OK, so I will be the first to admit that in running this business, and in trying to stay sane the last few years that occasionally I have missed things.

Well, apparently I missed something huge.

Alternate vendors was enhanced a few years ago in QuickBooks Enterprise, and I totally, completely, did not know until this week.

Yup.

That being said, I dug in today, and I’m recording a video now. I also am attaching a template in case you need to format your vendor catalog updates (and to share with the kind client who was graceful enough to not call me an idiot when I realized I was wrong, that you CAN have multiple MPNs for multiple vendors now).

OI.

Anywho, a few nuances need to be known…

1. In many of the screens, like creating a purchase order or in reviewing the item, your ability to edit your vendor pricing is limited. You can mark preferred and alternates in the Item Manage Vendors screen, but you cannot change pricing, etc.

2. When creating a PO, while the reference screen will show you lead time, etc, it will NOT carry over the preferred or alternate vendor pricing to your PO. The PO will default to the Item cost, which is the cost preference you set in the item itself. You will need to note the pricing when doing the PO (if you are not requesting new pricing from your vendor at this time), and override the item cost in the PO.

3. Lead times have to be in a day format. This is not a free field, and they don’t really explain the format they want, but it is in days.

4. All edits to vendor pricing has to be done in the Add/Edit Multiple List screen under Vendor Pricing.

5. All fields are still subject to practical limitations per QB Knowledgebase: Character limitations for fields in QuickBooks (intuit.com).

6. This ONLY works for inventory parts, and no other item types.

7. You MUST have Advanced Inventory to use this feature.

To see me explain and show this process off in video form, view below. It’s in editing, Covid sniffles and all, so this raw one will be replaced soon. Template is below.