Stop retyping purchase orders into QuickBooks: your options

A customer emails a purchase order. Someone opens it, reads it, and types it into QuickBooks. Then the next one comes in, laid out differently, and they do it again. If that's your office, you're not behind the times. It's how most small manufacturers and distributors still do it.

This note is for the owner or office manager who wants to stop. We'll cover what the job really is, the options in order from cheapest to most custom, and what to check in QuickBooks before you spend anything. We'll also say when you should keep typing. We build these tools, so we'll tell you when you don't need us.

What the job really is

"Entering a PO" sounds like one task. It's several.

Typing is the small part. Reading, matching, and catching the odd one is the real work. Any option you pick has to deal with those, not only with the typing.

• The PO shows up as a PDF, a spreadsheet, a scan, or plain text typed in the email body. Often one customer does all three.
• Every customer formats it their own way. The part number sits in a different column, or has their number instead of yours.
• Units don't match. You sell a box of 50. They ordered 50 each. Somebody has to notice.
• The price on the PO is not the price on your list. Maybe it's an old quote. Maybe it's a mistake.
• Sometimes the same PO arrives twice, once as a PDF and once as a "just in case" reply.

Option 1: keep typing

This is fine more often than vendors will admit. If you get a handful of POs a week, from a few customers, and the same person enters them, a tool will cost you more attention than it saves. Fix the process before you buy anything. Ask customers for one format. Keep a short sheet of their part numbers.

Typing stops being fine when one person is the only one who can do it, when mistakes reach the shop floor, or when orders wait in the inbox because nobody had time.

Option 2: tools you can buy

Look here first. You may find a fit.

The catch with buying is fit. A tool built for the average company has to be told about your units, your customer part numbers, and your price rules. Ask what happens to a PO it can't read. If the answer is "it guesses," walk away.

• **Apps in the QuickBooks app store.** Intuit lists third-party apps that connect to QuickBooks Online through its official developer platform. Some handle order intake. Check that the app handles your kind of PO, not only invoices or bills.
• **Generic document-reading tools.** Many read PDFs and pull out fields. They are often built for bills you receive, not orders you receive. Try one on ten of your real POs before you pay. Measure how many came out right.
• **EDI.** Large customers sometimes require it. Orders arrive as structured data, with no reading involved. It works well if the customer insists on it. It's heavy for a customer who sends you three POs a month.

Option 3: a small tool built for your shop

This is the order-entry tool we build. It does four things:

It doesn't send anything on its own. It doesn't decide. It does the reading and matching, and a person does the judging. See what we build for order entry and how it works for manufacturers and distributors.

Custom isn't always right. If a bought tool handles nearly all of your POs, buy it. A custom tool earns its place when your customers send odd formats, when your item list is complicated, or when no app fits your books.

• Reads the PO, whatever the format.
• Matches the customer and each line to your own customers and items, including the part numbers customers use for you.
• Flags anything odd: a price off the list, a part it doesn't know, units that don't match, a PO it has already seen.
• Leaves a draft in your books for a person to approve.

The QuickBooks facts that matter

What you can automate depends on which QuickBooks you have.

**QuickBooks Online has a sales order now, on some plans.** For years, the advice was that QuickBooks Online had no sales order, so you used an estimate as the draft order. That advice is out of date for the app itself. Intuit's help page says you can create sales orders manually on QuickBooks Online Plus, QuickBooks Online Advanced, or Intuit Enterprise Suite. Simple Start and Essentials need the Inventory add-on. Intuit describes a sales order as a non-posting transaction, so it reserves items without affecting your books. That is what you want from a draft.

**The API is a different story.** QuickBooks Online has an official API on Intuit's developer platform, and the Estimate can be created through it. Sales orders are less clear. A developer reported in Intuit's own forum that a sales order request on an Advanced company came back with an error saying the Sales Order external API is not enabled for that company. We couldn't find Intuit documentation saying sales orders are open to every integration. So today, an estimate is the safe place for a tool to leave a draft order. We'd confirm this against your own account before we built anything.

**QuickBooks Desktop connects differently.** Desktop has no cloud API like Online does. Outside programs talk to it through Intuit's Web Connector and its SDK, using a format called qbXML. It works. It's also tied to a Windows machine with the company file, so the setup is different.

**Intuit changed how Desktop is sold.** Intuit stopped selling new US subscriptions to QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, Premier Plus, Mac Plus, and Enhanced Payroll after September 30, 2024. Intuit says existing subscribers can keep renewing and that this is not a sunset of the product line. Enterprise was not affected, and Intuit calls it its Desktop accounting product going forward. If you run Desktop Pro or Premier today, you can keep using it. A new shop can't buy it from Intuit.

We start every job with a look at the setup you already have. We don't assume which QuickBooks you run.

What a person should always still do

Even a good tool should leave these to you:

If a vendor tells you a person won't be needed, ask what happens when the tool is wrong.

• **Approve every draft.** Read it against the PO before it counts.
• **Handle the odd customer.** The one who sends a photo of a handwritten order is a phone call, not a program.
• **Decide price exceptions.** The tool can say the price is off. Only you know whether it's a deal you meant to give.
• **Confirm new parts.** An unknown part number might be a typo or a new item.

A made-up example

This one is invented, to show the steps. A made-up shop, Hollis Metal Works, makes brackets. A made-up customer, Brandt Supply, emails a PO as a PDF.

The PO lists "BRK-220, qty 50, $3.10 each." In Hollis's books, the bracket is item 7714, sold in boxes of 50 at $142 a box. Brandt calls it BRK-220 because that's their number.

1. **Read.** The tool pulls the customer, PO number, and line out of the PDF. 2. **Match.** It knows Brandt's BRK-220 is Hollis item 7714, because someone told it once. 3. **Convert.** 50 each is one box. It changes the quantity to 1. 4. **Check.** $3.10 each works out to $155 for 50. The list price is $142 a box. It flags the difference. 5. **Check for repeats.** It hasn't seen this PO number from Brandt before. 6. **Draft.** It leaves a draft order with a note about the price.

The office manager opens the draft, sees the note, calls Brandt, and learns the old price was on their form. She fixes the price and approves it. The tool did the reading. She did the deciding.

Where to start

Count your POs for two weeks. Note how many customers send them and in what formats. If it's a few of them, keep typing. If it's many, try a bought tool on ten real orders. If nothing fits, tell us the job. We build the first automation on your own accounts. You use it for 30 days. If you keep it, you pay a price fixed in writing. If you don't, we turn it off and you owe nothing. See how it works.