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Track your stock in QuickBooks Online

SOLVED•by QuickBooks•111•Updated 4 days ago

Learn how to track your stock in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced.

QuickBooks Online has everything you need to manage your stock. Track what's on hand, get alerts when it’s time to restock and see insights on what you buy and sell. You can also enter non-stock products and services so you can quickly add them to your sales forms.

We’ll help you set it all up and get going.

Stock features are available for QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced. If you don’t have Plus or Advanced, upgrade your QuickBooks plan to start tracking your stock.

Step 1: Turn on stock tracking

If you haven’t yet, turn on these settings so you can add your stock.

Go to Settings and select Account and settings.
Select the Sales tab.
Select Edit✎ in the Products and services section.
Turn on Show Product/Service column on sales forms.
Turn on both Track quantity and price/rate and Track stock quantity on hand.
Select Save and then Done.

Learn how QuickBooks handles your stock accounting

QuickBooks always considers the first items you purchase as the first items you sell. Accountants call this method "first in, first out" or FIFO.

Not all accounting software uses FIFO. QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Premier, and other accounting software use average costing instead.

Step 2: Add your stock products

Now you can add your stock items as well as other products and services you sell into QuickBooks. This lets you quickly add them as line items to your sales forms. The steps to add stock, non-stock, and service items are slightly different:

Add products you want to track as part of your stock

Follow the steps to add stock items. These are products you sell that let you set and track product quantities.

Add products and services you buy or sell, but don’t track as part of your stock

QuickBooks won't track quantities for these items.

Follow the steps to add service items. These are the services you sell to customers. For example, landscaping or bookkeeping services.
Follow the steps to add non-stock items. These are things you buy or sell but don’t (or can’t) track as stock. For example, nuts and bolts used in an installation.
Create bundles: Bundles let you group multiple products or services together. For example, a gift basket of fruit, cheese, or wine. Adding products in a bundle saves you from having to select them one by one in invoices or receipts.

Step 3: Keep track of what sells

Once you set up all your stock products, you track them when they sell. There are two ways to track what you sell:

Create an invoice if you’ll get paid later.
Add a sales receipt if your customer paid on the spot.

QuickBooks then decreases what’s on hand by the amount on the invoice or sales receipt.

Check what’s on hand and what’s on order as you work

Check what’s on hand and what’s still on order as you work on an invoice, sales receipt, or another type of transaction. Just hover your pointer over the quantity you entered for an item to see more info.

If you set reorder points, QuickBooks will also let you know when something's running low. If you set a low stock alert, QuickBooks will also let you know when something's running low.

Step 4: Restock your stock

QuickBooks tells you when it’s time to restock. You can order stock right in QuickBooks. Then, track what you receive from suppliers and what’s still on order. When you do, the quantity on hand automatically increases by the number of items you receive.

Learn how to reorder anything that’s running low or out of stock.

Step 5: Use reports to check the status of your stock

Access reports to instantly see your best sellers, what’s on hand, cost of goods, and more.