Report of bills and linked purchase orders

Yes, there's a way to run a report to get the information you need, @DavidDean. 

Let's pull up the Transaction List by Vendor report since it displays all the transactions per vendor. Then, customize it to see the purchase orders and their linked bills. I'll guide you how. 

1. Go to Reports from the left menu.
2. Enter Transaction List by Vendor in the Search box and select it. You can also locate it under the Expenses and Vendors section. 
3. Select Customize.
4. Set the Report period as to when the PO's and bills took place. 
5. Go to the Filter section. 
6. From the Transaction Type drop-dwn list, choose Bill and Purchase Order.
7. Click Run report.

The screenshot below shows you the last four steps. 

Here's a sample screenshot of the result: 

Once done, you can locate the missing bills that aren't linked to the PO's. 

Then, run either the Open Purchase Order List or Open Purchase Order Detail report to check those transactions that are still open. This way, you can apply them to the bills to mark them as Closed. 

In case you need to save the customization settings for the said reports above, memorize them. It helps you quickly access them in the Custom Reports tab for future use. 

Click the Reply button below if you have follow-up concerns regarding purchase orders or other inquiries. I'll gladly help. Take care. 

When I do this it shows me the purchase orders and bills by vendor, but all transactions are sorted by date.  They do not appear to be grouped by purchase order or anything like that.

In your screen shot, the PO and bill have the same date.  My bills are dated as the date when they were sent from the vendor, so they do not match the date on the PO.  I also some times have multiple POs on the same day, so even if it did group by date this would still mix together purchase orders that share the same date.

Am I misunderstanding this?

Hello, DavidDean.

I appreciate your time getting back to us. I have details regarding how the transactions are sorted with the current customization settings. 

You aren't misunderstanding anything at all. It's how QuickBooks organizes the transaction grouping. Sorting it by Vendor arranges the transaction by date and separated by vendor. 

One way to determine which bill isn't linked to a purchase order to check how it is placed using the current customization settings.

You'll want to look for POs that were grouped by linked bills (as what RaymondJayO has shown in his screenshot). Next, check placement of the bill and the amount to see if it corresponds with the purchase order amount. 

Finally, open either the bill or the PO to see if it's linked or not. 

Another way to do this easily (this works well if your POs are still open) is to look at the Open Purchase Order List report, then compare it with the bills in the Transaction List by Vendor report. 

Simply go back to the Reports page, then search for Open Purchase Order List in the box.

Next, export it to Excel to view the transactions easily. Click the "paper icon" next to the small gear, then select Export to Excel. 

Looking for help managing your vendors, expenses, or other financials? Feel free to visit our articles here. More topics are found at the bottom of the page. 

I'm always here to help, so leave your reply below if you have other concerns with QuickBooks Online.

I'm sorry, I still don't see it.  Maybe I need to share some more details.

My vendor sends several bills for each purchase order.  So, I will send PO1, and they will send me Bill1A, Bill1B, and Bill1C, at various times after the PO.  This is because they bill me when the product actually ships, and they might send multiple shipments.

I send POs for several different products (PO2 and PO3, let's say) so all of these bills will overlap each other in time.

Additionally, I might send a PO for a product before the previous PO is closed.  So I will receive a bill for the previous PO for that product after I send the following PO.

All this is to say that I am still just seeing a list of Purchase Orders and Bills sorted by date.  Neither the date nor amount of the transaction tells me anything about which purchase order a given bill is linked to, or not linked to.

What I had expected to be possible is to add a "Purchase Order" column to the report, so I could simply see the PO that a bill is linked to, and if it's blank, I would know it's not linked to a PO.  Is anything like that possible?

Please let me know if I am still misunderstanding the proposed solution.

Hello there, DavidDean.

While the option to add a Purchase Order column in the Transaction List by Vendor Report is unavailable, I'd suggest adding the PO status. Here's how to easily add a PO status column:

1. Go to Reports and open the Transaction List by Vendor. 
2. Set the Report period.
3. Click the small gear icon at the upper-right of the report.
4. Select Show more and check the PO Status box.
5. Click anywhere to refresh the page.

An Open PO status means that it's not copied to a bill yet. You can click Purchase Order to review the transaction. If you have partially linked a bill to this PO, a linked transaction will indicate above the vendor's name. You can select it to see the bills it's linked to. You can click the Copy to Bill button if the PO is closed and fully billed. 

For more details on how to customize reports and manage vendor transactions, you can check out these articles:

• Customize reports in QuickBooks Online
• Enter and pay bills

Keep me posted on how this works. The Community is always available 24/7 to help. You take care and have a great day!

This is going in the wrong direction.  I am not looking at purchase orders and trying to determine which bills are linked to it.  I am looking at BILLS, and trying to see what purchase order (if any) they are linked to.  

The other replies seemed to imply that you could group bills in the report in such a way that they showed which purchase order they were linked to.  But it was unclear if that was based on date or amount in a way that I cannot use in my setup.  Can you comment on that?

