Rumor has it that Partial Purchase Orders are on their way to QuickBooks Online – but are they? They were in February release notes, but the document is not accessible now.
So what's up?
When I initially reviewed the release notes on QBO updates/enhancements for February, they included a description of "partial" Purchase Orders. I assumed they were being rolled out like many new features on a "new users first," and then slowly progressing through the ranks of current users.
The initial release language spoke of the fact that this feature worked for purchase orders using either the "accounts or "items" options, that you could essentially receive partial shipments against a Purchase Order and the PO would remain open for the back ordered items.
Here's an example of a purchase order to "Any Old Company" for 100 "Any Old Items."
QBO PO Example
Supposedly, I'm able to create a Vendor Bill or a Check or Expense. And when I select the Vendor (Any Old Company), a window will open at the right panel displaying the open purchase order.
QBO Purchase Order Example
You can see the window in the above example. You can add the Purchase Order details to the Check with a mouse click.
This is where the mystery comes into play. Now there's the possibility I don't have this feature yet, but some parts of the process seem to work, but not as described.
The release notes spoke of being able to select either complete or partial order fulfillment. But I received no prompt to do this. I was, however, able to manually change the quantity on the check to half the amount on my purchase order.
QBO Partial PO Payment
So far, so good, even if I didn't get the complete or partial fulfillment prompt. But now the real problems start.
Despite the fact that the new feature would show the Purchase Order as remaining open and would show the back ordered quantity and open balance amount, when I go to the Vendor display, my purchase orders (the blue bar) show 0 purchase orders.
Partial PO Not showing
Supposedly, according to the release notes, I'm able to run an open purchase orders report and see the back-ordered portion of my original purchase order. Sorry, that doesn't work either.
QBO Open PO Report - Nada
I obviously can't go in an receive (or pay for) the balance against a PO that isn't open, so I just think something is wrong here.
Now perhaps I just haven't received the new feature yet – after a month or so of following the initial release information. And I certainly have no idea as to why those release notes are no longer accessible.
Maybe it's still on the way, or maybe it got pulled back – maybe, maybe, maybe.
But if you have seen this new feature in either a new QBO Plus subscription, or it has been rolled out in your older subscription, I'm confident that not only we here at Insightful Accountant would love to hear your impressions, but I believe our readers would as well.
So post your comments below.