Purchase Orders and Bills are essential tools for streamlining expense tracking, managing work orders, and handling subcontractor payments. By incorporating these features into your workflow, you gain greater control and visibility over your job costs while reducing the risk of budget overruns.

While Purchase Orders provide clear expectations for scope and cost before work begins, Bills allow you to document and categorize purchases in real time.

Accessible through the mobile app, users can easily scan receipts and submit documentation from the field, promoting accuracy and accountability. Utilizing both ensures more efficient communication, reliable cost tracking, and a smoother path to staying on budget.

Begin by selecting a Job, then navigate to Purchase Orders from the Financials dropdown.

Next, click +Purchase Order and select Purchase Order from the dropdown to begin creating your Purchase Order.

Fill in the applicable purchase order fields. When you are finished, you can can Release the Purchase Order to the sub/vendor assigned to be reviewed and signed off on, or Save to save the Purchase Order without releasing it to the sub/vendor.

In addition to creating a Purchase Order from scratch, you can also generate one directly from related features like Change Orders, Bids, Selections, or the Estimate.

Alternatively, you can add costs from these features to an existing unapproved Purchase Order for streamlined expense management.

To add line items to a Purchase Order from related features, go to the appropriate feature, select the checkboxes next to the items you want to include, then choose either Create PO or Add to Existing PO to proceed.

Once a Purchase Order has been Released, the assigned Sub/Vendor will receive an email with the option to review and either Approve or Decline the proposed work.

If you granted your Sub/Vendor with login access, they will have the option to review and either Approve or Decline the proposed work directly from their Sub/Vendor Portal.

If you are working with a pen and paper Sub/Vendor, you can Approve or Decline the Purchase Order in Buildertrend on behalf of your Sub/Vendor.

From the Purchase Order, select Manually Approve.

Sign and Manually Approve the Purchase Order from the Signature pop-up modal.

Once a Purchase Order has been reviewed and Approved, you can access the signed copy directly from the Purchase Order.

From the Purchase Order, click View from the Approvals section.

If a Purchase Order is unreleased after being approved due to changes in scope or pricing that require reapproval, the Version History will display all previous iterations. This provides a clear record of every approved version for transparency and tracking.

In Buildertrend, you have the flexibility to create a Bill from scratch, from an existing Purchase Order, or directly from the Cost Inbox. This provides a streamlined and efficient way to manage your job costs.

The workflow increases financial accuracy and improves communication with vendors and subs, ultimately helping you stay on budget and maintain better control over your project’s financial health.

Begin by selecting a Job, then navigate to Bills from the Financials dropdown.

Next, click +Bill to begin creating your Bill.

Fill in the applicable bill fields. When you are finished, click Save to finalize the creation of the bill.

If a Bill was created directly from the Bills Dashboard, you can still link it to an existing Purchase Order. This keeps your records organized and ensures all job costs are accurately tracked against the appropriate commitments, which improves budget visibility and reporting.

From the Bill, either from the create new bill modal or from editing an existing bill, select the Purchase Order this Bill will be associated with from the Purchase Order dropdown.

Once the Bill is associated with the Purchase Order, the Purchase Order will be listed under the Related POs column from the Bill Dashboard. The Bill will also now be listed on the Purchase Order itself under the Bills/Lien Waivers section.

Creating a Bill from a Purchase Order not only ensures consistency between what was ordered and what is being paid, but also reduces the risk of errors or duplicate entries.

From an existing Purchase Order, navigate to the Bills/Lien Waivers section and click New Bill.

Next, specify the portion of the Purchase Order total you want to apply to the Bill, then click Create Bill.

Fill in the applicable bill fields. When you are finished, click Save to finalize the creation of the bill.

Once the Bill is created from the Purchase Order, the Purchase Order will be listed under the Related POs column from the Bill Dashboard. The Bill will also now be listed on the Purchase Order itself under the Bills/Lien Waivers section.

Creating bills from receipts uploaded through the Cost Inbox streamlines your accounting workflow by turning incoming expense documents into trackable, budget-aligned bills.

Once a receipt is uploaded, you can easily generate a bill, assign the correct cost code, and tie it to the appropriate job. This ensures accuracy in job costing and reduces manual entry.

If a Bill is created from a Purchase Order, the PO suffix will make it easy to spot the connection when viewing the Bills.

From within the grid view of Bills, you can easily find which Purchase Order is related simply by the Bill # column, and which Bill is not related to a Purchase Order.

To turn this setting on, navigate to to your Company Settings and select the Bills / POs / Budget from the Financials section.

Scroll down to the Bills section of the page and check the Add PO suffix to bill number checkbox to turn this setting on.

If the Purchase Order suffix feature is enabled, any Bill pushed from Buildertrend to QuickBooks will automatically include the corresponding Purchase Order suffix in the Bill number.

This helps easily identify which Buildertrend Purchase Order the Bill is linked to, streamlining reconciliation and enhancing traceability across both platforms.

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If you have any questions or require additional support, feel free to chat with us, send an email: support@buildertrend.com, or give us a call at 1-888-415-7149. We’re always happy to help.