Eliminate inventory shrinkage transactions

Hello Carissa22,

Great to see you post another question in the community! Sometimes we make errors and that's okay, I'll be glad to give you a hand with figuring this out.

QuickBooks is an easy to use program which makes it easy to navigate. In order to clear unwanted transactions, you can either void or delete them. Voiding a  transaction doesn’t affect your account balances or reports, but you always have a record of it.  When you delete a transaction, you completely erase it from your books. It won't appear anywhere on your reports or in your accounts. You can use your Audit Log to recover some details, but you can't recover the transaction.

Once you decide to void or delete a transaction, here's how to do it:

1. Go to the Sales or Expenses menu.
2. Find and open the transaction.
3. Review the transaction. Make sure you need to void or delete it.
4. If you want to include the void or delete date, add a note to the Memo or Message section.
5. Select More in the footer. Then select Void or Delete.
6. Select Yes to confirm.

You can only void one transaction at a time. Since the change is permanent, QuickBooks limits how many you can void to prevent mistakes. I'd also recommend contacting our support team so they can take a closer look at your account and help get you on track ASAP. I'll list the contact details below. Otherwise, give this a try and if you have questions, don't hesitate to reach back to me in the comments. 

• Phone and Chat: Click Contact Us to learn how to reach phone and chat support.
• Schedule a Callback: click (?)Help in the upper right > click Contact Us > explain your situation > click Let's Talk > choose Get a callback (Note: Callback hours are the same as regular phone hours.)
• Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET

My problem is this is not a sale or expense, it's inventory shrinkage.  I don't know how to get into that account to delete the transactions. 

I'd like to make sure I'm on the same page as you, could you send me a full screenshot showing the transactions in the inventory shrinkage account? 

You can't see all of the transactions here, but you get the idea.  The name is changed to Inventory Adjustments from Inventory Shrinkage, but it's creating the same issue, a shrinkage expense on my profit/loss report of $3424.78.  Really it was the starting quantity that should have been changed on all of these, I didn't know that uploading a new inventory file would do this. What happened was my former software used a minimum quantity and Quickbooks uses a reorder point, so I had to edit the inventory file to reduce all of the minimum quantities by 1 so it would trigger a reorder correctly.  When I did this I saw there were a number of items that I knew we didn't have anymore or don't track anymore as they are outdated, so I deleted them from the file.  It recorded all of these as shrinkage.  Since there are hundreds of transactions I hope there is a solution that involves deleting all of them instead of one at a time, or even just the ability to negate this transaction so shrinkage is net 0 would be fine because at least it wouldn't mess up my financial reports.

Glad to hear back from you, Carissa22. I appreciate you sending the great screenshot. Based on the info you've provided above, you'd have individually delete each of the transactions manually. You can do this by clicking on the transaction > click More > select Void/Delete. I'd also recommend taking a look at third-party apps which can assist you with deleting transactions in bulk from our App Store using this link here. Once you're on the site, enter the keywords "delete transactions" or any other keywords related to deleting transactions and once you hit the search icon, I recommend picking the app which suits your business needs. Let me know if you have questions.

Thanks. The problem with deleting the quantity adjustment, is that it updates the quantity of my inventory to an incorrect amount.  Is there a way to delete an item out of my inventory like it never existed? This would have the same effect for all that are adjusted to a quantity of 0 which is most of them.

I see what you're saying. At this time, there isn't an option to completely delete inventory items but you can make the items inactive instead. Here's how: 

1.  Click on the Gear icon at the top right hand corner
2. Select Products & Services
3.  Select the products you wish to delete by ticking the check box to the left of their names. Alternatively, you may select all by clicking on the check box to the left of the Name header.
4.  After selecting the items to delete, click on Batch Actions at the top right and select Make Inactive

Give this a try and let me know if you need help. 

I found this to be a supremely annoying part about QBO.  I assume it's restricted to prevent people from accidentally deleting entries, but it's a double edged sword because it prevents you from deleting many entries that you are certain you want to delete. 

There should be an option to delete multiple entries, even if it's buried under several layers of confirmations.  Even when you make an item inactive, it just dumps the value into Inventory Shrinkage when all you want to do is remove inventory items when you're just starting out and getting the hang of how to use the inventory features.

Well I was able to solve my own problem, although I'm a little disappointed that someone more experienced than me didn't think of this solution and save me a bit of trouble!

I just added a new inventory item (I called it inventory shrinkage adjustment just so I would know what it was), I entered starting quantity of -1, and a cost value of the exact amount of the inventory shrinkage that was showing on my report.  Then I went into that item and did a quantity adjustment to 0. This in effect added back the exact amount of my shrinkage to the shrinkage account.  So now, my profit and loss report shows inventory adjustment - $0.00.  Problem solved!

I'm so glad I've come across this! I'll have to try it out tomorrow - my brain is fried from trying to figure that out earlier. Thank you!

This is not about sales. How to Void ' Inventory shrinkage ' without effect on 'Profit and Lost' ?

Hi anabonsecurity,

Thanks for chiming in on this thread in QuickBooks Community. The inventory module in QuickBooks Online will track all the inventory that goes in and out once it's been turned on. I can go through how the module works with you.