Is there any way to work with one support agent?  If I ask a question about a response but the answer comes from a new agent it shifts the conversation each time.

Good Morning, @DavidDean. 

Thanks for the extra clarification and reaching back out to Community. 

When getting help from the QuickBooks Community, more than likely you'll receive a new support to help you. However, you can get in touch with our Customer Support Team to have one agent look over the information and help resolve your issue. They'll be able to use a screen share tool to help walk you through some additional steps to look further into this problem. 

Here's how: 

1. Go to the Help icon in the top right-hand corner. 
2. Tap Contact Us. 
3. Give a brief description of the issue and press Let's Talk. 
4. Select to Get a callback. 

Afterward, you'll receive a call from our Customer Support Team. 

I value you and the success of your business. Let me know how it goes. If you have any trouble along the way, don't hesitate to ask. Take care!

Can you comment on the question at hand regarding the bills?  Otherwise we've just gone even further backwards and now it's become a question of how to get help in the first place.  I originally chatted with several agents about this.  They were unhelpful and disconnected a few times, requiring me to restart the conversation with a new agent.

I agree with the other member. I think what we are both asking is how to reconcile invoices applied to open PO's by line items in that PO. 

As an example:

A PO is created for $100,000. It has three line items:

Item 1: $25,000

Item 2: $50,000

Item 3: $25,000

Invoice 1 arrives as follows:

Item 1: $20,000

Item 2: $50,000

Item 3: $0

Therefore, we have $20k of $25k applied to Item 1, $50k of $50k to Item 2, and $0 of $25k to Item 3. 

What we are asking is how to open the PO, where it shows the PO values above, and the Received column next to it, and click the "received" amount for it to show what invoices apply to that received amount. There is no link to do so. Opening every invoice and seeing how it links is very time-consuming. I've also run into a snag whereby QB says $X value is received, yet when I look at all the transactions I can't find how they add up to that amount. Especially as you add multiple POs by that same vendor. Even worse for me, one PO line item says "Closed", but I can't reconcile that and when I unlink an old invoice it doesn't unlink that closed PO, making reconciliation even harder. 

QB can't be this bad at PO management? It's really not that hard. I just need a way to click that "received" amount in the PO by PO line item to drill down into how QB derived that value. 

Nice to have you join this thread, @knievel124.

I also appreciate you for sharing your thoughts and ideas about Purchase Order (PO).

The option to see how much value was received against what was on your original PO isn't available in QuickBooks Online (QBO). Rest assured, our Product Developer team is always working on improving QuickBooks. 

In the meantime, you'll want to look for a third-party app that has the feature you need. You can go to the Apps menu in your account or visit our QuickBooks App Store for reference.

You can also submit feedback so our Product Developer team can have a look and review it. Let me show you how.

1. Go to the Gear icon.
2. Select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions. 
4. Then select Next to submit feedback.

You can also see this link for more details: How do I submit feedback?

Additional, you might want to visit our QuickBooks Blog page to stay updated on the latest news and updates about QuickBooks.

Once you're ready to reconcile your account, you can check this article for guidance: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online. This link can guide you through the detailed steps in matching your accounts efficiently.

Let me know in your reply if you have other questions managing your PO's or reconciling your accounts. I'll be around ready to help you. Have a great day ahead! 

@knievel124. Do you have a timeline on when this functionality will be done? I think this is very basic. When I do received items and enter a bill, QB ask me to select a PO# and line# so I believed that the connection between the PO and the bill is already there.  

Hi.... 

I am having the SAME ISSUE with quickbooks online. I use to use the desktop version and regret switching to this online version.

Were you able to solve this issue? 

Please help! Thank you! 

Hi... 

I know this is like 4 years ago... 

I am having the SAME ISSUE. I use to have the desktop version, which allowed me to track POs, and switched to the online version recently and regretting it already. 

Were you able to solve this problem? 

Please help! Thank you! 

I can see the convenience of being able to track which bills are linked to your purchase orders, emikoza. Allow me to share information when managing these entries in QuickBooks Online.

The ability to track which bills are linked to your purchase orders is currently unavailable in the program.

In the meantime, you can send your valuable feedback directly to our product engineers. This way, they can include your suggestions in future product updates.

Here's how to send your feedback:

1. Go to the Gear icon and select Feedback.
2. Enter your product suggestions or feedback.
3. Then, click Next to submit feedback.

As a workaround, you can manually open your Bill transactions to verify which Purchase Orders are linked to it. You can also consider utilizing our custom fields feature to let you track these entries seamlessly.

Moreover, you can utilize this guide whenever you need to review your accounts to make sure they always match your bank and credit card statements: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.

I'll keep this thread available if there's anything else you need further assistance with when managing tasks in your online account. Stay safe.

As you can see, nope, no solution from Quickbooks.