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Purchase Orders - How do i get SKU to show up on my purchase orders?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
March 25, 2020
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QuickBooks Online

Best answer by Rustler

if you are asking about the SKU showing on the printed PO

it will not show

there has been multiple requests over the past two years or more to enable the field for printing - no response that means anything

katherinejoyceO

Hello there, @jmcconnico.

Welcome to the Community. To get the SKU show up in the purchase order, you'll need to turn on this feature in the Account and Settings page. Here's how:

In the Gear icon, click Account and Settings.
Go to the Sales tab, then go to the Products and Services section.
Mark the box to Show SKU column.
Click Save, then Done.

Next, let's enable the SKU option on the Standard template. Here's how:

In the Gear icon, choose Custom Form Styles.
Search the Standard or Master template, then click Edit.
Go to the Content tab, then click the middle part of the template.
Click the SKU option.
Hit Done.

This will now show the SKU column on your purchase order.

For future reference, read through this article and learn about how to personalize your forms, change the design, and add info: Customize your invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online.

Let me know if you have other questions about QuickBooks Online. I'll be right here to help you. Stay safe.

H

hjk

NO that does not work.

C

Charies_M

I appreciate you joining this thread, hjk.

As of this writing, the option to show SKU's when printing Purchase Order is unavailable. Our engineers have been working on to provide ways on how we can improve our products and services through our customers feedback. I'll be sure to share this to them for future product enhancement.

For now, I want you to be updated with the latest QuickBooks news and improvements of the product by visiting our QuickBooks Blog.

You got me here if you have other questions. I'd be more than happy to help you some more. Stay safe and enjoy the rest of the day!

RustlerAnswer

@jmcconnico

if you are asking about the SKU showing on the printed PO

it will not show

there has been multiple requests over the past two years or more to enable the field for printing - no response that means anything

M

mzanetti81

This MUSt be done. A PO sent to a vendor is NO GOOD if it doesnt show their item#. This is so frustrating.

J

jakevermore

Dear QBO Gods,

Well I just decided to give inventory and purchase orders a try for the first time in QBO and to my amazement when printing the PO the SKU does not show... so I googled it and it looks as if this is a known issue for a very long time. It really cannot be that hard to implement, can it?

Anyway based on the crappy "work-around" suggested in this thread... I found a better workaround that would not require copy-pasting every time you print/email a PO. That is another important distinction... this affects the emailed AND the printed PO so it is a VERY BIG DEAL! As other users in this thread have mentioned there is not one piece of data on a purchase order that is more important to the recipient than the SKU (stock keeping unit). That is the vendors inventory number that works with their system and avoids mistakes for items that are nearly identical in description.

If anyone makes it this far and wants a BETTER "Work-Around" then I would suggest you copy paste one time when setting up the "products & services" in QBO there you can just copy the SKU from the "SKU field" and paste into "Description on purchasing forms" field. It's at the bottom if you scroll down to the "Purchasing information" subsection of the Products and Services setup window. Everything you type in this field will show on the printed/emailed PO. I just added it to the beginning of what my vendor calls the item like so: "10537954 - 19X13 95M 100# White Mohawk Everyday Digital Smooth Cover 500/CT 51212"... the first number is the SKU followed by the description my vendor uses in their product catalog exactly.

If you are listening QBO gods... none of this should be necessary and you should fix this for real to work the way everyone would like. While you're at it add a custom form set-up for the Purchase Order and allow folks to uncheck the SKU if they do not want it for some reason.

I hope this tip helps some other users.

Thanks and good luck!

Jake

PS - attached is a screenshot if you are a visual learner :)

K

KatWSA

Absolutely bizarre that SKUs cannot be included on the emailed or printed PO. Please fix this, Intuit!!

S

Sector 1 Inc

I just started sending PO's for our inventory in QB online. I Realized the SKU issue not showing on the PDF or printed version. To fix, under 'purchase description' on each inventory item, I put the SKU in that field. Then the SKU's print or save as a PDF on the form and is fairly painless to do when entering new inventory items into the system.

Took me some time to go back and edit the 100+ inventory items I had already set up though.

Cheers,

S

Steve ACC

This is a absolute joke. This is a simple thing...printing a field on paper. Seriously. This has to continue? P.O.'s are worthless without part numbers/SKU. My vendors don't know what we're ordering. Fix this! Bring it up in a meeting and fix it. I'm more than frustrated at this point. I can't stop letting out my frustrations with this program to my colleagues and small business owners. I'm to the point of seeking out places to vent online, facebook and the like to warn people not to invest time and money is to this garbage of a "program" or "online interface". Quickbooks Online SUCKS....period!

A

Anonymous

I refuse to believe Quickbooks, professional as they claim to be would not have the option to add SKUs to POs. My vendors don't except POs without them which is the most important part. The PO would literally work with only the SKU, what the heck is the problem. I will be looking at alternative options to Quickbooks online as I am done sending screenshots to place my order.

JessT

Hi phproducts,

I see how important it is for you to be able to add SKUs to your purchase orders. While this isn't an option right now, I would suggest copying the SKUs into the item description fields so your vendor can see them.

You can also send a suggestion from your QBO company about this. That way, our engineers will become aware that you also need this option. Just click on Help and choose Feedback.

Let me know if you have other questions about purchase orders. Take care always.

F

forJO

I can't believe all these years later you are still telling people to just add the SKU to the description. If that is the case why even have a SKU field in QBO, it is worthless if the vendor doesn't get a PO with the SKU on it. This problem has been reported at least as far back as 2015, please stop telling us leave feedback for the engineers - at this point it is obvious that feedback is never seen. If you had a report somewhere showing requests and number of people requesting and your timeframe to add feature or reason why not adding I would feel the feedback was doing something. But this can't be that hard to add a SKU field that shows on the QBO PO entry but not on the pdf report created from that PO entry (a screenshot would almost be more useful as a workaround), and yet even this simple fix still requires a work around 6+ years later.

