Relieving Inventory

Hi there, liz39. 

I'm happy to help you set up your inventory to read the way you want it. Follow along below. 

Step 1: Turn on inventory tracking

If you haven’t already, be sure to turn on your inventory settings first.

1. From the Edit menu, select Preferences.
2. Select Items & Inventory. Then, select the Company Preferences tab.
3. Select Inventory and purchase orders are active.
4. Select Warn if not enough inventory to sell. Then, choose which type of warning you want to see.
   Tip: If you use QuickBooks Enterprise, you can select Don’t allow negative inventory quantities. This helps you keep your books accurate.
5. If you use a unit of measure to track products, select Enable in the UNIT OF MEASURE section. Learn how unit of measure works in QuickBooks.
6. Select OK once you’re done.

Step 2: Set up your product’s components

Once your settings are in order, set up all the parts you use to build your product.

• If you track a component’s quantity, set it up as an inventory part.
• If you use a component that you don’t (or can’t) track, set it up as a non-inventory part.
• If you include other charges or fees in each build, set them up as other charge items.

Tip: Avoid setting up an item twice. Check your item list to see if any of the components you need already exist.

Step 3: Add your product’s bill of materials

Set up a list of all the components you use to build a single product. In QuickBooks, we call this your bill of materials. It lets you track the inventory parts you assemble and then sell.

Learn how to add and track bill of materials.

Tip: For products that you buy or sell together but don’t track as a single item, create a group item instead. For example, a gift basket of fruit, cheese, or wine.

Step 4: Build your product

Once you set up all the parts and add them to your bill of materials, you can start building your products.

Learn how to combine inventory parts to build your finished goods.

Step 5: Keep track of what you sell

Ready to start selling? You can keep track of each sale in two ways.

• Create an invoice if your customer will pay you later.
• Create a sales receipt if they paid on the spot.

Tip: If you don’t have enough products built yet, you can create sales orders to track backorders. Once you have enough products to sell to a customer, turn the sales order into an invoice.

Step 6: Check your stock and pending builds

QuickBooks reminds you when it’s time to build more products. But if you need a quick overview of your inventory status, you can run reports anytime.

To find the reports you need, go to Reports and then select Inventory.

Step 7: Reorder components from vendors

If you need more components, you can order what you need right in QuickBooks. Then, you can track what you receive from vendors and what’s still on order. When you do, the quantity on hand of each component increases automatically by the number of items you receive.

To restock components, send a purchase order to your vendor. Then, track the items you receive.

If you have any other questions or concerns feel free to post below at anytime. Thank you and have a nice afternoon. 

I appreciate the response but perhaps I was not clear what I am trying to accomplish. We have everything set up as suggested by Nick M. in regard to inventory, buying, selling, etc.   My question is regarding the in between stage. We have multiple builders at multiple sites. I want to know if there is a way to relieve inventory of parts that are committed to builds that have not yet been completed.

When looking at parts on hand it is misleading in regard to how many you have of items.  They are technically still in inventory because the build assembly has not been completed.  But it is very cumbersome trying to manually track what parts are committed to builds. 

Thanks for getting back to us, liz39.

Creating an Inventory Assembly alone will not reduce the Quantity on Hand of the used items (inventory or service).

We'll need to build the assembles so you'll know:

• how many finished inventory assembly items you have
• how many was left on your inventory parts

Here's how to do it:

1. Click Inventory at the top menu and select Build Assembles.
2. Select the Assembly Item you've created earlier.
3. Go to the bottom-right side of the Build Assembly page.
4. Enter the number in the Quantity to Build field.
5. Enter the other necessary details.
6. Click Build & Close.

This will reduce the Quantity on Hand of the inventory parts while it will increase the Quantity on Hand of the inventory assembly.

If the Quantity on Hand of the inventory parts is not enough, you'll have an option to mark the assembly as Pending until you restock. You can use this link for reference: Combine your inventory items to build finished goods.

You can also pull up the Inventory Stock Status by Item report to see the differences:

1. Click Reports at the top menu and select Inventory.
2. Click Inventory Stock Status by Item.
3. You can customize the report if necessary.

If you still need assistance in assembling the items, you can reach out to your accountant. They know what's best option for you to do this.

We'll be right here if you need anything else.

Again Thanks for the Response but not what I am looking for.  Not sure what I am doing wrong in trying to communicate my problem to the community. 

We are UTILIZING all of the inventory options that are normally used (I don't need instructions on how to set up up an inventory item or how to create a build assembly)  my question is as follows. 

Let's use this as an example -

Ultimately we are going to enter a build assembly (but not until we have all of the parts and it gets put together)

This  particular build it is going to require 50 different parts

We have 45 of those parts in inventory and need to purchase other 5 parts.  Is there a way to relieve inventory of the 45 parts that ultimately will be used in this build BEFORE it is actually built. 

