An item is a product or service you sell or buy: a consulting hour, a widget, a delivery fee. Give it a description, a price, a cost and the accounts each side posts to, and every invoice, estimate, purchase order and bill line fills itself when you pick the item. Inventory items also count what is on hand.
The item list
Open Items in the Books menu. Every item shows its kind, description, price, cost and accounts; inventory items add what is on hand and what it is worth. Search by name, code, description or account; the chips on the band filter by kind.
New item asks for:
- Name, and an optional code (a SKU) and unit (hour, each, box).
- Kind. Service (work you do), Product (a thing you sell or buy without counting stock), Inventory (a thing you keep in stock), Other charge (a fee, shipping, a deposit).
- When you sell it: the description the customer reads, the sales price, the income account, and whether sales tax applies.
- When you buy it: the description on the bill, the cost, and the expense account. An inventory item posts purchases to its asset account instead, so this side asks for that account and the cost of goods account.
An item can be deactivated when you stop using it; it leaves the pickers and stays on every line it was ever on. Only an item on no line can be deleted.
Items on your documents
Every line grid now starts with an Item column. Pick one and the line fills with the item's description, rate and account. Change any of them afterwards; the item stays on the line for reporting. Type a name that does not exist and choose Add an item to create it from the line, on the line's account, without losing your draft.
Inventory
Make an item an Inventory item and its stock is tracked at average cost:
- Buying it on a bill (or a purchase order billed) adds the quantity at the bill line's cost and posts the money to the inventory asset account. The bill grid grows a Qty column the moment a stocked item is on a line.
- Selling it on an invoice posts the income as always, and a second pair of lines: cost of goods sold against the inventory asset, for the quantity times the average cost on that day.
- Adjusting it. Open the item and press Adjust stock: how many were found (+) or lost (-), at what cost (blank means the average), and the account the difference goes to. The quantity and the money move together.
- Voiding or deleting a bill or an invoice puts its stock back the way it was. A credit memo line with a stocked item puts the item back on the shelf. An adjustment is undone by voiding its entry (it cannot be edited: void it and adjust again).
- Its asset account cannot change while stock is on hand, because the money already sitting in the old account would stay behind.
- Buying by check or card. A check, bank payment or card charge can buy stock: pick the inventory item and how many on the line. It moves to the item's inventory asset account, and saving adds the quantity at the line's cost (amount divided by quantity). On any other account the line is an expense and no stock moves.
- Selling on a sales receipt. A deposit can be a sales receipt: pick the item and how many. Saving takes the quantity off the shelf and posts its cost of goods at the average cost on that date, just like an invoice.
Sold before cost was known. An amber chip with these words means a sale was costed before a purchase dated earlier was entered, so its cost of goods is off. Open the item to see each sale and by how much. To fix it, open the sale (the invoice, or the sales receipt in Transactions), change something small such as the memo, and save: saving re-costs it at that day's average and the chip clears.
Selling more than is on hand is allowed and flagged, never blocked.
The valuation report
Valuation on the Items tab lists every inventory item with its quantity, average cost and value as of a day, and checks the total against the inventory asset account. When they agree, the band says so to the penny. When they do not, the report names the account and the difference: something was posted to the asset account outside the item rules, and that is where to look.
Reorder points
Give an inventory item a reorder point and the Items tab flags it the moment stock is at or under it; the band counts how many need reordering.
Items in and out
Moving in from QuickBooks Desktop? Add its Item Listing report to the import and the whole list arrives, inventory quantities included. See Import from QuickBooks. Your own export carries the list back out: the books archive holds an items file, and the QuickBooks file in it declares every item before the first entry, so a company file built from it has its items ready.