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Purchase orders are commonly used to purchase business-to-business (B2B) goods and services. As the name suggests, they are orders that tell vendors what products or services a business wants to purchase. They typically include the name of the product and the desired quantity. While you can always create purchase orders from scratch, though, another option is to create them from an estimate. QuickBooks Desktop makes it easy to create purchase orders from estimates.

Overview of Estimates

Estimates, of course, are quotes for products or services. A vendor may provide you with an estimate. If you’re satisfied with the quoted price, you can then proceed to purchase the products or services at the quoted price. If you use QuickBooks Desktop, you can turn estimates such as this into purchase orders.

Turn on Purchase Orders

You’ll need to turn on purchase orders in QuickBooks Desktop before you can create them from estimates. To turn on purchase orders, access the main menu in QuickBooks Desktop and choose “Preferences,” followed by “Inventory.” After turning on purchase orders, you can proceed to create them from scratch, or by using estimates.

Create a Purchase Order From an Estimate

Assuming you’ve turned on purchase orders in QuickBooks Desktop, you can now create them from estimates. Pull up the estimates window and select the “Create Purchase Order” option. Next, you’ll need to choose either “For all allowed items on the estimate” or “For selected items…” If the products are from a single vendor, select the former option. If the products are from multiple vendors, select the latter option. When finished, click “OK.”

QuickBooks Desktop will then prompt you to enter some information about the purchase order. You’ll need to complete the required fields, after which you can click “Save.”

Track the Purchase Order

You can also track purchase orders in QuickBooks Desktop. Tracking purchase orders is a breeze. Just pull up the “Lists” menu and choose “Customer & Vendor Profiles,” followed by “Purchase Orders.” You can then change the filter options so that QuickBooks Desktop only shows your open purchase orders.

Many businesses use purchase orders when buying B2B goods and services. Purchase orders signal the intent to purchase one or more products or services. In QuickBooks Desktop, you can create them from scratch, or you can create them from estimates.

Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!