We have multiple builds and multiple builders working on probably 15 different builds at a time - that are in all different stages of completion. 

Right now all of the parts stay in inventory until a build assembly is entered.  It is very cumbersome trying to keep track of which of those parts are already taken. 

Another example - part # XYZ   we have 20 in stock

                                   build 123    is going to use 5

                                   build 456    is going to use 4

                                   build 778     is going to use 10

New build order comes in that is going to use 15 - when I look at inventory it tells me there are 20 but in reality there is 1 that is not already claimed. 

Surely other people run into this problem. 

Thank you,

We have the same problem.  We decided to put the build assembly in first (before the assembly is actually done).  This alleviated the issue of knowing how much materials inventory was available for future builds.  However, since the build assembly may not be completed until later, say a week, our inventory of assembled items is overstated.  If a customer requests an item, the salesperson see it in inventory (the overstated inventory), when in reality it hasn't been completed yet.  INTUIT here is an easy fix for this issue:  allow the user to check the box (pending build) on all build assemblies on the build assembly input screen.  This will allow the build materials to be removed from inventory, which allows for easier replenishing of materials inventory and will allow the user to uncheck the box when the actual assembly is completed thereby increasing finished goods inventory when it is available for sale.  I think what your missing here is an account called "Work in Progress".  That is where all the "Pending Builds" should be parked until completed.

Thanks for getting back to us and explaining further the problem you're having with your inventory tracking, @liz39,

I get what you're saying and I can share some insights to help you with this. Normally, the quantity of a part is reduced only when a build is completed. In your case, if you wanted to force decrease the quantity to show the shortage on incoming builds, you can temporarily assign these parts to a sales transaction.

The process are as follows:

Step 1: Create a dummy customer

1. Go to the Customers tab then Customer Center.
2. Right-click anywhere on the list and press New Customer.
3. Enter a name you can easily recognize as the test client.
4. Press OK.

Step 2: Create an invoice, to set aside the quantity to use.

1. On your keyboard, press Ctrl + I to open the invoice window. You can also go back to the Customers tab and choose Create Invoices.
2. Enter the items to build and the corresponding quantity you need to set aside.
3. When done, click Save and Close.

Step 3: When you're ready to build, simply delete the invoice to increase the quantity in the inventory.

1. Go to the Customers tab again and choose Customer Center.
2. Find and click the dummy employee once.
3. On the right-hand side, you will see the transactions. Double-click to open the one you need to delete.
4. To delete the transaction, click the Delete icon at the top or press Ctrl + D on your keyboard.

Once the inventory quantity is restored, you can now complete the build you're working on.

I'll be adding this link to help you get your way around QuickBooks: QuickBooks Desktop Resource Guide

Let me know if you have any questions or clarifications about this. I'll be right here to help you in any ways I can. Have a good one!

I don't think that is a viable option.  It would overstate income on the Profit & Loss Statement until the build is complete and increase the amount of time along with something else to keep up with.  We may have 15 or 20 builds going on at one time.  NOT GOOD.

What was wrong with my suggestion?  Very simple fix.

We have a very similar frustrating issue.  We build to order, manufacture 200 orders per day, and want the items in inventory relieved as soon as we cut an invoice.  We have gone beyond and above seeing what Quickbooks can do and are looking for workarounds but found nothing yet.

We tried creating "Group" items, we tried outside ERP software that said they can solve our problems but again to no avail.  We use Auto Build Assemblies to run our builds.  Which works but has issues of its own.  Quick Books needs to fix this issue, and create inventory stages for you and item relief upon invoicing for us.  It seems like it would be so easy to solve these issues and we have made quite the investment in Quickbooks.  We want them to come up with something before we have to resort to replacing them.  If they could just fix these issues which I am pretty sure there are lots of companies out there with the exact same issues.  QUICKBOOKS, Are you working on this???  Can you Hear US?  We need this now.

@SuNami 

Are you using QBD Enterprise? Time to explore another system and compare them.

I know this functionality to relieve inventory would be beneficial to your business, SuNami. I'm here to share some insights.

Since this feature isn't added yet, I'd recommend sending a feature request directly to our Product Development team. This helps us improve your experience and the features of the program. 

Here's how:

1. Go to the Help menu and then select Send Feedback Online.
2. Choose Product Suggestion.
3. Add the type of feedback.
4. Type in your feature suggestion.
5. Once done, click Send Feedback.

For your visual reference, I've attached some screenshots below.

Additionally, I've included an article that'll help you assign a unit of measure in QuickBooks. This ensures you can easily track your items: Show Quantities, Prices, Rates, and Costs for an Item.

I'm only a few clicks away if you need assistance in managing your inventory in QuickBooks. It's always my pleasure to help you out.