Your oat supplier needs a purchase order (PO) by noon Thursday to make Monday’s truck. You open QuickBooks, enter 1,000 units of Oat Bar 12-pack, and send it. Then the pallet arrives with 600, the bill says 1,000, and quantity on hand is wrong by 400. That sequence is why quickbooks purchase orders need a clear process before you lean on them.
This page covers QuickBooks Online: which plans include purchase orders, what a PO changes and does not change, how to receive a partial delivery, and how to time the order. It assumes you track stock in QuickBooks already; if not, start with QuickBooks inventory management.
How do QuickBooks purchase orders work?
On the Plus and Advanced plans you create a PO for a vendor with items, quantities and costs, then email or print it. The PO is a non-posting record: it changes neither your books nor quantity on hand. Stock and payables move only when you create a bill against it.
Each line takes an item, a quantity and a rate. Put the vendor’s terms and the expected delivery date in the header, so the open PO list reads as an incoming-stock list. Because nothing posts, an open PO is a promise you track, not a number QuickBooks counts. Add open PO quantities to on-hand stock when you decide whether to reorder, or you will order twice.
| Step | In QuickBooks | Quantity on hand | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create the PO | Saved as open | No change | No change |
| Goods arrive | Create a bill from the PO, set to the quantity received | Rises by the billed quantity | Inventory asset and payables rise |
| Short delivery | Bill what arrived; the PO stays open for the rest | Rises by what arrived | Same, for that quantity |
| Pay the vendor | Pay the bill | No change | Cash out, payable cleared |
Two habits keep the open PO list honest. Close a PO the vendor will never fill, otherwise it sits in the incoming total for months and quietly delays the next order. And raise the PO before the goods ship, not after the bill arrives: a PO created to match a bill is paperwork, and the window in which it could have told you something has already passed.
How do you receive stock against a QuickBooks purchase order?
Open the PO, create a bill from it, and change the quantities to what actually arrived. Quantity on hand rises when the bill posts, so bill from the packing slip, not from the order. Anything not yet received stays on the PO, which you close by hand if the vendor will not ship it.
Say 1,000 are ordered and 600 arrive. Bill 600 and leave 400 open. When a second truck brings 380, bill 380, then close the PO with 20 never shipped. Bill all 1,000 on day one and quantity on hand shows 400 units that are not in your building.
QuickBooks has no separate receiving step and no three-way match across PO, packing slip and bill. You do that comparison yourself, ideally at the dock, before anyone keys the bill.
When should you place the next purchase order?
When stock on hand plus open PO quantity falls to your reorder point: daily demand times lead time, plus a safety buffer. At 30 units a day, a 14-day lead time and a 150-unit buffer, that is 570. QuickBooks stores the number you enter as the item’s reorder point but does not calculate it.
Set the field once per SKU and review it each quarter, or whenever a supplier’s lead time changes. Order quantity is a second decision: round up to the supplier’s case or pallet size and to any minimum order. The reorder point formula walks through the arithmetic, including a buffer sized to how late deliveries really run.
Lead time is the measured gap between sending the PO and counting the cases in, not the production time the vendor quotes. If the last four oat deliveries took 16, 18, 14 and 19 days, the lead time in the formula is 19, or 18 with a buffer that covers the rest. A co-packer run that needs your packaging on hand first has two lead times chained together, and the longer chain is the one that sets the reorder point.
What can QuickBooks purchase orders not do?
They do not draft themselves when an item reaches its reorder point, record an expiry date on a receipt, receive into more than one location, or compare a bill with a packing slip. The PO is a clean document for the vendor and little more. The receiving discipline around it lives in your process.
Brands with stock at a co-packer (a contract manufacturer) and at home usually raise one PO per destination and note the ship-to in the memo, because QuickBooks cannot split quantity by site.
The three-way match is worth doing on paper for the first month: packing slip against PO at the dock, bill against both at the desk. Most short deliveries and double bills surface in that month, and the pattern tells you which vendor needs a call. The receiving SOP pack has the one-page version that lives on the dock.
What should you do next?
Track what is on order, bill only what arrives, and calculate the trigger instead of guessing it.
Before you order
- Add open PO quantity to on-hand stock before every reorder decision.
- Put the expected delivery date and ship-to in the PO header.
- Calculate the reorder point per SKU and enter it on the item.
At the dock
- Count cases against the packing slip before anyone keys the bill.
- Bill the quantity that arrived, not the quantity ordered.
- Leave the PO open for the balance, and close it by hand if the balance will not ship.
Each quarter
- Recalculate reorder points from actual lead times.
- List POs open more than 30 days, then chase or close them.
Frequently asked questions
Which QuickBooks plans include purchase orders?
Purchase orders are available on QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced. The lower tiers do not include them. Tiers change, so confirm on Intuit's current plan page before you rely on this.
Does a purchase order change inventory in QuickBooks?
No. A PO is non-posting, so it changes neither quantity on hand nor your books. Quantity rises when you create a bill with item lines against it, and only by the quantity you enter.
Can you receive a partial order in QuickBooks?
Yes. Create a bill for the quantity that arrived and leave the rest open on the PO. Bill again when the next delivery lands, and close the PO by hand if the remainder will never ship.