QBO test drive - Where do i find inventory control options?

If you are a manufacturing company, you will need a 3rd party inventory management app with the assembly feature or a manufacturing app to sync with QBO. Why don't you stick with QB Desktop?

Hey there, @gerdgoebel.

How are you doing today? I hope all is well. 

In QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced, you can only do simple tracking and managing of inventory. This includes tracking what's on hand, getting alerts when it’s time to restock, and see insights on what you buy and sell.

If you wish to see how it works in the Online version, you need first to turn on these settings so you can add your inventory.

Please do the following steps in the test account:

1. Click on the Gear Icon and select Account and settings.
2. Tap on the Sales tab.
3. Choose Edit in the Products and services section.
4. Turn on Show Product/Service column on sales forms.
5. Turn on both Track quantity and price/rate and Track inventory quantity on hand.
6. Hit Save and then Done.
   
   

Once done, you can start adding your inventory products. You can check out this article for more info: Set up and track your inventory in QuickBooks Online.

Here's a more in depth help guide that shows more information about moving your inventory from Desktop to Online: Set up inventory after converting from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

I also wanted to mention you're correct with your thinking about the backup and restore option. QuickBooks Online backup and restore is an exclusive feature of the QuickBooks Online Advanced plan. If you'd like to see more information about this feature, check out Backup and restore your QuickBooks Online Company. 

I want to ensure you can review as many details as possible about using inventory in QuickBooks Online. With that said, here is a list of several help articles we have available that covers each aspect of inventory:

• Manage Inventory in QuickBooks Online

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to let me know. I'm happy to help. Take care! 

I found the inventory, but was not able to add additional items. I think that is due to it being a test company, where we only can look at functionality but not modify anything.

Where or how would I make inventory adjustments? If we would use QBO I would have to convert my bulk inventory to ounces, but I would also use inventory adjustments when doing physical inventories, which we do twice a year.

You can create new inventory items and make other changes in the QuickBooks Online test account, gerdgoebel.

However, it automatically resets with its original data every time you log out or close the session. Can you tell us exactly what happened when you tried to add an item? Did you get an error message, or did the item just not save?

Please note that the Inventory adjustment feature in QBO allows you to change the item's quantity on hand to help you track the changes to your physical inventory. However, it does convert bulk inventories to ounces since Unit of Measure is not yet supported in QBO.

Here's how to access it:

1. Click the + New button and select Inventory qty adjustment.
2. Enter the Adjustment date.
3. Choose the appropriate shrinkage or adjustment account in the dropdown list for Inventory adjustment account.
4. For each item, enter either a new quantity or a change in quantity.
5. In the Memo field, enter the details about the adjustment.
6. Click Save and close.

Here's an article about this for more details: Adjust inventory quantity on hand in QuickBooks Online.

Don't hesitate to reply to us again if you have more questions for us.

Thanks for your reply, Jenop2.

My problem was closing the session, then starting it again a bit later. And yes, it makes sense, that you reset the test company. Is there a limit how long I can a session open?

Regarding inventory adjustments and physical inventory, I currently use an excel import with all the changed item inventory. Assuming I use the Plus version, can the existing excel import (I thought about reading about it on some of your web-sites) be used to "mass import" to mass-import the new inventory numbers?

Regarding converting my bulk inventory into my sales inventory I thought about using an inventory adjustment to reduce for example 60kg from my bulk item, then using another inventory adjustment to increase my sales item by 2116 ounces. I would use a similar excel import like I would want to use for the physical inventory.

Your observation is correct, @gerdgoebel. The test company resets after you close the session or after a period of inactivity to ensure that everyone starts with a clean, standard set of data for testing.

There is no published or specific session time limit in terms of an hour count, but inactivity or closing your browser will cause the company to reset. The environment is not designed for long-term data storage or for returning to your work days later.

To avoid being logged out during your activity in QuickBooks Online (QBO), you can use a trial version of QuickBooks. Once you achieve your goal or find the answers you need while working in the trial version, make sure to unsubscribe from the subscription before the trial period ends to avoid any charges.

Yes, you can bulk import the existing Excel sheet into QBO under Products and Services. Here’s how:

1. Head to the Gear icon in the top-right corner of your screen. 
   
    
   
2. Click the Dropdown beside New, then select Import. 
    
3. Hit Next after choosing the file to upload to be redirected to Map Data, then Import.

Regarding the inventory conversion or inventory adjustment feature in QBO, it only changes the item's quantity on hand. There is no option to convert inventories to ounces.

We are happy to answer any follow-up questions.

Thanks for the details, JeraldR.

I think I have a way how I can "convert" my bulk inventory to ounces using multiple inventory adjustments with excel imports. I am going to create some test excel for initial testing.

One option under Sales I have not seen: Sales Receipts. All of our web-orders I import as a sales receipt, as they are already paid. I only saw sales orders and invoices, but no sales receipts. So, how would I enter a sales receipt? With 2 steps, first a sale order and then a payment? I hope this is not your solution.

For one of my questions related to backup/restore when using the Plus subscription I have not gotten any replies yet. You must have a solution for this, when I for example do a large data load using some import functionality, but then find out it went wrong. I definitely would need a reset or restore function for this. I don't understand, why you would only offer this with the Advanced subscription.

I normally do daily backups to external SSD just in case something goes wrong.

Thank you for taking the time to write back with further details, Goebel. I appreciate you outlining your queries and the importance of resolving this.

Yes, you are right that the Sales Receipts aren't available under the Sales & Get Paid tab. However, we can create a new sales receipt either from the main + New button at the top of the dashboard or by navigating to the Sales Transactions tab.

Here's how:

1. From My Apps, click the Sales & Get Paid dropdown.
2. Select the New transaction dropdown under the Sales Transactions tab.
3. Then, choose the Sales Receipt.
   

Additionally, please also know that the ability to back up and restore a company file is an exclusive feature of QuickBooks Online Advanced. This functionality isn't available in other QuickBooks Online plans, including QuickBooks Online Plus.

Since the backup and reset feature is vital for your business tasks, it is recommended to upgrade your plan for your convenience.

I also appreciate your effort in finding a way to convert your inventory to ounces. We're very interested to hear how the initial testing of the process went.