Dear QBO Gods,

Well I just decided to give inventory and purchase orders a try for the first time in QBO and to my amazement when printing the PO the SKU does not show... so I googled it and it looks as if this is a known issue for a very long time. It really cannot be that hard to implement, can it? 

Anyway based on the crappy "work-around" suggested in this thread... I found a better workaround that would not require copy-pasting every time you print/email a PO. That is another important distinction... this affects the emailed AND the printed PO so it is a VERY BIG DEAL! As other users in this thread have mentioned there is not one piece of data on a purchase order that is more important to the recipient than the SKU (stock keeping unit). That is the vendors inventory number that works with their system and avoids mistakes for items that are nearly identical in description.

If anyone makes it this far and wants a BETTER "Work-Around" then I would suggest you copy paste one time when setting up the "products & services" in QBO there you can just copy the SKU from the "SKU field" and paste into "Description on purchasing forms" field. It's at the bottom if you scroll down to the "Purchasing information" subsection of the Products and Services setup window. Everything you type in this field will show on the printed/emailed PO. I just added it to the beginning of what my vendor calls the item like so: "10537954 - 19X13 95M 100# White Mohawk Everyday Digital Smooth Cover 500/CT 51212"... the first number is the SKU followed by the description my vendor uses in their product catalog exactly. 

If you are listening QBO gods... none of this should be necessary and you should fix this for real to work the way everyone would like. While you're at it add a custom form set-up for the Purchase Order and allow folks to uncheck the SKU if they do not want it for some reason.

I hope this tip helps some other users.

Thanks and good luck!

Jake

PS - attached is a screenshot if you are a visual learner :)