You can check Sage U but I don't know if there is anything there.  PO's are essentially the same data entry as purchases.

Some Differences:

1) PO's are recorded for future use, not posted as journal entries

2) PO's can have forms designed that can be printed or emailed

3) Reporting is on the Pending Purchase Order report

4) PO's can be converted to purchase invoices and backorders filled using the button on the toolbar, so retyping is not necessary (always check quantities and unit costs when you receive the purchase invoice.

Take a copy of your file and play with it.  You will get the idea within a half hour.  If you know how Sales Orders work, then just switch the concept to money out instead of money in.  The rest is essentially the same (though in SA 2012, SO numbers do not autoincrement but PO numbers do).

Have you read the online help in the program? Usually it's pretty good. And, as suggested, try it in a test set of books first.

Are purchase orders supposed to have prices on them?  I noticed my client had set up a bunch of inventory items and assigned prices to them (based on what the supplier charges), but when I played around with creating the purchase orders they don't have any amounts coming up.  

Amounts show up based on the last purchase price (so you have to purchase in the program first before it will show up again), unless you are using Quantum and have set up vendor-specific inventory pricing.

However, I hope you are not confusing Price and Cost.  Cost is what your client pays to buy.  Price is what your client's customers pay when your client sells.

PO's do not have to have any cost on them but the very nature of PO's is for cost control and information flow.  So blanket PO's exist but should only be used in specific circumstances if at all (some say "I don't care what they charge me, I'll pay anything they put on the bill").

If there are several people in the internal purchase chain (buyer, receiver, data entry, etc), it is best to put in all the information so no one has to ask questions and delay data entry/payments unless there are differences to the expectations.

Several of the tutorials available as 'dead tree' books have step-by-step instructions for using Purchase Orders.  

See this thread:

http://sagecity.na.sage.com/support_communities/sage_50_accounting_ca/f/148/p/58505/221095.aspx#221095

The Sage tutorial books have a few pages on Purchase Quotes and Purchase Orders, in the Print version of the 2014.1 Study Guide they're discussed in the Level 2 book.

If your client is using Sage 50 Canadian, it's important that they have a good Purchase Order tracking / management system outside of Sage 50 (i.e. keep sent emailed Purchase Orders, or print and file numerically).

Once a Purchase Order is filled, it's like it never existed.  

- The number can be re-used with no warning.

- Old PO numbers can be typed into invoice screens.

- Sage 50 does not allow looking up all the invoice(s) from the purchase order.

- There are no reports that reference filled Purchase orders.

 - Purchase Order numbers do not show anywhere in Accounts Payable - not on Payments, not on any aging reports.

But...  It is possible to look up an individual purchase order, and look at it on the screen.

There are really no controls on pricing for Purchase Orders, other than a careful comparison of the original (paper) and the vendor invoice (paper).  

Quotes can be turned into Purchase orders, but after you do that, it's like the quote never existed.   So they're not really useful unless the standard process is that each quote will end up as its own separate order.

I hope that helps, feel free to contact me on or outside of this forum if you need any help.