What is the "Customer" field for and how is it used when creating a Purchase Order in Quickbooks Online?

Good day, abid,

The Customer field on the purchase order is used when it is billable to a customer/project. If you want to associate a PO as billable to a customer, select the customer on that field.

Furthermore, if you copy an estimate to a purchase order, make sure to select the same customer in the Item details section.

To keep track of your purchase orders, you can run these reports:

1. Select Reports on the left pane.
2. Scroll-down to Expense and vendors.
3. Select any of the following reports to run or customize them:

• Open Purchase Order List
• Open Purchase Order Detail
• Purchases by Product/Service Detail
• Purchases by Vendor Detail

Check these articles to learn more about purchase order in QuickBooks Online: 

•  Create purchase orders in QuickBooks Online
• Apply a purchase order to a vendor transaction

If you have additional questions about purchase orders, don't hesitate to leave a reply. I'll gladly answer them for you.

Thank you for the information.  I was hoping it would do more than that.  There are times we create purchase orders for equipment that will be installed at a specific customer site.  But, we do not invoice the customer for these items because the cost was included in the overall contract.  So given this, I still want these expenses to show up under the customer when we generate "P&L by Customer" reports.  Currently, that is not happening.  How can I do that?

Good evening, @abid.

With this unique issue, I recommend getting in contact with your accountant for the best solution. Your accountant will be able to give you the best advice on how to record the expenses without creating a separate expense for the equipment. This will ensure your books are correct and the expense shows up on your Profit and Loss report.

Feel free to hit the Reply button if you have any other questions or concerns. Best wishes!

Thank you, I can do that but then it seems that selecting the customer in a PO does not have any real effect beyond being able to pull up the PO in QuickBooks Online and being able to view which customer the order was for.  Am I correct?

Hi there, @abid. 

Yes, that is correct. However, I encourage you to follow my colleague's advice to contact your accountant for the best resolution to prevent any discrepancies in your book.  

Fill me in if you have other concern about this. We are always here to lend a hand. Have a great day!

I do have a concern because the functionality that I'm looking for is something very basic.  How is it possible that an accounting program cannot handle this?

Also, my situation is not unique - the only way someone can say it's unique is if they have zero business experience.  There are many companies that work on non-paid-by-the-hour contracts; contracts where a price is negotiated up front with the customer.  In these types of contracts, you have to manage your expenses such that you complete the job for the customer without spending so much that you make a net loss on the contract.  In the process of running this type of business, you have to make purchases of equipment - this is what POs are for.  And to analyze profitability of all the different contracts, you run a P&L by Customer report.  This is very basic functionality.

So if you're telling me QuickBooks Online can't handle this without doing all sorts of manual journal entry procedures or exporting to spreadsheet processes, then this product is stupidly built by a group of people who have no idea how businesses work.

Hello @abid,

We don't want you to feel this inconvenience and I want you to know that helping you is our priority. As for QuickBooks Online itself, an accounting software designed and tailored for small and medium businesses. That's why it has some features which are not available yet.

But don't worry, I want you to know that your voice matters and I'm taking notes of your feedback and submitting it directly to our product engineers. This way, they'll know of your need for an option to record the expenses without creating a separate expense for a piece of equipment.

For updates, you can always visit the following links below for reference:

• The QuickBooks Blog
• The Firm of the Future

If you have any other concerns, feel free to comment below. Always around to help you.