Syncing Purchase Orders to QuickBooks Online (QBO) can be useful for many reasons. Whether you're using custom or additional formatting options in QBO or have an employee who works primarily out of their platform, we've got you covered.
This is different from our automatic daily syncing, or syncing invoices to QBO.
QuickBooks Online syncing is included with Professional plans and above.
Chat with us for a free 14-day trial and complimentary video call to see if the Professional Plan is right for you.
Or on any other plan as a Billing Add-On for $30/mo or $300/yr ($25/mo)
Getting Started
To start syncing Purchase Orders to QBO, take these steps:
1. Connect QBO to Thrive on the Settings > Accounting page.
NOTE: Only one QBO should be connected to Thrive at a time. If you have additional QBOs connected that are no longer being used or were used for testing, please remove them now.
2. Turn on Location tracking in QBO (click here for a guide).
Syncing is done 1-by-1 and on-demand. This means we won’t sync items over automatically and you’ll need to tell us specifically which purchase order you want to sync over.
Syncing Purchase Orders
Once you've completed the steps above, start syncing Purchase Orders to QBO in an Open, Partially Received, Overdue, Completed, or Cancelled status.
The only status not eligible to sync over is the Draft status. In other words, to have the option to sync the PO to QBO, the PO cannot be in a Draft status.
Click on the purchase order you want to sync over. Next, click the gear wheel in the top right corner and “Sync to QuickBooks” as shown here:
NOTE: If the PO is a "draft," the option to sync it to QBO will not be visible!
Quantity Syncing
Our QuickBooks integration pushes quantities (the delta or change) related to the manually synced purchase order or invoice. We will not sync overall product quantities throughout the day (as we do with sales integrations). Read more here.
Where do I find my PO in QuickBooks Online?
If it synced properly, the PO would sync over in a few minutes to show up on QBO, though you might need to refresh the page.
It will appear in the “Get paid & pay” section under “Vendors.” From there, click the name of the Vendor the PO is being sent to, as shown here:
Here’s a direct link to the vendor page on QBO.
Mapping
Purchase Orders on Thrive and QuickBooks Online share many of the same fields, but the two platforms also have some differences.
Here are the fields that we currently sync to:
Thrive | QuickBooks Online |
Status | Status |
PO number | PO no. |
Date | Purchase Order Date |
Vendor | Vendor |
Vendor address | Mailing address |
Vendor contact | Sales rep |
Ship to | Shipping address |
Product/Variant | Products |
Quantity | Qty |
Cost | Rate |
Discount | Line item discounts |
Line item discounts | Line item discounts |
PO discounts | PO discount |
Tax | Tax |
Fees | Fees |
Freight | Freight |
Total | Total |
Message to vendor | Your message to the vendor |
NOTE: Fields in italics can be found in the Category Details section of QBO
Will POs automatically sync to QBO?
You must click the "Sync to QuickBooks" button for a PO to sync over.
If you create a PO in Thrive and do not click the "Sync to QuickBooks" button, it will not sync to QBO.
Syncing is done 1-by-1 and on-demand.
Why can't I see the “Sync to QuickBooks” button?
Make sure QBO is connected to Thrive on this page. Next, double-check that the PO you are trying to sync is above a Draft status. Drafted POs will not have the option to be synced to QBO.
How do products get synced over to QBO?
If the PO contains a product that doesn't exist in QBO, and you sync it over, we will create a new version for you (in QBO).
If a product already exists in QBO, whether created manually or imported from another integration, we will use that product in the PO. For an existing product to show up on the PO in QBO, it must have the "I purchase this product/service from a vendor" box checked, and select the appropriate Expense account, as shown here:
Why isn't my sync working?
The first time you sync a purchase order to QBO, it will always take a little longer because we are trying to establish a new connection.
If you get an error, please try the steps below:
1. Take note of the error
If it's a generic, non-specific error, you may need to try syncing again in a few minutes. We should successfully push a purchase order to QBO in less than 30 seconds, and this should be followed by a green success message.
2. Dig deeper
Depending on the error message, it could mean a few different things. The error message will say that we cannot create the (PO number, vendor, products, etc.) since QBO does not allow duplicates.
To fix that, the PO number, vendor, or product name must be altered (in Thrive), saved, and manually pushed again to sync to QBO successfully.
For example, if the same PO number already exists in QBO (even if it's inactive) and isn't the one you are actively trying to sync, we cannot sync it over. Try changing the PO number and syncing again.
Another example is if a product on the PO is in an inactive (or "bad") state in QBO, which can also cause a syncing error.
3. Contact us
If the problem persists, the PO might be temporarily stuck. Please contact our Customer Care Team so we can examine it further.
What if I make additional changes in Thrive after syncing to QBO?
If the PO number hasn’t changed, you can re-sync, and QBO will be updated accordingly.
Alternatively, a new PO will be created in QBO if you change the PO number.
Do you sync my payment status?
We do not sync your payment status to QBO at this time. Once you sync the PO to QBO, you can process the payment however you'd like.
How can I see which POs have synced?
Get an overhead view of what has synced and when on the Purchase Orders page.
The table has a QuickBooks column. If the invoice has synced, we will display the most recent sync date.
For users syncing both invoices and POs to QBO:
QBO does not permit the same name for a customer (invoice) and vendor (PO). Since customers and vendors are seen as the same entity, QBO does not allow these fields to be duplicated.
If you use our QBO integration and wish to sync Thrive invoices and purchase orders into QBO, we recommend all customers (for your invoices) and vendors (for your POs) have different names.
Learn more about syncing invoices from Thrive to QBO here.
Inventory Start Date Error
To sync Thrive with QBO, each product on the PO must have an inventory start date before the PO open date.
For example, if a PO opens on January 31, 2025, all products must have an inventory start date prior to that date.
To edit a product's Start Date in QBO:
In your QBO, click Sales>Products & Services
Find the product, click the corresponding "Edit" under the Action column
Click "Starting Value" (under the Quantity on hand" section) as shown here:
Update the "As of date" as shown here:
Click "Save and close"
Things to Note:
Only one QBO integration should be connected to Thrive at a time. We do not support syncing to multiple QBO accounts.
To sync POs, the sync setting on the Accounting page does not need to be enabled.
Thrive has Products and variants. QBO only has products. Each variant will have its own product line in this format: Item Name (Variant Name)
If you’re using the “Website” field on Vendors, it must be a complete address including “https://” as opposed to just starting off with “www.example.com”
Products must currently belong to the Purchase Order location when syncing.
Colons will not work for product/variant names in QBO. For example, colons in product names will be omitted when syncing to QBO. Read more here.