I have tried Xero projects, it wasn't any good for how my clients use it. I then used it purely for myself, time sheets for billing customers, it wasn't any use for me personally either so I cancelled it.
In Desktop we had sub accounts that took the name of the project under the main customer, sales quotes and orders were used as acknowledgements and the stage payment invoicing meant that the remaining part of the project remained open until it was invoiced in full. It allowed percentage of overall project price or by line.
On the supplier side the PO allows us to allocate to the particular project, when goods in recorded it recorded the cost to the project. We can then extract reports that show the cost per project. Also profit per project was available.
Partial deliveries from suppliers allowed partial goods received and partial supplier invoices until such time the PO was complete. None of the online sotware we have tried allows this in fact QuickBooks Online allows a partial delivery but doesn't update the stock then only allows one invoice - when the stock gets updated - so you have to input the remaining PO as a new PO, rediculous!
Online is for new start ups not existing businesses and I mean businesses with staff not one man and his mobile.