R

Rusty22

How do I get the SKU number to show on downloaded/printed Purchase orders? I have spent hours with customer service and they don't seem to have any info on how this can be done. Seems ridiculous to have the SKU number show on the screen but when you download to send via email or hardcopy it is not shown. It is literally one of the most important pieces of information on the PO. Any ideas?

D

DebSheenD

Thanks for providing detailed information about your concern, Rusty22.

I'd like to reiterate what Angelyn_T answered. Printing Purchase Orders (POs) with SKU is unavailable in QuickBooks Online.

I understand that your vendors need the product SKU of each purchase order you send. While this feature is unavailable, I'd encourage sending feedback to our Product Development Team to help improve your QuickBooks experience.

We're closely monitoring the ideas and suggestions of our customers and take them into consideration when prioritizing feature development. When you're ready, here's how to submit feedback:

Sign in to your QBO account.
Click the Gear icon at the top, then choose Feedback.
Enter the new features you would like us to add in the description box.
Tick Next to send feedback.

For additional tips and resources, while working with your vendor transactions, you can browse a topic from this page: Expenses and vendors.

You can always find me here if you have any other concerns or further questions about purchase orders. Stay safe and have a good one.

F

forJO

So "great" to get email updates about these simple requests that have not been fixed in 7+ years. And yet QBO response is still the same - "please leave us feedback, we really listen to you"

Such a joke that the option to include the sku when sending a PO to a vendor is not fixed yet. I switched to a new inventory system last year because of these issues that are obviously not fixable in QBO.

R

RickHart9

Am I to understand that this has been requested for 7 years, with no attention paid to it? SEVEN YEARS?!! That is an eternity in software development. We just switched from the desktop version to the online advanced version and have concluded that this software is a complete piece of garbage. How could you have screwed this up so badly? Did you even ask any accountants or business owners for any input? I can understand a learning curve when switching from one platform to another, but you have created a dumbed-down, problem-ridden, cumbersome, confusing, unusable version of, what was halfway decent program. We have been using Quickbook for 27 years. For us to switch accounting programs will cost a fortune in time and wages, but It will cost us more to keep it. Pathetic!

Fiat Lux - ASIA

Consider having a purchase order management app to integrate with QBO. Otherwise, it's time for you to explore another accounting app with a higher level than QBD Enterprise or QBO Advanced.

A

Anonymous

Sadly I believe you are right. I'm not prepared to pay for a third party app to provide the functionality that should be a basic inherent feature of the original program. My accounting needs are extremely simple so I hardly think that I require an advanced solution. It is time to go software shopping, but I sure don't like the thought of setting up everything all over again. Even with import features there is always a lot of time required. I've been fantazing about a new release of QBO that includes all the many features that have been requested and should have been in the program from the get-go. After all - Intuit really cares about all the user inputs....yeah right

Q

QG6281

I just spoke to customer service and its 9/6/2023 and they advised that they still have not found a fix for it. I did the PO like we would on QB Desktop version, but then copied the sku number in the beginning of the description, it looks non professional, but atleast it will work. If they do not find a fix for this issue by the end of of this year, I will switch back to QB desktop verison. It seems even though they say you are upgrading, but it seems like we have to keep giving up on small things which were normal in QB desktop.

M

melissacornwell

Has this been updated? I tried multiple versions of the changing the settings and no matter what I do the SKU does not print on the purchase order. I am doing double work because I can't send it to my vendor without SKU numbers so I have to manually input my order from the estimate. I must be doing something wrong, can someone please help?

J

JamaicaA

Hi there, Melissa.

I understand the need for an update regarding adding the SKU on Purchase Orders. Doing extra work may take time, so I appreciate your patience in doing so. What we can do is submit this request to our developers for now.

Please know that this feature is still unavailable. You may consider sharing this idea with our product developers. They can consider this for future updates depending on the number of requests. I'll show you how:

Go to the Gear icon.
Under the Profile column, select Feedback.
Share your suggestion, then click Next.

You can visit our website or blog to track your requests and recent developments.

Visit this link for more info: What is a Purchase Order and How Does it Work?

I'm adding these resources to help you learn what more you can do with the PO: Add custom fields to sales forms and purchase orders in QuickBooks Online.

I'm always here to listen if you have other concerns about handling purchase orders. Feel free to post again. Stay safe!

D

dampear15

Hi JamaicaA,

What you are proposing to Melissa doesn't work. I have been following this issue since 2020 and that is what Quickbooks Team members say all the time and no movement has been made for years to provide this feature.

In my business, I purchase materials from other businesses and they all require a SKU number to be provided. Most, if not all businesses, service providers or products providers will invariably by some kind of materials for their business from another business. And if they are a regular supplier that requires a PO, most likely they will need a SKU number to associate with a product. It's incredible that Quickbooks, as advanced as it is, has no understanding of this side of business operations.

This is a huge missed opportunity and, frankly, a simple addition for the Quickbooks dev team.

I'm sure you are a kind and compassionate person, however, this feedback isn't helpful and is simply a deflection. Please help this community with an actual solution, even a workaround solution, that is easy to implement and will get results.

M

melissacornwell

The best workaround I have found so far is one that I saw mentioned somewhere in this thread I believe. Go to Open Purchase Order Details report and customize and save what information appears on the report, you can also reorder the information and adjust the size of the columns. Then print this to send to the vendor. Still not efficient but it really is the best workaround until Quickbooks Online finally feels that enough people are fed up and they fix the problem.

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