Managing partial purchase orders requires careful tracking to keep your inventory accurate and your accounts payable correct. When you receive only part of an order, you need to record exactly what arrived while keeping the remaining balance open for future delivery.

The basic rule is to only record what you physically receive. If you ordered 100 units and 60 arrive, your inventory goes up by 60, not 100. The purchase order stays open with a balance of 40 units still expected. This sounds obvious but it’s where many businesses run into trouble, especially if they’re doing bookkeeping manually or not using their software’s purchase order features properly.

In QuickBooks, you can receive partial shipments against a purchase order. When the first portion arrives, create a partial receipt that updates your inventory for those items. The original PO remains open with the outstanding quantity visible. When the rest ships, you receive against the same PO until it’s complete. This keeps everything tied together so you can see the full picture of what you ordered, what arrived, and what’s still coming.

Invoicing gets tricky with partial receipts. Some vendors send an invoice for only what they shipped. Others send the full invoice expecting you to pay when everything arrives. Make sure you know which approach your vendor uses and match your payment to what you actually received. Paying a full invoice before all items arrive creates risk if the backorder never comes or if there’s a pricing dispute on the remaining items.

Keep a list of open purchase orders with outstanding quantities. Review it weekly so nothing slips through the cracks. Backorders sometimes get lost on the vendor’s end. Good inventory and COGS tracking means you always know what’s been received, what’s still owed to you, and what you should actually be paying for.

For businesses dealing with regular inventory orders, whether manufacturing, retail, or any operation that buys goods, this is a routine part of the workflow. A Northwest Ohio bookkeeping service that understands purchasing cycles can help you set up a system where partial receipts are handled consistently rather than creating confusion every time a shipment comes in short.