Charitable Contributions Not Recording Properly In Quickbooks Desktop

Thank you for taking the time to post today, Diablo1.

You've actually entered your contributions correctly, as suggested in our reference: How to record donations or charitable contributions.

On the other hand, you'll use COGS if you've incurred expenses when producing an item or if you're tracking inventory items. 

We're unable to advise further which category should be used on your contribution. It's best if you can ask for advice from an accountant.

If you have any additional questions feel free to go back to this thread.

Thanks for the response. So, how do I record the donation using COGS? Will doing the invoice and credit memo process remain the same or change?

@Diablo1 

We cannot figure out why the amount in the Charitable expense account ends up as a zero contribution. Is there something we are doing wrong or didn't set up correctly? Would there be a tie-in of our product with Cost of Goods Sold?

I believe you posted previously about this issue.  The reason the expense account ends up as $0 is because there is no expense entry when donating a non-inventory item.  If you bought the item, your expense was incurred when you purchased the product.  There is nothing further to record when you donate it because it isn't costing you anything additional to donate it.  There is no connection with COGS because this is a non-inventory item.  COGS only applies to inventory items.

I previously posted because I couldn't find and wasn't wasn't getting the answers or explanations I needed to resolve the problem. We produce the item and we use COGS account for the various materials and supplies for products but we don't track inventory in Quickbooks for a number of reasons. I will just make product donations debiting COGS and crediting Contributions and do offline non-Quickbooks no charge invoices.

Rainflurry, I've given some more thought about what you said after my initial response to your info. All the material we use in producing our product is a mix of a number of things that are individual items such as bottles, lables, etc., as well as bulk material we that is mixed up and put in the bottles, to produce the final product we sell. And as we don't track inventory in QB and we sell the product as a non-inventory part, perhaps I should put all the materials in an expense account (such as a Production expense) rather that COGS account. Does that make sense? If so, then when we donate an item and we credit the charitable contributions account, what account would we debit, (sales or something else)?