entering bills when inventory is already invoiced

Hi there, @dianem1.

Let me help you manage inventory received without a bill and know how to handle them when you received the bill from your vendor.

When receiving items without a bill, QuickBooks will create an Item Receipt that increases your inventory asset account and accounts payable. To properly handle this situation, you'll need to record a Receive Inventory without a bill. Here's how:

1. Open your QuickBooks Desktop company file.
2. Go to the Inventory menu, then select Receive Items.
3. On the Item receipt window, select the vendor name.
4. Choose Yes to receive a purchase order for the bill.
5. Select the correct Purchase Order (PO), then select OK.
6. Review the information on the Item Receipt. 
7. Click Save & Close.

Once you received the bill from your vendor, you can proceed to Enter bills against Inventory. To do so, you can follow the steps below:

1. From your Home page, select Enter Bills Against Inventory.
2. On the Select Item Receipt window, choose the vendor.
3. To keep the original inventory availability date, select the  Use Item receipt date for the bill date checkbox.
4. Select the Item Receipt that corresponds to your bill.
5. Click OK. QuickBooks converts the Item Receipt into a bill.
6. Once you're ready to pay the bill, you can proceed to pay bills.

I'm adding these articles for more guidance: 

• Receive inventory without a bill
• Enter bills against inventory

Just in case you'll need to adjust the quantity or total value of your products in the future, you can check out this article for the detailed steps and information: Adjust your inventory quantity or value in QuickBooks Desktop. This will help you update inventory quantities and value as you track every purchase and sale.

Come back to this post if you have other concerns or follow-up questions about receiving inventory. I'll be around to provide further assistance.

Hi Mark_R

Thanks for the reply!

But the items are no longer in our inventory because we have invoiced our customer BEFORE we get the vendor bill;  So I have trouble entering the Bill

QB shows me negative balances when I go to add an old invoice because the the items are no longer in our inventory

Please advise

I'll share the steps to correct the negative balances of your inventory, dianem1.

A negative inventory problem arises when sales transactions are entered before purchases. This indicates that you've sold inventory goods that weren't actually on hand. It may also result in the following issues that could affect your company file:

• Data Damage forces you to constantly rebuild the file to bring your B/S to balance
• Cash-basis Balance Sheet is out of balance
• Profit and COGS amounts are incorrect
• Balance Sheet Inventory Account amounts are incorrect
• Incorrect Vendor Reports

Let's correct this by adjusting the transaction dates on the bill to be before the invoice date. You can run the Inventory Valuation Detail report to see all negative values in the On Hand column.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Reports menu, then hover over Inventory.
2. Select Inventory Valuation Detail report.
3. Click the Dates, then choose the correct reporting period or select All.
4. Scroll down and find those items showing the negative amount in the On Hand column.
5. Double-click the bill or invoice and adjust the date to make it earlier than the invoice dates.
6. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each item with a negative quantity.

For your reference, read this resource for more details: Fix negative inventory issues in QuickBooks Desktop.

If the issue persists, you can run the Verify and Rebuild tool to make sure your company file is free from any data damage.

Additionally, I've added this article to guide you with your payables for future use: Pay bills in QuickBooks Desktop.

If you require any additional help with QuickBooks inventory management, feel free to post a reply to this thread. We're available to help all the time.

Today, again I have this issue;  The Vendor sent us 2 invoices for the same PO;  There are 3 items on the PO

Previously I received the product without bill, creating one item receipt because it is the same PO

Now we get 2 invoices from the vendor for that same PO;  2 items on one invoice and 1 item on the other invoice

when i enter the first bill I  put zero for the inventory of the items NOT on the vendor invoice   when I go to make the item zero; I get the error message of negative inventory because the items have already been invoiced to our customer.  I am not sure how to work around this smoothly

I appreciate you for coming back to the thread to add extra details about your concern, dianem1. Please know that we aim to deliver customer satisfaction at all times and fix an issue as soon as possible. With this, may I ask for additional information such as providing screenshots of how you entered all of your entries in QuickBooks? I appreciate any further details so I can provide an accurate solution.

For now, I'm adding this article to see details on how Accounts Payable is used so you can track the money you owe your vendors and stays accurate: Accounts Payable workflows in QuickBooks Desktop.

Don't hesitate to click the Reply button below and add extra details about your concern, I'm always around to help, dianem1. Have a good one!

@dianem1 

If you received the items (Vendors > Receive Items) first, and then sold them, you should not have any negative balance.  You can enter the bill by using Enter Bill for Received Items even after you have sold those items.  Just go to Vendors > Enter Bill for Received Items and then enter the bill.  Entering the bill that way just attaches the bill to the received items, it has no impact on inventory.

Below is the Item Receipt;  I could not do a print screen and I could only  upload one item at a time

Against the item receipt I have two invoices: 

When I enter the first invoice in order the amts to match I have to make zero for the following item

GPC28143 that amt comes off the invoice (306.78) leaving 179.76 for DRK94378 and PAD4012RED;  

When I make GPC28143 ZERO I get error messages saying I cannot do that because it will make negative inventory

If we had only one invoice from the vendor this would not be an issue;  its an issue because we have two invoices

I look forward to your suggestions besides inventory adjustments

thanks for the response; the problem is it is two Invoices that need to be entered separately for the same PO/Item receipt

@dianem1 

Edit the item receipt to match one of the bills, then enter the second bill without an item receipt. 

Nope; QB won't allow it;   I get the negative inventory screen

@dianem1 

You can turn off the 'Don't allow negative quantities' setting in preferences.  Then turn it back on after entering the bills. 

Thanks for the replies.