We’ve been on the topic of inventory tracking. In this post, we will begin to look at inventory reports. We’ll look at both, QuickBooks Online (QBO) and QuickBooks Desktop versions.
Going through every report available might be a little tedious. We’ll start this time with what is one of the most used reports, the Inventory Valuation Summary.
There is a sharp contrast to the data available on this report between QBO and QuickBooks Pro users. This is where the differences between the two programs become more apparent.
In QBO the report consists of a mere three columns of data. The products that appear on the report are those we have specified in QBO as ones we want to Track quantity on hand.
This report tells us we have two rock fountains in stock. The cost is $125 for each. That results in a total value on hand of $250 for this product.
Now, let’s take a look at the same report in QuickBooks Pro.
There’s a lot more information in this report so you’ll have to look close to see the detail.
We have the on hand quantity, the cost, and the value of the total quantity of this product. QuickBooks Desktop uses the terminology Item, rather than Product for our inventory items.
In QBO we had the three columns mentioned. In desktop, the report also shows a column telling us what percentage of our inventory total, at cost, is made up of this one particular item. 3.5% of our total inventory on hand, at cost, is cabinet pulls.
The report displays a column to show the unit price of the product, what we would charge a customer. The Retail Value column lists the retail value of this item, or quantity times price.
How does that compare with the rest of inventory? What percent of our inventory, at retail, is in this one product?
For the cabinet pulls on the first line, that’s 7.5%.
It’s worth a mention that an additional column would be on this report in the QuickBooks Premier editions. That would be U/M, for unit of measure. In the Premier versions it is possible to track inventory in different units of measure. For instance, we might purchase a specific item in cases of twenty-four but sell by the each.
Another feature in Premier is Assembly items. There isn’t a column on this report to show any specific information about assembly of items, but it’s a feature worth mentioning.
With the Assembly feature, we can purchase inventory items that are components of an assembly we will construct.
If we sold animal vet medicines, we could buy bottles, labels, meds in bulk and any other ‘pieces’ we might need to then create a finished product we could sell.
Intuit also sells the QuickBooks Enterprise edition which adds another layer of sophistication to inventory management. We’ll leave discussion of that software package for another day.
It’s important to remember that the features mentioned in the desktop versions of QuickBooks can be added to QBO. To accomplish that, it would be necessary to subscribe to an app specifically designed for this. Those are available in the App Center and there are several good ones like SOS Inventory.
Hector Garcia, CPA
Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor
12401 Orange Drive #136
Davie, FL 33330
954-414-1524
hector@garciacpa.com
