How to Find Open and Late Purchase Orders in QuickBooks Desktop

Before you start

• Purchase reports only appear when inventory and purchase orders are turned on.
• Check that your purchase orders carry a real Expected date.

Step 1: Run the Open Purchase Orders report

1. 1Go to Reports > Purchases > Open Purchase Orders.
2. 2Read the expected delivery date column. Anything dated before today is late.
3. 3Double-click a line to open that purchase order.
4. 4For line-level detail, run Reports > Purchases > Open Purchase Orders Detail. In Premier and Enterprise, version 13 and later, it shows each item and its description.
5. 5To narrow the list, select Customize Report and use the Filters tab.

In QuickBooks Desktop Pro

1. 1Go to Reports > Custom Reports > Transaction Detail, then select Customize Report.
2. 2On the Display tab, add the Item and Item Description columns.
3. 3On the Filters tab, set Transaction Type to Purchase Order, Posting Status to Either, and Received to No.

In QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

• Industry editions add reports such as Open Purchase Orders by Vendor and Open Purchase Orders by Item.
• If you link sales orders to purchase orders (Enterprise 24.0 R9 and later), run Reports > Sales > Sales Orders Linked to Purchase Orders.
• That report shows which customer lines wait on which purchase order, and how many items have been received.

Step 2: Follow up with each supplier

1. 1Group the late purchase orders by vendor, so each supplier gets one message.
2. 2Email or call the supplier with the purchase order number, the items, the quantities and the date you expected them.
3. 3Ask for a confirmed ship date and quantity for every open line.
4. 4Note who confirmed it and when, so the next person can pick up the thread.

Step 3: Update the purchase order in QuickBooks

1. 1Open the purchase order from the report.
2. 2Change the Expected date to the supplier's confirmed date.
3. 3Add a short note in the Memo field if your team uses it. The memo doesn't carry over to the bill.
4. 4Select Save & Close. The Open Purchase Orders Detail report picks up the new date.

Edge cases

• A purchase order received in full drops off the open reports.

When the goods arrive, see how to receive inventory against a purchase order, including partial receipts.

Where QuickBooks Desktop leaves the work to you

• QuickBooks Desktop doesn't contact suppliers. Intuit documents an overdue purchase order reminder for QuickBooks Online, and we found no Desktop equivalent in Intuit's help.
• Someone has to run the report, decide who to chase, and write each email.
• Supplier replies sit in someone's inbox until they are typed back into the Expected date.
• The report only knows the date someone typed. If nobody updated it, a late order looks on time.

How Logistify helps with supplier follow-up

This is the job the Procurement Service does. It follows up with suppliers on open purchase orders, captures confirmed dates and quantities, and routes exceptions to a person on your team. Your team keeps the buying decisions and any change to price or terms.

For background, read what purchase order tracking and supplier follow-up is, how AI purchase order tracking works in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, and how the software options compare.