Projects - Assign a Purchase Order to a Project
Ability to assign purchase orders to a project in Xero.
Purpose: To make Xero projects overview shows everything ordered/billed & invoiced to the customers.

Hi community, some time passed since our last update in the thread here we do want to return and share - while our product teams explored possibilities for how we might represent Purchase Orders in Projects research has confirmed that there is underlying work needed to the platform Purchase Orders are built on before we can achieve any good outcomes of your needs here.
We have enthusiasm and a close eye remaining on the support for this, but want to be honest that this is not something that we’ll be able to focus our attentions on in the near future.
Once we have completed work first needed in the Purchase Orders space we can reassess how to integrate purchase Orders into Projects and will update you all of steps forward, here.
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Andrew Crompton commented
This seems to be such a basic yet fundamental part of the software. It makes the use of the Projects module so much harder and cumbersome to use.
The Projects feature is basically rubbish for what it is supposed to be able to do and we find ourselves exporting reports to excel and manually creating reports.
"Under review" is not an acceptable response!
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Brandon Smith commented
Very disappointing, Xero. The time this has taken to implement is unacceptable - coming from a very early supporter of Xero, investor in the company and early Xero Advisor.
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Nick Stanley commented
Joining up Projects with other elements of Xero will be critical in a decision that our client needs to make as to whether to move to Xero. Creating PO's from Expense estimates/quotes, assigning Po's/ to Projects and then linking to the receipt of a bill.
They will make a decision in next few weeks and at the moment i am struggling to recommend they use Xero -
Sheryl Adie commented
Hi - I was due to move to Xero from QBO - which keeps all relevant documents for the project in the project folder - its super helpful - and being unable to do this in Xero is hindering my decision to move platforms.
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Cobus van Zyl commented
Got an e-mail from Xero confirming that it can not be done - taking this customer to Quickbooks.
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Cobus van Zyl commented
I have spend weeks convincing a customer to move to Xero and on the first day of implementing I ran into this issue - so basic I did not even think of checking it first. Will have to look for something else as customer sees it (rightly so) as a deal breaker.
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ROGER BROWN commented
This guy on youtube has Xero Purchase Order/Project assignment feature - in the UK! I have just incurred several $1000 converting to Xero due to this key feature among others - only to find that the Australian Xero doesn't actually have it.
https://youtu.be/sxV0lVpH1Ec?si=enfbOWbW_PRfMGw7
I'm embarrased that I didn't see this flaw between the UK and AU. And now that I go looking for solutions I find that Xero can't handle a problem in Australia that they already have solved in UK - even after 6 years. It seems that Xero AU has no sense of "Accountability" - just takes the subscribers' money and ignores an important request for 6 years.
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Dieter Pistor commented
I think its been six years that this has been a request, I sent this request in two years ago please explain how and why its taking you so long to try and give your clients what they need, you have merely changed other platforms but seem to have a mental block on this. It really would be appreciated if this could be placed at the top of the list and as Christmas is just around the corner it would be nice to have this as a Christmas present
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Tony GRIFFIN commented
Adding the ability to create and see Purchase orders for a specific Project would make our working day so much easier and enable us to integrate further into the Xero experience.
Please do this update asap.
Thanks. -
Jana Dunnet commented
This is just not good enough. With Workflowmax closing down, we are right now shifting project management to Xero and it needs this functionality. How hard can it be to enable the attachment of a document and the input of a textbox into a project, whilst it has the ability to do this with a quote as well as an invoice? Yes, we can create a draft invoice but we shouldn't need to jump through hoops for something this basic! This has nothing to do with the creation of POs, this is how to deal with receiving POs for accepted quotes!
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Minnie Russnak commented
Ergo : Id be very interested what other products people are looking at ...
Apple seem to be able to pump out updates every 6 months - Elon has landed on the moon - Ive been using XERO now for 3 years - I havent seen a single update ...
I'm following several topics : there has been no development on any of the user requests in 10 YEARS ... WTA Foxtrot -
Josh Buesking commented
Everyone of these ideas falls back on the "underlying" excuse.
There's atleast 10 that I follow with nothing.
Nothing new has been added in two years I've been using Xero other than the find bills not assigned to project ability which is huge.
It's safe to say not to hold your breath on anything changing with xero so if you can't make it happen with what they got it's not happening.
All I know to do is create a task for the PO amount or use draft bill as PO's.
It's safe to say that team could have built xero from scratch with all of today's feature requests faster than updating the underlying technology.
I'd be willing to say that a small percentage of their user base uses projects and they are focused on the basic user like ecommerce.
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Lynsey Thomson commented
I must say this is disappointing as it is a feature that many of our clients want to utilise. This is a crucial part of any job costing analysis, which, having projects function in the system, would suggest you are able to achieve.
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Adam Smith commented
Thank you for the update - we will be cancelling our projects users shortly as the software is not fit for purpose and requires a lot more development to be worthy of being charged for as an extra - which doesn't seem to be on Xero's radar any time soon.
I could understand if it was free while in development and then charged once fully released and useful.
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Elizabeth Waite commented
Hi Hannah,
I would suggest reviewing focusing your attentions on this in the near future, it unfortunately is something of an assumption when purchasing Xero projects so is a huge gap in functionality for us and by the sounds of it an awful lot of others customers.
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Clayton Wilson commented
Hi Hannah, I'm struggling to understand why this is so difficult for your company to achieve. Particularly since it can already be done once a Purchase Order becomes a Bill. What's the difference from your point of view?
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David Dunning commented
Thanks for the update Hannah. Pretty shocked at this to be honest.
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Emma Rosenblatt (Accounts) commented
Thank you for confirming this Hannah.
Due to this, and many other functionalities that Xero lacks, we will be transitioning to a new platform. -
Lee-Ann casbard commented
Christie Van der Beeke, whilst i appreciate what you are saying, the issue is that we need the reference box to tie it back to our projects. There is a important need for most of the Xero users
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Christie van der Beeke commented
Tony Morcom - on the top right of the Invoice template there is a reference box, which allows you to insert text. There is where I reference PO numbers. Hope this helps :)