If you've adjusted the quantity, it'll create that entry into inventory shrinkage. There's no way to just void the entry and not change anything in the Profit and Loss Statement. If you delete the inventory shrinkage entry, it'll just put the items back into your inventory. To delete the inventory shrinkage entry:

1. Go to Reports from the left navigation menu.
2. Under the Sales and Customers report section, choose the Inventory Valuation Detail.
3. Find the Inventory Qty Adjust entry and click on it.
4. Click Delete at the bottom, confirm Yes.

This will remove the inventory shrinkage entry.

If you want to make the adjustment to the inventory without it creating the inventory shrinkage you'll want to change the starting value. If you started an inventory item with a wrong amount, sales price, or cost, the only way to correct this is to Modify the cost and initial quantity of an item. I can help you with this. 

To change the starting value of an inventory item, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Gear Icon in the upper-righthand corner.
2. Choose Products and Services from the Lists column.
3. Scroll down to the item you need to adjust. On the righthand column, click Adjust Starting Value. 
4. You'll get a warning, and you'll need to click Got it! to continue.
5. You can adjust the Initial Quantity on Hand or the Initial Cost. This will edit the original entry of the starting value, and the transactions will now use this new cost. There's no shrinkage recorded.
6. You can now Save and Close.

The article I shared covering modifying starting values also explains that QuickBooks Online uses the First In, First Out (FIFO) for inventory. This is how it calculates the Cost of Goods (COGS). The Cost of Goods is where the Inventory Shrinkage comes from. If you have inventory with a cost that's no longer there, that value needs to be recorded somewhere. This value becomes the Inventory shrinkage that affects your Profit and Loss statement.

I hope this helps. If you have any other questions, I'm here. Have a good night!

Carissa,

I am experience QB hell right now too!

If I understand you correctly, if your inventory shrinkage was -5000, you created income of 5000 calling it "inventory shrinkage adjustment", to offset it...?

Thank you so much!!!!

we were struggling with this also and found QB instruction covoluted and not helpful

glad someone knows what they are doing!

ok , give us a screenshot on this one, because i do not see this under the report...  

@Carissa22 I've been following this as i have the same problem and support don't seem to have a clue unfortunately. I did what you did but the problem I then found was that the inventory shrinkage product then shows in inventory asset on the balance sheet and messes that account up. Did you face this problem?

Hi matthew-kapes-co,

Thanks for joining this thread.  With QuickBooks Online features, you can manually make adjustments to inventory items without creating transactions, so you can match what's in your actual stock.  However, as mentioned previously in this post, it can affect other aspects of your books.  I'd be happy to provide more insight on this!

Anytime an inventory adjustment is necessary, it's automatically recorded to your asset and cost of goods sold under stock shrinkage accounts.  It's recommended that you reach out to your accountant when an inventory adjustment needs to be edited, due to the impact it can have.  If you don't have an accountant, we can assist you with locating a ProAdvisor in your local area.

Should you require additional assistance, please contact us.  It would be our pleasure to work with you in real time and get you back to what you love!

@Trish_T I just want to start again. I'm sick and tired of trying to resolve issues with this software. How can I migrate what I need and just start again with a new account?

Hi matthew-kapes-co,

I hear you on this and see how you'd benefit from wiping the slate clean and starting fresh with QuickBooks Online.  I'd be glad to guide you!

If your account is less than ninety days, you can purge the company data and start over without creating a new account.  Otherwise, you'll need to export your data and begin a new one after canceling your current subscription.  Don't worry, whenever a QuickBooks Online account is cancelled, you'll still have access to your data for one year from the cancellation date before the company's permanently deleted.

Once you've exported your data, follow these steps to cancel the subscription:

1. From the Gear in the top right, select Account and settings

2. Open the Billing and subscriptions tab from the left menu

3. Hit Cancel subscription and follow the onscreen prompts

When you've completed the processes above and created a new account, you're ready to import your data from the Gear > Import data.  Each item will have a sample spreadsheet for you to review and ensure a smooth transition into QuickBooks Online.

As always, we'd be happy to work with you in real time and help navigate through the processes, by contacting us as mentioned above.

We're here if you have any other questions.  Enjoy the rest of your day!

@Trish_T I don't want to purge everything, I have spent an entire month importing suppliers, bills, bank transactions. But the inventory side of things is the issue and why I need to just start again. Is this possible?

Hi matthew-kapes-co,

In QuickBooks Online you can start over with your products and services.  Although you can't delete the current items, you can make them inactive in minimal steps.  Here's how:

1. From the Gear in the top right, select Products and services

2. Checkmark the box in the Name column, to capture all items 

3. Using the ▼ dropdown on the Batch actions tab, choose Make inactive

4. Click on the Filter ▼ dropdown and change the Status to Active

You should now have a clean slate for entering your Products and Services.

I hope this helps!

@Trish_T as I originally described this will not help because of the issues I currently have with inventory shrinkage, which then impacts inventory asset. I need to start again. What is really annoying about this is that no quickbooks employee seems to know what they are talking about. How do I escalate this? I want to start again, I need to migrate all the work I have done.

Hi, this was helpful. I added incorrect inventory and this helped me fix it without creating Inventory shrinkage.

However, my initial inventory that I added which was all the times I got a new product, I added the quantity while uploading each new product instead of creating a PO. This has doubled my inventory value. How can I fix it without creating shrinkage? We don't know how much we messed up and wanted to see if there is a way to fix this?