This is beyond frustrating.  Your sales person told me it was a direct interchange from my desktop version, and it wasn't until I committed and gave you my payment information that I discovered this function was not included.  Then I realize later that I needed to go to this chat room to get a clue as to how to "work around" this.  I have been monitoring this for several months now, and no progress has been made whatsoever other than to use the Estimate function, which is not close to having the tools I need.   Disgraceful.  Shameful.

We need both Sales Orders and Estimates for specific reasons and I agree QBO made a very poor decision not to include Sales Orders (and a dozen other crucial features that are available on Desktop but not Online). The inventory problem has already been addressed, so I won't add to that.

However, we need to use Estimates to see what WE estimated would be our cost to complete a specific job or fulfill an order. That is an internal estimate that we generate to see if we even want to accept the job, and also to track purchases against so we can also create Estimate vs Actual job costing (which of course is another critical report not available Online!). We use Sales Order to invoice the customer.. that's the "estimate" the Customer sees. They are two separate things for a reason. Estimates and Sales Orders will have different information in them, because obviously we don't give the customer our internal estimated cost to fulfill their order. I understand some businesses can simply add a line for "Overhead" and forward the whole estimate to the customer, but that is not the norm. Generally customers don't need to see how much we'll be spending for every widget necessary to complete their project. The only thing the customer needs to see is how much the job/order will cost them.

In desperation I tried creating two Estimates so that one could act as a Sales Order but that only created other problems. I've tried suggestions on using Budgets for internal estimating, but apparently the ones suggesting Budgets have never actually had to do real project costing (say, as a builder constructing a house). This thread is almost a year old, with no practical fixes available.

But the problem is that "Estimate" does not "hold" the stock like "Sales Order" does. With Sales Order as an intermediate process, our business knows how much stock has been reserved by sales orders for stock planning. This is totally different than "Estimate" which does nothing but creating a paperwork to be sent to customer.

I appreciate you joining this thread and providing feedback about QuickBooks Online (QBO) functionalities, edlui.

The only workaround we can have is to create estimates to can act as the sales order. This will be a non-posting transaction that can be turned into an invoice at a later time. 

You might want to look for a third-party application that allows you to create sales orders in QBO. Just visit our Apps page in your account.

Here's how:

1. Log in to your QuickBooks Online account.
2. From the left pane, click on Apps.
3. Search for apps in the search box.

Then, it will display the list of applications available that matches the description you entered. Once you find the right app, click to open it.

You can also visit this link to route you over to different apps that are compatible and designed to work with QBO: https://apps.intuit.com/. 

For product updates, please visit our Blog to check the latest feature added to the program, as well as additional references while working with your QuickBooks.

I've got a link here that provides you with articles about managing your sales and customer transactions: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/sales-and-customers/07?product=QuickBooks%20Online.

The Community will always have your back if you need anything else with running your business in QBO. Keep safe and healthy.

You folks are a "one String Banjo".  You keep replying with a "Work Around" using estimates or paying a third party to alleviate your lack of foresight and not including sales orders.  How many times are you going to provide this unacceptable "Work Around" solution?  I am not impressed paying for an Inadequate Service and all you can come up with is a non acceptable work around that adds extra work and useless documents on my end.   I already create an estimate for each job to quote it, why would I want to create a second estimate?

There needs to be a more direct way to track open orders.

Seriously, the sheer amount of unhappy customers and posts should get this developed quicker. Such an integral piece of the day to day of businesses not being available is unacceptable.

I have just switched over to QBO and I am LIVID.

We need a fix, we need it now.

Can I bill QuickBooks Online for all the lost time/wasted time doing work arounds?????

We know that having this feature will greatly save your time, @KwickBeuks.  

We also understand how it can be frustrating to sign up for a service and have it not work the way you think it should be. However, there are certain limitations for each product offered by QuickBooks.

Since QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online (QBO) are two different platforms, its features offer depends on how it was built by our Product Design Team.  

Please know that we're taking notes of your ideas to improve your QuickBooks experience. In the meantime, you can follow the steps provided above as a workaround.  

In addition, I would recommend reaching out to our customer support for the bill that you're asking. This way, they can pull up your account and settle this matter for you.  

1. Click Help at the top right.
2. Select Contact Us to connect with a live support agent.
3. Enter your concern in the description box, then click Let's talk.
4. Click Get a callback.

In case you need help in performing other tasks in QBO, you can check our articles here. Make sure that the topic is set as "QuickBooks Online."  

