click the SKU option.
5. Hit Done. 

This will now show the SKU column on your purchase order. 

For future reference, read through this article and learn about how to personalize your forms, change the design, and add info: Customize your invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online. 

Let me know if you have other questions about QuickBooks Online. I'll be right here to help you. Stay safe. 

NO that does not work. 

I appreciate you joining this thread, hjk.

As of this writing, the option to show SKU's when printing Purchase Order is unavailable. Our engineers have been working on to provide ways on how we can improve our products and services through our customers feedback. I'll be sure to share this to them for future product enhancement.

For now, I want you to be updated with the latest QuickBooks news and improvements of the product by visiting our QuickBooks Blog.

You got me here if you have other questions. I'd be more than happy to help you some more. Stay safe and enjoy the rest of the day!

This doesn't solve the problem of showing the SKU on the printed PO. I don't understand why it's not in the printed PO. That's probably the most important part of the sending the PO to the vendor. W/o the sku, they cannot enter the order.

Please provide an option to displaying the SKU column w/o using a workaround like adding the sku to the "description".

Hello, @Coqui.

As for now, this feature is not available in QuickBooks Online. I would like you to know that your voice matters to us and rest assured that our engineers will be working on it to have this update and improve our product and services.

I'll be leaving you this help article that will help you if you have some other issues or concerns. Help article.

You can always come back here if you have any other concerns. Take care!

This does not work on Quickbooks Online Plus. Is this instructions for QBO Advanced?

How much longer are we going to have to wait for this update? Without it the Purchase Orders are useless. We just switched from QB Desktop and can't believe how backward and slow the Online version is. Considering moving back to Desktop version or different software.

It's totally ridiculous that you wouldn't have the SKU show up for the item on a Purchase Order.  I've had 3 wrong orders since switching to Quickbooks Online because they make a mistake reading items that are closely named.  Get the program fixed

This is ridiculous, I also went from desktop to QBO Adv, and the amount of stupid things I've found I can't fix or edit is just crazy. WAKE UP INTUIT!!!! Guess its time to just move over to Netsuite then, can't believe all these simple things that can be fixed, feel sorry for the tech support people having to put up with poor management

Having the SKU on a purchase order is an absolute requirement to use the PO to actually send to the vendor to order!!!!!!   When will QB get this corrected?!      

I appreciate you joining the conversation and pointing this out, kelly62. 

I can see how this feature would be beneficial to you and other businesses. We may not be able to provide a specific time frame as to when this option is available. Rest assured, once it's ready, will update our site. Thus, I encourage you to star our blog to keep up with any product updates or improvements on the online version:  QuickBooks Online Blog.

For future help, here's a resource to help you get ready during tax season: QuickBooks Online Year End Prep and Resources.

If there's anything else you need help with, let me know by adding a comment. I'm more than happy to assist you. Have a great day!

Thank you for the detailed instructions. Worked like a charm and did exactly what I was trying to accomplish. Too bad that the SKU or templates don't print the same way they display. :-)

I followed instructions but SKU still does NOT show on Purchase Orders.

This makes no sense and the moderator has been saying for the last 8 months that "engineers are working on it"?      Please advise when this will be corrected.

Thanks for reaching out to us here, TG20201.

We currently don't have any updates on when the option will be added when printing a purchase order. In the meantime, you can add a custom field and manually enter the SKU number.

Here's how:

1. Go to + New > Purchase order.
2. Click the Gear icon located in the upper right-hand corner.
3. Select the + Add another field link and name it SKU.

Please see this sample screenshot for a visual reference:

Once added, please make sure to enter the number on the SKU field. Here's a sample screenshot to see what it looks like:

You can stay updated with news and product releases by visiting the QuickBooks Blog. If you need help with other task in QuickBooks Online, you can go to our general help topics page to see the articles and guides.

Please don't hesitate to add another reply below if you still need more help with QuickBooks Online. We're always here to help. Thanks.

Hi, this is worked if we have 1 sku only.

My client create PO for >1 SKU.

Could you help to figure out?

thanks,

Lani

Hi there, @lbudiman1.

I can see the importance of adding the SKU when printing purchase orders in QuickBooks Online. I'm here to share with you another workaround to get it printed.

At this time, you can temporarily add the SKU details under the Description column so you can include them when printing your transaction.

