Can you help? My Invoice transaction Journals are not showing an amount under COS, even though each product has a cost entered & its under the right account asset. ??

Did you use a stock type item?

Seems so. Did you enter an Initial quantity on hand or purchase any of this item?

And is it a COS type account in the Expense account box?

Yes, I have realised that the initial cost was not entered when the stock items were first created on the Inventory. When I go back to transaction details I can see it can now be entered here, however, do you know what stock adjustment account I should select when the stock asset account shows “stock asset" and my products are automatically listed as "retained profit balance forward account" as the stock adjustment account?

Initial quantity on hands were entered even though all products were purchased. (so this wasn't doesn't done as a Bill) and yes COS is the selected account in product and services

---

@Sharr12 wrote:

Initial quantity on hands were entered even though all products were purchased. (so this wasn't doesn't done as a Bill) and yes COS is the selected account in product and services

---

You should always enter a Qty of 0 in the item set-up screen for new inventory items, once the books are set up.  

If you create a purchase (Expense or Bill) and you also entered a quantity in the item set-up screen for the same purchase, then your quantity on hand will be doubled. But you say it wasn't done as a Bill, so i don;t know what you are trying to do.  Are you setting up the books?

I didn't know you are meant to you list 0 first time around. Essentially what I am trying to do is make sure my COS is correct on my balance sheet. I was advised by quickbooks to delete and re-enter all of my invoices, as they all listed 0 on COS even though I had entered these values in my inventory after initial set up. This has not worked. 

So on further investigation I believe I need to go back to my transaction details to enter a value into the Opening transactions. However I am unsure what I need to select for "stock adjustment account" Have attached a pic of what I mean.

Is this the right this to do? as I tested it on one product, created an invoice and then my COS appeared correctly on the transaction journal, so it seems to be. I just want to make sure balances are all correct.

As you mentioned you should always put 0 quantity when setting up books, it is worth me changing the all my quantities to 0 here (like starting a fresh) and then creating a Bill and doing it the correct way? or will this effect my accounts elsewhere?

---

@Sharr12 

---

"I am trying to do is make sure my COS is correct on my balance sheet. "

There is no COS on the balance sheet.  There is the Stock which is an asset. COS is on the Profit and Loss

"As you mentioned you should always put 0 quantity when setting up books"

No, it's the other way around.  You enter the quantity when you set up the books.  After that you enter 0 when you create new inventory items, once the books are set up.  

what do you mean by setting up the books? I set up my quickbooks a few amonths ago, entered my inventory, linked my business bank account and used it to create invoices and record payments. I am now starting to use it to book keep properly but am trying to rectify earlier mistakes. 

If you have links to any helpful Tutorials that would be really helpful as  all the ones I have watched, I have done exactly that. I'm worried I may just have to erase and start my entire account again?

setting up the books means creating a new set of books, a new data file, with the history for a pre-existing company.  That is the ONLY time you should enter a quantity for stock items, for what you had on hand on the start date of the data file, usually the beginning of the year is best.

After that you create stock by purchasing it with a Bill or Expense transaction.  That creates the stock, and the cost, of course

Probably someone from quickbooks will post some articles and videos

Ok, we are a start up company so we didn't have previous data  to set up. Any suggestion on what I should do now that I have set it up incorrectly? 

The stock on hand must have come from somewhere.  How was it paid for?

Just via bank transfer before we set up quickbooks fully. So when that transaction pulled through from my bank account when i finally linked it, I categorised it as equipment in my expense transactions.

If I amend the original stock on hand amounts for my products will this cause in balance anywhere else? as some of the quantities were also entered wrong.

" I categorised it as equipment in my expense transactions."

If this is the stock in question, then not sure why you did that - it's not equipment. 

So open up the expense transactions, delete the equipment allocation in the account (maybe called category) section at the top and in the Items section below, enter the Stock Item name, qty and unit cost. That is how you create stock.

If you entered starting qty and cost in the item set-up screen , that has to be fixed.

One way is go to Accounting>Chart of Accounts and open the Opening Balance Equity account. 

Open each Inventory Starting Value transaction and change the "Initial quantity on hand" to 0

(you can leave the cost - it will be used to populate future purchases). Save. That creates a zero value transaction. 

There doesn't seem to be a Opening Balance Equity account under chart of accounts, so can I do this by accessing the Starting Value transactions from the transaction detail of account report?

This is what I sent an image of before when I asked what should be selected under 'stock adjustment account' how do I know what should go there? its currently auto selected as 'Retained profit balance forward account' I'm not sure what that is (Image attached)

Apparently that's what Opening Balance Equity is called in your file.  Anyhow it does not matter because you will make the quantity zero so the value of the transaction will be zero, because zero times anything is equal to zero. So yes you can use the the Starting Value transactions from the transaction detail of account report. There are a few ways of doing things in QBO.  It gets you to the same place.  Just make sure that the balance for this 'Retained profit balance forward account' (it s/be in the Equity section of the COA)  is zero when you are done

Actually I checked the UK sample co and it really is called Opening Balance Equity.  Maybe someone changed the name.  It's a special use account in QBO.  It is possible to change the name but make sure that the "Detail Type" in the COA still says Opening Balance Equity.

Ok thank you, you have been very helpful!

can I ask you one more questions....

If I want to list a a few inventory Items individually and as set a set, how do I do this without having incorrect quantities .

For example: We sell weight plates that can be bought in pairs of 5kg/10kg/15kg/20kg/25kg or can can be bought as 100kg / 150kg sets. but its the same stock quantity.

I cannot find anything that is called Opening balance equity. My chart of accounts just has a list of categories that are used for my expenses.

"I cannot find anything that is called Opening balance equity."

Look carefully it has to be there. Look for your account called 'Retained profit balance forward account' , and then look in the column that says "DETAIL TYPE"

"If I want to list a a few inventory Items individually and as set a set, how do I do this without having incorrect quantities ."

Do a search for Bundles and read up on that

Ok I have found it, so all i need to do here is make sure that all stock assets are Zero? then create a bill to enter my stock correctly?