To ensure we address your concern on time, check out our support hours.

I'm always here to help if you have any other concerns or questions. Just tag my name in the comment section and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

So I complain about a WORKAROUND, and what am I offered? A WORKAROUND.

STOP GIVING WORK AROUNDS, FIX THE APPLICATION!

Instead of spending all this money on After Sales Service, invest on the solution.

This is a BAND-AID and does not achieve the desired result outside of having every customer contact your customer service. 

How much time, money and energy does it take to manage these online requests, the phone calls, the managers who have to speak with retention specialists and client service teams?

I would guess the cost and time would be GREATLY reduced and the client retention team could be a lot smaller if you just fix your product. IN turn, having happier clients, who via word of mouth talk about how much QB is to SAGE, XERO, NetSuite, FRESHbooks...

In a world where there is so much competition, you will alienate your brand by fighting/lying to your customers about your unfinished product.

KwickBeauks, I would immediately switch back to QB desktop before more damage is being done to your business.

I'm years deep with QBO workarounds and looking to switch to Zoho as lack of Sales Order functionality is making it very difficult to identify non-delivered orders.

Please let me know how easy it is to move to Zoho? The lack of SO function on QB has surprised me as it is part of our QA system and has been an ever present for years of QB versions in other parts of the world. So silly to commit such a valuable function. not every business deals with immediate transactions, we need to be able to assess our backlog and order intake run record. 

It is confounding to me that I can't do a Sales Order, Pick Ticket and Packing slip in QBO.  What is the purpose of QBO if it does not do that and does not take it out of inventory???????????

What is the purpose of QBO then if you can't do sales order? How could it possibly be of help to me?

We are currently looking to switch off of QB Desktop and obviously would prefer QBO but the lack of Sales Order is a non-starter. We've looked at Zoho but they do not have average costing for inventory. If this is not an issue then it might work, just a heads up before you spend too much time.

Quick Books team - please please please, have your team work on Sales Orders.

Cheers.

What is the latest update when this feature will be available? I just migrated two company over from Desktop to QBO, but this is a big gap for us which will force us to another solution like  Zoho Books.

A sales order is needed.  It is a basic transaction.

An estimate cannot act like a sales order when it's not a sales order.  There is a large difference.

When will QBO have a Sales Order feature similar to Desktop?  This is an invaluable tool for my clients that have inventory but need to record the sale and corresponding deposit for future delivery.

I appreciate you for following this thread, kcardinal001.

We're unable to give you a time frame as to when this feature be added in Quickbooks Online. You may consider looking for a third-party application that lets you create a sales order in QBO. Just go to https://quickbooks.intuit.com/app/apps/home/ to find one.

While we continue to make your experience with us even better, I recommend you to visit our QuickBooks Blog to be updated with the recent developments made in the software.

You've got me here if you have any other questions about this concern. I'll be around to help you out.

QBO will NEVER, I mean NEVER introduce SALES ORDER functionality, so please just stop asking. There are NO feasible workarounds. They (Intuit) specifically created QBO to have outside functionality through third party apps, meaning they have to leave out features to attract developers who can ultimately bring much more the the table. To introduce sales order functionality (which is included in desktop) would mean they would make some third party developers obsolete. Heck, they even buy some firms (Lettuce) and just kill them never bringing in any of their functionality. Buying into other apps could easily be hundreds more MONTHLY So the short of it is this... buy up into a 3rd party app that works with QBO and gives this functionality or go to desktop version, or just go to some other accounting platform. There is certain functionality that will NEVER be a core part of QBO, period. Stop asking for sales order functionality. This is Intuit folks, they honestly do not care what a small portion of users want when they have millions of subscribers...

This is terrible.  Not having a "Sales Order" is rediculous.  Yes I have renamed my doc a "Sales Order" on the form but it still attaches to an email as an "Estimate" which means saving and renaming and then sending (Which means it can not be sent out directly to customers).  Please do something about this asap.  This thread is old.

@flooringguy 

Intuit has acquired one app with the sales order feature to integrate with QBO. I am not sure they will develop another SO function.

We need Sales Order functionality.  It’s a huge gap in your product. 

Okay quickbooks we are now in 2021 and everyone has been asking for 2 years now for this function.  We don't want a work around or use the estimate.  I know that this program isn't hard to create for your company and why you haven't done this yet.   Is there any update on this?  I'm thinking of going to a different software system completely.