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This is 100% required. It would strengthen the reporting and provide foresight of purchase orders that have been committed but not billed yet.

Disappointing that this isn't a high priority

Massively important and needed for our business.

Wow, I am really keen to move from my current CRM system and provide Project Cost Analysis and all finance functions for projects within Xero so that it can then be linked with Syft forecasting.
I am very confused as to why a PO can't be allocated against a Project to track projected costs against the actuals once the final invoice is received as the timeline of a project can be months until all invoices are received and reconciled.

This is a no-brainer of an addition to Xero Projects and may be the sticking point to not move my Projects Team on to this! Surely this is a simple function to be added and critical!

Get in line mate. This was asked for a long tima ago and instead we get reorganized tabs which nobody cares for.

Massively important and needed for our business.

This is extremely important to enable subcontractor commitments to be fully understood in Xero Projects.

Another great addition to Xero Projects would be Cost to Complete to understand the total project cost but one thing at a time. Cheers.

I was surprised that we can't link PO's to a project. Is there any update when this might be implemented please?

It would be a much more efficient process if purchase orders could be allocated against projects. Surely this is something that Xero should be able to address in the near future.

Come on Xero, the projects bit of your software is pretty rubbish as it is, and you charge me for it! Having this small bit of very necessary functionality would at least take some of the bitter taste away.

This would be a very easy fix to implement, but Xero are not interested. I have been looking at alternative systems (focused on manufacturing rather than just glorified bookkeeping) and if anybody else finds one, then please let me know. Thank you!

As per my original comment which is now probably a few years ago, this is an urgent update that needs to be addressed. It is embarrassing that I have to explain the software I chose does not have this function. My excuse of "Xero are aware and working on it" is wearing thin....................................

All new Xero updates are improving or speeding up areas that already work and this one is still unusable. Such a shame.

Last time Xero responded on here was Nov 23, very disappointing.

Requests for this function go back to 2022 with nearly everyone saying it is critical. So why are you not listening?

I can't believe this is something that has never been on the roadmap when it is so core to running a project within accounting software! Especially as you can include linking bills and invoices already. @Xero please reconsider and reprioritise.

Never thought I would say this, but Quickbooks has far better functionality in Projects. I am really disappointed that Xero cant seem to get this sorted

The functionality to be able to raise and approve a Purchase Order which, at the point of approval, would create a double entry in the general ledger. Specifically:

• Debit a Work in Progress (WIP) expenses account (to reflect anticipated expenditure),

• Credit a creditors account (to reflect the anticipated liability).


This would allow the PO to reflect a commitment in the accounts, enabling better management of Work In Progress and projected costs before the supplier invoice arrives.

In an ideal world, to be able to allocate the PO to a Xero Project, so that WIP and anticipated costs appear within the project reporting as well. This would give far more accurate forecasting and project-level financial visibility.


As it stands, it is understood that Xero POs are non-posting documents and only affect the ledger once a bill is created and approved. That leaves a visibility and accounting gap for committed costs — especially problematic for longer-term projects or cashflow planning.

I'm struggling to understand why this is such a huge task to roll out. I would have thought it would be a basic requirement to be able to assign a purchase order when creating, to a project. I'm baffled! I think this basic requirement needs to be a priority for Xero before you begin to lose custom to other more functional platforms

I agree with previous comments, if you can assign an invoice/bill to a project it should not be an impossible technical challenge to add the functionality to purchase orders. This is a critical requirement for effective financial control within project management. Come on Xero you have been sat on this for far too long and it is providing your competition with a competitive edge for those of us who are project driven.

Thats a lame answer admin. The POs and Invoices and Quotes are all the same so if we can assign quotes and invoices why not POs? Its getting a bit old with the same answer about underlying work being done. All we want is to be able to see Quotes, invoices and POs all in the same spot for each project. I am not an expert by any means but it cant be that hard. Just get it done or seriously we are going to look at other options. Our subscription has doubled yet only difference we have seen is the Invoices interface. Although I dont mind it it wasnt anything we couldnt do without. Concentrate on what people actually want rather than what you think people might want.