Change the account for a product or service item in QuickBooks Online

Learn how to change the income account for any of your product or service items in QuickBooks Online.

You may need to use a different income account for your product or service item and make sure your company has an accurate record of your transactions.

Change the income account for your items

1. Go to Settings and select Products and services.
2. Find the item and select Edit.
3. From the Income account▼ dropdown, select the account you want to use. 
   Note: Can't see the account? Make sure the account's detail type is Sales of Product Income.
4. Select Save and close.

To check:

• Go to Settings and select Chart of accounts.
• From the Action dropdown of the account, select Edit.
• Change the detail type to Sales of Product Income if necessary.
• Select Save and close.

Note: You can only change the account for an item one at a time.

Update past transactions

For service and non-inventory items, select the Also update this account in historical transactions checkbox after step. This updates all transactions that use the item.

For inventory items, the checkbox doesn’t appear. This is because inventory items track quantities on hand using First In, First Out (FIFO). FIFO affects your assets and Cost of Sale (COS) differently from service and non-inventory items.

Note: When you change the income account for inventory items, it also affects prior transactions. If you don't want to update past transactions, create a new item with the correct income account and use it to replace the old item.

1. Add a new inventory item. Make sure to select the correct income account.
2. Go to the Sales, then select Invoices (Take me there).
3. Select the invoice you want to update.
4. Select Edit invoice.
5. By the old inventory item, select Delete .
6. Add the new inventory item, and enter the corresponding quantity.
7. Select Save. Do this for the past transactions you want to update.

Past transactions are still not updated

If past transactions aren't updating, change the income account then switch it back to the correct one.

1. Go to Settings and select Products and services.
2. Under the Action column of the appropriate item, select Edit.
3. From the Income account ▼ dropdown, choose a different account.
4. Select Save and close.
5. Under the Action column of the same item, select Edit.
6. From the Income account ▼ dropdown, choose the correct account.
7. Select the Also update this account in historical transactions checkbox.
8. Select Save and close.