QuickBooks Online now offers a sales order on some plans and add-ons, which works well for many businesses. Suppliers who sell to home builders often need more around it: backorders and partial deliveries, purchase orders combined across many open orders, and builder, community, and lot on every document. The common setup is to keep accounting in QuickBooks Online and run that order workflow in a dedicated operations system connected to it.
If you're moving off QuickBooks Desktop and your business runs on sales orders, it's worth planning that workflow before you migrate. Features and plan availability change, so check Intuit's current product pages for what your plan includes. This guide focuses on what a builder supplier's order workflow typically needs, so you can compare it against whatever you're evaluating.
What a builder supplier's order workflow usually needs
A typical builder order goes through more steps than a simple sale. Use this list to evaluate any setup:
- Backorders and partial deliveries: ship what's in stock now and keep a clear record of what's still owed to the builder.
- Combined purchasing: group open order lines across many builders into one purchase order per vendor.
- Builder, community, and lot carried on the order from quote through invoice.
- Builder references: the builder's own PO or order number on your order and invoice, so payments match.
- Delivery proof: who signed, when, and a photo, tied to the order.
- Committed vs. available stock, so you don't promise the same units twice.
When these pieces live in spreadsheets beside the accounting system, teams end up re-keying orders, and filled orders that were never closed can quietly inflate demand. That's the problem worth designing out.
Common ways suppliers handle it
Use the accounting system's built-in tools
Estimates, sales orders where available, and progress invoicing can cover simpler order flows. This works best when orders ship complete from a few vendors.
Add a general inventory app
General-purpose inventory and order apps add stock control and backorders. Check whether they handle builder, community, and lot references and combined purchasing the way you work.
Run operations in a system built for builder supply
Keep the books in QuickBooks Online and run the order-to-cash workflow in a system designed around builders and lots, connected so invoices and payments flow between them.
How ClearOrder fits
ClearOrder is built for that third approach. Accounting stays in QuickBooks Online, and ClearOrder runs:
- Sales orders with automatic backorders and partial deliveries
- Committed vs. available inventory from the moment an order is approved
- Purchase orders combined by vendor across every builder you supply
- Builder, community, and lot on every estimate, order, and invoice
- Delivery proof, then an invoice sent to QuickBooks Online automatically
Your accountant keeps working in QuickBooks Online, and nothing gets entered twice. See everything ClearOrder does →
Before you migrate
Open sales orders are one item on a longer list. Our migration checklist for suppliers covers the others, including payroll history, inventory valuation, sales tax, and attachments.
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