Ever need to turn an Estimate into a Purchase Order? You know, when your client asks why they have to duplicate the information already entered just to create a Purchase Order. Now it's 1 Click! You can turn an estimate into a Purchase Order Automatically in QuickBooks Online.
In order to accomplish the task of turning estimates into purchase orders, there are a couple of housekeeping chores to be mindful of:
- First, you must have 2 sided items (items with both a sale side and a purchase side),
- Second, 2 sided items work better if you have both Sales and Cost amounts.
Purchase orders when generated from a Customer's Estimate not only cut down on the time spent entering a purchase, but later they reduce the amount of time it takes to track down how much you spent on purchases for a particular customer.
By the way, you must be using QuickBooks Online Plus in order to turn on the Copy estimates to purchase orders feature.
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Here’s how to get started:
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1) First turn on “Copy estimates to purchase orders”.
QBO Estimate to PO - fig 1
2) Choose Estimates > Purchase Orders > Copy Estimates to Purchase Orders.
QBO Estimate to PO - fig 2
3) Open the Estimate you would like to turn into a Purchase Order.
QBO Estimated to PO - figure 3
4) QuickBooks Online will display a pop-up message advising you that not ALL items will carry over to Purchase Order. This just means that any items you have not made 2 sided, cannot be used create an item in the Purchase Order.
QBO Estimate to PO - figure 4
5) When you click OK on the pop-pup message, QBO creates your Purchase Order.
QBO Estimate to PO - figure 5
Note: The Customer Name does NOT migrate from the Estimate form, your should go ahead and enter it into each line for tracking purposes. I really think QBO should do this, perhaps Intuit will incorporate that into a future release (hope, wish, beg and plead, please, please, please).
Quick tricks and time saving tips are really important for ProAdvisors, accountants, bookkeepers, and even clients. The ability to turn estimates into purchase orders is a great feature, but even greater is the fact that it signals that one of your estimates has turned into a new job. Congratulations!