Inventory Tracking Issue when Progress Invoicing in QB Desktop

Let me shed light on progress invoicing relevant to your situation, gardenstatefurniture.

I'd like to clarify that progress invoicing and receiving an invoice payment is different.

Progress invoicing for inventory items is normally done by piece, meaning we use quantity (piece by piece count) when turning estimates to invoices. We discourage using amounts unless it's a service item, or items with no definite count like liquids, items sold by weight, etc. You're in control over your inventory, so you have to know when to use quantity or amount when converting estimates to invoice.

Example: If you have 1 bag (inventory item) on an estimate, and you turn it into an invoice, you will enter 1 in the quantity field. You won’t enter the amount based on what your customer will pay you, you'll invoice based on the qty you give to your customer which is 1 whole piece of bag. Basically, this will just close the estimate, so progress invoicing is not ideal for 1 piece of item.

As for the payment, you'll apply it to the invoice. Open the invoice, click Receive Payment, and enter the partial amount.

Please feel free to comment below if you have more questions about your progress invoicing.

I can try this, but when I create the 2nd progress invoice with a quantity of 1, will my inventory of that item decrease by another 1? I only want it to decrease by 1 even if I have 5 invoices for that estimate. 

Also, how will I account for the cost? So if for example, my cost is $80 and my sell is $100, and I am billing for $20, will my cost then be $16?

Thanks

Let me share more details about progress invoicing, gardenstatefurniture.

Everytime you create an invoice from estimate, it'll be deducted into your inventory. Though, it won't deduct as one (1) quantity, just a certain percentage from the total quantity. Once you fully invoiced the estimate, that's the time when a total of one (1) quantity will be deducted.

Also, the cost won't be change unless you'll update it. You'll have to record what will happen to the $80 since you've mentioned that only $20 will be charged to your client. Are you going to give discounts, or is their a credit?

You can read this guide about setting up and send progress invoices in QuickBooks Desktop.

Reply again if you need more help. Have a great day!

Hello,

I really want progress invoicing to work for us, but we sell quantity 1 of our products very often, so it sounds like I will have to manually track my inventory if I want to use progress invoicing.  This to me doesn't make any sense. Even someone selling 100 of a product, but only invoicing for 20% of that would have the same issue I am having as the inventory is only reducing by 20 on each invoice, instead of reducing by 100 on the first invoice and 0 on the next invoice. How could any product business use this for progress invoicing unless it is a construction project, or something of that nature. 

Is there a way to make sure that my inventory is not affected when an item is invoiced?  If I can do that, I can manually track my inventory instead of having it reduce in qty depending on the invoice. 

Good day to you, gardenstatefurniture.

For now, QuickBooks will automatically reduce the quantity on hand based on the number of items that are used in the invoiced, not based on how much is partially paid. 

We'll send your feedback to our product engineers so they can take a look at this review for future updates. Product updates are most often based from the suggestions that we get here in the Community.

In the meantime, you'll want to manually track your stocks or inventory outside of QuickBooks. You can also use a third-party app that can be integrated in QuickBooks. Here's the link: https://desktop.apps.com/home.

Visit us again if you need additional help when tracking your sales transactions. 

Ok well I need a good option then and nothing has been suggested to me. Can you please let me know how I can accurately track my inventory and partial invoice at the same time? 

Hi everyone,

It makes no sense to progress invoice a percentage of an inventory item.  You must progress invoice by quantity and not by percentage for inventory items.  So, if you want to progress invoice from an estimate and you have inventory on that estimate you can't just say progress invoice for 50% of the estimate.  That works for service and non-inventory but not for inventory items.  Think of the logic behind my statement.  When you invoice for 1 inventory item QB knows the average cost and so sales go up and inventory goes down by that cost.  Then cost of goods sold goes up by that cost on your Income Statement and Accounts Receivable goes up.  So, it makes no sense to invoice a percentage of an inventory item.  Invoice by quantity when progress invoicing and make sure you have the inventory item in stock before you invoice off the estimate.