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It can confuse your company’s accounting and make things a little messy. This method works, but again, it doesn’t let you easily tell the difference between actual delayed charges and those you are using as work orders. It will look more like an invoice than an estimate and all you need to do is change the date. This lets you create a transaction but not record it on your general ledger. Delayed ChargeĪnother workaround is to use the Delayed Charge feature. The downfall of this strategy is that it does not help you differentiate between estimates and actual work orders.
Use the system to create your estimate. Under Create and Customers, select Estimate. This process is very simple, but it does have its limitations. Afterwards, you will be able to see estimates by the following statuses: Pending, Accepted, Closed, and Rejected. If you use an older version of QuickBooks, the online version, or a basic version, you will not have the ability to create sales orders. The difficulty with this method–other than all the steps involved–is that you need to make the changes manually, and the system will not differentiate between sales orders and work orders. When you need to create a work order, you will go to the template you just created. Some users will also want to make other customizations. You will also want to change Ship Date to something more work order-specific, like Date Scheduled. From this menu, select Header and change the name to Work Order. When you are in your new template, select Additional Customization. Note: if you edit this template, it will overwrite the “custom” template, so you will want to create a duplicate by selecting Copy before you go further. Now, click Formatting, then Manage Templates. Click the box that says Enable Sales Orders. Go to the Edit menu and click on Preferences. However, be warned, the process is not straightforward.
To do this you will need to start by enabling the feature. The order will link to customers the same way that a sales order does, and it will let you convert it to an invoice. This method lets you create a work order the same way that you would a sales order. If you get the Premier or Enterprise version of QuickBooks, you will have the ability to create work orders by modifying sales orders. Instead, you will need to employ a workaround.
The big problem? Most versions of QuickBooks do not offer a simple “work order” button.