Hi @NNeese,

I'm here to take care of your query about purchase orders in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

A purchase order (PO) is a non-posting transaction. With that said, you're unable to include any expense accounts, since these affect your books. What you can do is utilize the Memo field if you wish to take note of the expense account(s) to use on the items in the PO.

You can take some time to view this article: Accounts Payable workflows in QuickBooks Desktop. This introduces 2 possible workflows available for QBDT. These are bills that have a PO paired to them, while the other doesn't. 

Feel free to leave a comment below if you have other questions. I'll be sure to get back to you. 

If you were to link an "Item" (using item list) with an expense account, will this make it where you do not have to choose an expense account later when you receive the items and invoice?

Thanks for the response, @NNeese.

Yes, once you've set up and linked the item to a specific expense account, then you won't have to choose an expense account later when you receive the items and invoice. Here's how you can add the expense account to the item from your item list:

       1. Go to the Vendors tab in the top menu, then navigate to the Item List.

       2. Right-click on the item and press Edit Item.

       3. In the Description section, under the Account drop-down, select the expense account.

       4. Hit OK when you're finished.

That's all there is to it! To learn more about the Item List in QuickBooks Desktop, you can refer to this Community article: Add, edit, and delete items.

Please come back to the Community for any questions or concerns that you may have. Have a great rest of your day.

Thank you. I understand how ITEM lists work. So basically, every item we want to track to "pre-code" to an expense, we have to link it with an item. I was hoping there was another way but it appears we will end up with a massive list of items in which are not real items but just for "linking" purposes only.

Is there a way to work around the quantity issue for items?  I am trying to do this for our insurance premiums.  The struggle is the premium is a lump sum.  9 months of payments, but not at even dollar amounts so when I applied the first invoice against the PO, it received the entire PO even though the amount was not the full amount.  Is there a version of QB that does allow PO's to expense accounts?  

QB uses "Quantity" for determining closure of a purchase order. For similar orders, such as Blanket or non-routine Purchases, we do the following to keep the PO open:

Upon Creation of Vendor PO

Quantity Field = Total Amount for Blanket Order

Rate = 1.00

Total will still be the same.

Applying an invoice to the PO:

Received invoice for $300

Go to Receive Items and Enter Bill

Quantity Field = 300

Cost = 1.00

But you will have to Manually close the PO once completed (but doesn't matter as it it non-posting anyhow)

Hope this helps some!

GENIUS!!!  Thank you - That should solve my problem!!!  I knew there was some way to make it work, I just got stuck!

My workaround was to create an email address just for company receipts, in gmail, and use labels to apply accounts to expenses, then all of the receipts and accounts are in the same place, and it's super easy for the accountant to enter the bills.  Entering an item for every expense is way too time consuming.  The email method is great for tracking all receipts, and I use that email as a login for every vendor so the receipts always go there, and my service writer and accountant can log into everything using that email instead of mine, or their own email which I don't access to.  

@Ryan_MQuickbooks online has the ability to enter expenses into a purchase order, so the reasoning that it being non posting as to why the feature is not available is not an adequate excuse.  the only reason it is not available on desktop is that the QuickBooks team doesn't care enough to make it happen.