Why does QBO 'close' a purchase order that still has an open balance?!

I appreciate you dropping by the Community, @MLH114. 

I'd be happy to help you with your concern. Let me provide you with some insights about the purchase order status.

QuickBooks will automatically close the purchase order, regardless of the remaining balance, when you add a purchase order to an expense or a bill. However, by following the steps below, you may open its status again.

Here's how:

1. Go to Bookkeeping, then Transactions.
2. Select Expenses and choose the purchase order you want to edit.
3. Under the Vendor ▼ dropdown, select the dropdown that says Closed.
4. Change the status to Open.
5. Click Save.

This would do the trick. You can now see the status of your purchase order as Open.

Furthermore, I'm adding this article for your guidance in sending a purchase order: Create and send purchase orders in QuickBooks Online.

Let me know how it goes by dropping a reply below. Have a good one!

This is yet another feature of QBO that makes no sense.  If a PO is not closed it should not be marked as closed. Going back to find it to change it back to open is another work-around that should not be necessary.  Very disappointed that this simple action cannot be achieved by QBO, and it had been working until recently!  Another "update"?

Yet another feature of QBO that does not make sense.  If a PO has not been received in full it should not be marked as closed.  Going back to find closed POs that are not really closed and change the status manually is just a work-around.  This feature had been working in the past.  This seems to be another QBO "update"? 

I have done this and it reverts right back to "Closed" after I save.  It doesn't have the offsetting Bill but is matched to a Vendor Credit.  I need to open it back up to apply the Vendor Credit correctly and create a Bill to close it out correctly.

Doesn't work. Especially this month with new look.  Even if you do get it to reopen (cheat by adding a line item and save), you are still unable to receive partial items on the PO.  If you had a $700k PO, received $100k, the other $600k will show closed out. Over and over again.  It is grayed out so you cannot adjust actual totals.  Nightmare!!!

It is beyond my understanding.  How in the Hell am I supposed to get this figured out.  I have so many partial PO's in my QB that are all now showing closed.  Useless Customer Support told me it's by design.  WTF???

You can cheat by opening it, change to open and while still in it, add a new line item (fake it and even lets you do a zero) and save it.  It will be open.  Now copy it and start over, but the nightmare continues and each time you put in a partial, it closes the whole thing.  STUPIDEST THING EVER and no one plans to fix this.  I don't know how them expect us to work.  To open a PO for each little thing???

@chinckley 

I'm confused why everyone's POs are closing.  When I create a bill from an existing PO, either using the 'Copy to Bill' function from the PO itself, or going to New > Bill and using the 'Add' function, all the items are added to the bill.  As long as you delete the lines you don't receive and/or reduce the quantities that pulled over from the PO for partial-ships, the PO stays open and shows the lines and quantities not received still open.  I can do this multiple times with no issues. 

If you invoice for 100% of that line item, yes it stays open.  If you try to invoice a partial amount, it does not allow it.  

Only if you invoice for 100% of that line item.  Try to invoice for a portion of that line item and let me know.  Thanks

@chinckley 

"If you try to invoice a partial amount, it does not allow it."

It does for me.  I can do that without issue.  That's what I was referring to when I mentioned "partial-ships" in my last post.  Let's say I have a PO with a quantity of 10 on a single line item, but only receive 5.  I can copy that PO to a bill and change the quantity received from 10 to 5 on the bill and save it.  The PO stays open and shows a quantity of 5 remaining for that line item. 

Alternatively, if I create a PO for $1,000 under Category (and not Items) but only receive $500, I can copy to a bill and change the amount received to $500 and the PO stays open and shows $500 received and the original amount as $1,000.

Try it on QB Online test drive:

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/small-business-processes/test-drive-q... 

@chinckley 

"Try to invoice for a portion of that line item and let me know. Thanks"

Are you referring to purchase orders or sales orders?  Invoicing is for sales orders, this thread is about POs.