I own a atv repair shop, when I order parts for a customer (multiple parts for different customers on the same invoice from vendor) what category should they be listed?

In QuickBooks Online Plus, you would do the following:

1. Setup the products and service items that you purchase and sell

2. Map the products that you purchase to a COGS (Cost of Good Sold account)

3. Map the products that you sell to an Income Account

4. Include items you that you purchase on vendor bills and expenses (PO's are optional-turn on)

5. Show items table on expense and purchase forms

6. Track expenses and items by customer (add the client name to each expense line items)

7. Make expenses and items billable to customers

8. Track quantity and price/rate

9. Track inventory quantity on hand

10. Show Product/Service column on sales forms

@braddyperformanc

I have a different outlook

When you file taxes, COGS revolves around the cost of inventory items sold, since you are not stocking the items as inventory but are ordering per customer, I would not use cogs as the expense.

I create an expense account called Cost of Sales, COS, and use that instead

If you have QBO Plus, billable expenses should be turned on in company settings.  And if you want you use a non inventory item for the parts you order, in plus if you do that you set both the purchase and sales accounts on the item and use that same item on the purchase and the sale.  If you have essentials you do not have that ability for a two sided item.

in plus, In company settings turn on make expenses and items billable
check mark to track billable expenses and items as income
then in company settings>advanced>chart of accounts click the edit pencil and select the billable expense income account

Why intuit separated the two related settings is anyone's guess

When you enter a vendor bill/CC charge/etc, you will see a Billable check mark box, check that and select the customer name in the customer block. The next time you invoice your customer, the system will show billable expenses on the right side that you can click the add link to add the bill to the invoice.  IF you do not want to add the bill to the invoice, leave the billable check mark box blank, the cost of the expense will still count against the customer

You must not be an Accountant, otherwise you would know that Cost of Sales is a COGS account.

Cost of Goods Sold, (COGS), can also be referred to as cost of sales (COS), cost of revenue, or product cost, depending on if it is a product or service. It includes all the costs directly involved in producing a product or delivering a service. These costs can include labor, material, and shipping. This is fundamental knowledge for an educated Accountant.

The Cost of Services/Sales - COS accounts in the Chart of Accounts in QBO are COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) accounts as seen in the attached screenshot. This business owner is purchasing "Supplies & Materials" - COGS. They don't have to track Inventory, and they can't if they don't have the Plus version of QBO and if they don't turn on certain features within their QBO Company Settings.

The rest of your what you shared was already communicated, as it involves turning on options for billable expenses, tracking expenses by customer, and creating items that you purchase and sell that can be added to sales forms, purchase orders and expenses., etc.

detail type is something intuit invented

making it a detail type as cogs is fine, that puts it above the operating expense line on the P&L

COGS when doing taxes, is different from COS, as I stated to start with.  And as I explained to make tax time easier, it makes sense to use COS.

And you stated they should use COGS.

Notice I did not say you were wrong nor did I make disparaging remarks, though I think posting non inventory to COGS is wrong, all I said was I had a different outlook. 

Whether you put COS above the operating expenses section on a P&L is up to the user.

COGS is an expense account by the way, its purpose and position on the P&L give it special status.

Yes I said some of what you said, so what?

Sometimes someone understands things the way one person says it and not the other.

Cost of Sales is Cost of Goods Sold. Cost of Goods Sold expense accounts have always had detail types, this was not invented by Intuit. I have been an Accountant for 26 years and have used dozens of accounting software applications. Purchased parts for resale are a COGS expense.

Have you used any version of QB desktop?  No detail types there

and the original QBO did not have detail types either, they only appeared in this iteration of the interface.

And, while my 3101 intro to accounting was long long ago, there were no detail types for accounts then either.

None of online accounting help pages, outside of intuit, mention detail types for accounts either.

Taxes, did you notice me qualify my choice of account for taxes, I feel that small business books should be kept per the IRS standard.  Actually the only standard there is IMO, since they are the ones that can make your life miserable.

Rustler,

I have used every desktop version of QuickBooks and they ALL have included either a "Detail Type" or "Other Account Types". I have attached a snapshot for you from the desktop versions of QuickBooks for clarity.

The Cost of Sales are a Cost of Goods Sold and should be reflected as such on the Profit and Loss Report as a generally accepted accounting principal (GAAP).

Expense accounts that are not COGS expense accounts are used for overhead and other non-COGS type expenses. The purchase of items or services that are resold are COGS type expenses.

Did anyone ever answer the original question concerning inventory batch orders, but each part being for a different customer?  This sounds similar to my situation.  It cuts down on shipping costs when ordering parts once each day, per vendor.  

Do you have to match each individual part purchase with the customer invoice and also match it to the sale of the part?  Or does QB automatically know what to do.  I’m still in the preliminary planning stages of how my setup will work.

Rustled, just wanted you to know, without your comments on here I would have already thrown my computer through a wall months ago. There is nothing easy or quick about quickbookks. Especially when you own a shop that provides multiple types of products and services, none of which we tax customers for. Everything from heavy equipment repairs, to custom fabrication. This site has been a nightmare. You are literally the only individual on here that speaks normal human language for those of us who are not accountants. And they want us to pay 1000 a month for someone to do out books on top of what we already pay for the nightmare platform that is completely not user friendly! SO TRULY, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING HERE!!!