Using Purchase Orders

The purchase order feature of QuickBooks is optional, but if you like to plan ahead, using purchase orders is a good idea. As soon as you enter a purchase order in QuickBooks, the process of tracking your company's spending begins. You can see at a glance what is on order and how much money is committed. Purchase orders make bill paying easier because the information on the order flows right on to the bill.

Create Purchase Orders

Open a new purchase order by selecting Vendors, Create Purchase Orders.

TIMESAVER

Clicking the Purchase Orders icon on the Home page also opens the Create Purchase Orders window.

Click the drop-down arrow to select a vendor from the existing Vendor list. The vendor's name and address appear in the Vendor area below.

Did You Know?

You can enter a new vendor on-the-fly. If the vendor for this purchase order is not on the list, just enter the new vendor's name in the Vendor field and you can add the name to your Vendor list.

If the goods are to be shipped to a location other than your company, enter the shipping location.

If the address has changed for this vendor, enter the corrected information in the Vendor area of the form. When you close the purchase order, you are given an opportunity to make this change permanent if you want.

Verify the date and purchase order number; revise if necessary.

Order Items on a Purchase Order

Enter the name of the item you plan to order. A description and price will fill in if this information has been saved previously.

See Also

See "Adding Items in the List Window" on page 86 for information on setting up inventory items.

Enter the number of items you want to order.

Verify the per item price that appears, or enter a price if no price appears. Leave the Rate field blank if you are uncertain.

If this order is for a specific customer, you can enter the customer's name.

Enter an optional message that will appear on this purchase order.

Check To Be Printed to add this form to your print queue for printing later.

Check To Be E-mailed to email this form to the vendor.

Save the purchase order.