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loree.thompson
Level 3

Inventory

20073 COGS Account.jpg

Have you ever looked at something so much you get lost in your own looking? That's where I am with this. We purchased an inventory item, but it does NOT show up on the Cost of Goods, Purchases and the item detail shows ZERO values for cost and for sales price.

 

I'm attaching some screen-shots hoping I am overlooking something so simple...and I did look at the Quickbooks Help "Understand Inventory Assets and COGS tracking", but something it says will happen did NOT.

 

Ok, fresh eyes, show me how ridiculous I'm being and point out the simple answer I am looking past! :) Thank you ALL for being here!

 

Kind regards, "Cross-Eyed in Ohio"

Quickbooks Desktop Premier Plus Edition 2018.

Solved
Best answer February 14, 2019

Best Answers
qbteachmt
Level 15

Inventory

@loree.thompson

 

The Edit Item screen is more like a basic setup or Defaults. The cost and rate here have no bearing on the Financial data. Think of this as Infrastructure. You set up where you want the Asset value to be held as an Asset account when you Buy this; you assign the COGS and Revenue accounts for when you Sell this.

 

And the Cost is Notational. You can leave it at 0, or use that field to document your most likely cost for purposes of jump starting data entry on Purchases, which you then update to Actual Cost for this purchase. Rate is "I want to always sell it as this price, by default" but then on any sale, you can override that, or the sales price is affected by Price Levels and/or Price Rules.

 

So, Help tells you: Leave cost as $0 when it varies. Leave Price at $0 if you will always manually change the price on the sale, anyway. Or, you always sell it for $x, so set that Rate here.

 

Your image has obscured the bottom part, where you should see Quantity on hand at current Average carrying cost.

 

So, this part is meaningless: "We purchased an inventory item, but it does NOT show up on the Cost of Goods"

 

Until you Sell it. You have to Sell inventory only after having it on hand, of course.

 

This part is also meaningless: "Purchases"

 

Until you Buy it. You list Items on the Items tab of the purchases: checks, bills, credit card charges.

 

Run your inventory valuation summary, run an Item Profit report, run a Quick Report on that item, to see activity for that item.

 

"and the item detail shows ZERO values for cost and for sales price"

 

Seeing 0 in Cost, Rate, and the Edit Item is nothing more than I Never Noted anything here as applicable by default. That has no impact on the financial reporting.

 

 

View solution in original post

6 Comments 6
HoneyLynn_G
QuickBooks Team

Inventory

Hi there, loree.thompson.

 

I appreciate the details and the files you've attached on this post. I can share some insights how the reporting feature is generated.

 

The reporting feature in QuickBooks is dependent on the information entered. There are things to consider to ensure that there are values on COGS.

  • Inventory COGS is affected only when you sell inventory items on invoices or sales receipts. You must have entered sale transactions in QuickBooks.
  • The date on the transaction must be under the date range set on the report.

Let me show you how you can run a report with all transaction with the specific item:

  1. Click Lists.
  2. Choose Item List.
  3. Highlight the item and right-click on your mouse.
  4. Choose QuickReport.

Once verified that there are transactions with that item, pull up the Profit and Loss report again. Make sure to choose the correct date range.

 

Let me know the results, loree.thompson. I'm still here to help you more if you have other questions about COGS. Just add a comment below or mention my name. Have a wonderful day!

Malcolm Ziman
Level 10

Inventory


@loree.thompson wrote:

 We purchased an inventory item, but it does NOT show up on the Cost of Goods, Purchases and the item detail shows ZERO values for cost and for sales price.

 

 

 


Obviously there is no COGS until there is a sale. Has there been a sale?

qbteachmt
Level 15

Inventory

@loree.thompson

 

The Edit Item screen is more like a basic setup or Defaults. The cost and rate here have no bearing on the Financial data. Think of this as Infrastructure. You set up where you want the Asset value to be held as an Asset account when you Buy this; you assign the COGS and Revenue accounts for when you Sell this.

 

And the Cost is Notational. You can leave it at 0, or use that field to document your most likely cost for purposes of jump starting data entry on Purchases, which you then update to Actual Cost for this purchase. Rate is "I want to always sell it as this price, by default" but then on any sale, you can override that, or the sales price is affected by Price Levels and/or Price Rules.

 

So, Help tells you: Leave cost as $0 when it varies. Leave Price at $0 if you will always manually change the price on the sale, anyway. Or, you always sell it for $x, so set that Rate here.

 

Your image has obscured the bottom part, where you should see Quantity on hand at current Average carrying cost.

 

So, this part is meaningless: "We purchased an inventory item, but it does NOT show up on the Cost of Goods"

 

Until you Sell it. You have to Sell inventory only after having it on hand, of course.

 

This part is also meaningless: "Purchases"

 

Until you Buy it. You list Items on the Items tab of the purchases: checks, bills, credit card charges.

 

Run your inventory valuation summary, run an Item Profit report, run a Quick Report on that item, to see activity for that item.

 

"and the item detail shows ZERO values for cost and for sales price"

 

Seeing 0 in Cost, Rate, and the Edit Item is nothing more than I Never Noted anything here as applicable by default. That has no impact on the financial reporting.

 

 

loree.thompson
Level 3

Inventory

Thank you, qbteachmt. I knew I understood why, but seeing it made me remember.

 

I will look this over and explain to the "parts guy" why. :) You're the BEST!

loree.thompson
Level 3

Inventory

Thank you for your quick response, HoneyLynn_G...I appreciate your thorough answer. I do most of the things you listed already, just had a moment yesterday. :) Enjoy your weekend!

loree.thompson
Level 3

Inventory

BAM! Thank you, Malcolm Ziman! That was a jarring question "Has there been a sale?" I knew this, but needed to see it! :) Have a great weekend!

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