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Wildrosehardwood
New Member
August 10, 2026
Question

COGS System issues when tracking inventory under Products & Services purchasing dropdown

  • August 10, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 10 views

When setting up 5000 COGS, and setting up Sub-accounts (ie: 5001, 5002, etc.) I noticed a flaw in the software engineering. How do we get around this flaw? 

The problem arises when going into Products & Services (gear icon - top right), and finding an inventory product. Go to edit, and scroll down to purchasing said product. There is a drop down menu that you connect to the COGS tracking. Well, it appears that the Sub-accounts (5001, 5002, etc.) that you have just set up, do not show in this window. If we can not track inventory the way it was meant too, then for Trades or inventory tracking companies, this is a MAJOR flaw. If we cannot track inventory and show it in reports, we can not properly see the coming and going of inventory properly. It literally turns Quickbooks Online into a paper weight. Can this BE FIXED please? 

 

I troubleshooted with Claude AI scraping the forums to see how companies are handling this. Some are leaving Intuit all together, because the work around is weighty and uses up journal entry after journal entry. ANY IDEAS? I really do not want to have to leave quickbooks online over this.

    1 reply

    N
    Nathania_PQuickBooks Team
    QuickBooks Team
    August 10, 2026

    It is completely understandable why you are frustrated. I’m here to help you navigate this, especially when you are trying to do something as fundamental as properly tracking your inventory and COGS sub-accounts.

     

    To start, I recommend checking the details for your COGS accounts in the Chart of Accounts. Ensure that Supplies & Materials - COS is selected as the Detail type when creating or editing both the parent account and the sub-account.

     

    Here’s how:

     

    1. Go to the Chart of Accounts.
    2. Find the relevant account or sub-account.
    3. Click the dropdown menu next to it and select Edit.
    4. Check your account details, then save your changes.

     

    Once done, if you are prompted to lock the account, select No. If locked, the account will be grayed out and unavailable in the Products & Services dropdown.

     

    If you have already tried this and the issue persists, QuickBooks Online (QBO) can sometimes take a moment to update your changes. Try doing a quick refresh in your browser; just click the reload button or press F5 to start a fresh session.

     

    If you have any additional questions, please reach out again. We are always here to help.

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