Here's how:

1. On the Purchase Order window, add the SKU numbers under the Description column.
2. Tap on the Print button to print the transaction.
3. The SKUs are added under the Description section.

I've added these screenshots for your visual references.

Rest assured our engineers are working nonstop to deliver the best experiences for all QuickBooks users. Hopefully, the option to print the numbers directly from the SKU column will be available real soon.

For the time being, I would recommend checking out our blog to stay current with the latest QuickBooks news and feature enhancements. Here's the link: The QuickBooks Blog.

Moreover, you may also check out the topics from our help articles for more tips about QuickBooks related concerns. 

Please let me know how else I can help you with your purchase orders by adding a comment below. I'm more than happy to help. Have a great day ahead!

UPDATE ON A SOLUTION THAT DOESN'T REQUIRE A WORK-AROUND PLEASE!!!!

Dear QBO Gods,

Well I just decided to give inventory and purchase orders a try for the first time in QBO and to my amazement when printing the PO the SKU does not show... so I googled it and it looks as if this is a known issue for a very long time. It really cannot be that hard to implement, can it? 

Anyway based on the crappy "work-around" suggested in this thread... I found a better workaround that would not require copy-pasting every time you print/email a PO. That is another important distinction... this affects the emailed AND the printed PO so it is a VERY BIG DEAL! As other users in this thread have mentioned there is not one piece of data on a purchase order that is more important to the recipient than the SKU (stock keeping unit). That is the vendors inventory number that works with their system and avoids mistakes for items that are nearly identical in description.

If anyone makes it this far and wants a BETTER "Work-Around" then I would suggest you copy paste one time when setting up the "products & services" in QBO there you can just copy the SKU from the "SKU field" and paste into "Description on purchasing forms" field. It's at the bottom if you scroll down to the "Purchasing information" subsection of the Products and Services setup window. Everything you type in this field will show on the printed/emailed PO. I just added it to the beginning of what my vendor calls the item like so: "10537954 - 19X13 95M 100# White Mohawk Everyday Digital Smooth Cover 500/CT 51212"... the first number is the SKU followed by the description my vendor uses in their product catalog exactly. 

If you are listening QBO gods... none of this should be necessary and you should fix this for real to work the way everyone would like. While you're at it add a custom form set-up for the Purchase Order and allow folks to uncheck the SKU if they do not want it for some reason.

I hope this tip helps some other users.

Thanks and good luck!

Jake

PS - attached is a screenshot if you are a visual learner :)

Absolutely bizarre that SKUs cannot be included on the emailed or printed PO. Please fix this, Intuit!!

Hello,

This is still an issue in April 2021. This is a joke, how can you have an accountancy program without SKU's on Purchase orders?

As much as I can't leave QuickBooks due to the amount of work to change.. I will definitely be letting my voice be heard to everyone I speak to about how crap QuickBooks online is.

Utterly disgraceful I have a PO with 50 items for re-stock and It has no SKUs so I can't even send it!

I have to take a screenshot and send to my supplier, who then has to type each SKU in manually and hope its not mistyped!

This MUSt be done. A PO sent to a vendor is NO GOOD if it doesnt show their item#. This is so frustrating. 

Hello Katherine,

It is now, May 26, 2021 and this issue has not been addressed.  My question is why?  What is the difficulty with bringing QB up to a basic standard on a very critical, procurement document.  It is obvious that there was work performed to allow the SKU field to be turned on in the template settings. So why is it not working, as intended? Is there any layer of transparency that you can offer, other than a politically correct response to side-step the issue?  Is there no hope that this has been pre-planned on a future release with an updated version number to look forward to?  I think this is the most frustrating part of reading these customer threads is that there literally is no response from QB on this critical issue.  Can you provide an explanation of the complexity of the work needed to correct the issue, because I am missing something.  I would appreciate your guidance to help me understand this situation.

regards,

Bob

We don't want you to feel inconvenienced, Bob. I will add a few pieces of information.

I know how important the feature is to your business. Since we're still unable to show the SKU when printing the purchase order, you'll want to follow the workaround to get past your concern.

Also, I suggest sending feedback directly to our software engineers. They're taking notes of our customers' ideas and insights. Let me show you:

1. Click the Gear icon.
2. Select Feedback. 

The more request it has, the more likely it'll be added to the next update. In addition, we ensure the feature will be working well before we introduce it or add it to the program.

We're available 24/7. Don't hesitate to let us know if you have other concerns. Take care!