Category: QuickBooks Accountant

Inventory feature in QuickBooks Desktop can track the current number in stock and the value of your inventory after every purchase and sell the items to your customers. With QuickBooks Desktop Premier or QuickBooks Enterprise versions, you can even keep track of products you assemble and resell (finished goods), adding assembled units to inventory and deducting component units from inventory when you build assembly items.

To start with, you may want to be familiar with these basic steps related to questions about Tracking Inventory in QuickBooks:

1) To turn on Inventory: Go to Edit menu at the top > select Preferences > choose Inventory & Items > Company Preferences > checkbox “Inventory & Purchase Orders are active” > click OK.

2) Create Inventory Items: Go to Lists menu at the top > Items List > Select Item tab at the bottom > click Item (or drop-down arrow) and select New > Type = Inventory Part and create a new item.
These three fields are important to set up inventory items. See screenshot sample.
For COGS Account field = Cost of Goods Sold account type from the Chart of accounts
For Income Account field = Income account type from the Chart of Accounts
For Asset Account field = Inventory Asset account which is part of the Other Current Asset on the Chart of Accounts

You do not want to put in On Hand/Total Value info here.

3) For adding purchased Inventory items: Use Enter Bills under Vendor menu at the top or Write Checks menu under Banking at the top. Always use ITEMS tab, never Expenses tab.
4) For selling Inventory items: Create Invoice (or Sales Receipt). Use ITEM Code in the sales form. This will also automatically post COGS to P&L by reducing inventory counts.

If you need more info, you can always click HELP menu at the top and select QuickBooks Desktop Help and type INVENTORY HELP in the search field. If interested, you can also watch my famous how to inventory video tutorials on YouTube.

QuickBooks Desktop Part 10: Inventory – All you need to know about QuickBooks Inventory