Enter bill against inventory

No it will not cacel out the equity entry for starting inventory. In the chart of accounts report on the account inventory asset, find the START entry for that item, edit and set the qty on hand to zero and the cost to zero.
Then enter the bill and pay it. Be sure you use the item details part of the bill where you select the item and enter the qty and total cost.

You can turn on the item details part if necessary in company settings

Thanks for this reply.  I considering changing the starting inventory to zero, but worried it would mess up sales that have occurred in the meantime.  Anything I need to be aware of in that regard?

Thanks for getting back to us, @KN52. I can help you zero out the value of the starting inventory.

You can manually adjust an item's quantity without recording a purchase or sale to match what you actually have in stock. From there, you can manually change the New QTY to zero.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Gear icon. 
2. Select Products and services.
3. Locate the product you want to adjust and click the Quantity link under the Quantity on hand column.
4. Enter zero under the New QTY column of the item then click Save and close.

Another way to zero out the amount of an inventory item is to create a journal entry. This will balance your Inventory Valuation Summary and General Ledger.

Here's how:

1. Click the +New icon, then select Other.
2. Select Journal Entry.
3. Fill out the fields to create your journal entry.
4. Select Save and new or Save and close.

Once you zero out the inventory item, it will not affect your historical transactions in QuickBooks. Furthermore, I'd suggest consulting your accountant to help and provide more expert ways of dealing with this situation.

Here are some related articles about inventory that can help you in the future:

• Adjust inventory quantity or value
• Inventory-related reports
• Creating journal  entry 

Please let me know if you need further help with inventory management. I'll be glad to assist you any time. 

Thanks so much for your reply.  One potential complication that I failed to mention earlier:  I am syncing my e-commerce sales on a Squarespace website to Quickbooks using Squarespace Connector by Intuit.  The initial inventory items (although perhaps not the starting quantities, which I recall entering manually) were populated in QB from SQSP.  (I selected the option to create QB items when items are created in SQSP.)

The quantities in SQSP and QB have remained in sync throughout the first few weeks of sales.  I want to be sure I keep them in sync if I adjust the starting QB inventory as described below.  (I have not selected the option to update SQSP when QB stock levels are updated, so hopefully this avoids the problem.)

I gather the steps I should follow are: 1. Adjust starting QB inventory to zero for all items, 2. Create invoice for the initial quantity for each inventory item and 3. Pay invoice.  I will end up with the same starting inventory (as a result of a purchase, not opening equity) and also the same current inventory levels (because prior sales against the inventory will not be affected).  Is my understanding correct?

Thank you!

Allow me to share a few information about adjusting inventory, KN52.

Opening balance equity is the offsetting entry used when entering account balances in QuickBooks. Usually, this account is needed when there are prior account balances that are initially being set up. Since you've adjusted the starting QuickBooks inventory to zero, then inventory won't be affected. However, as of the moment, this may be the best that you can follow since entering them in the Opening balance won't cancel the equity. 

For your reference, you can also run different kinds of reports in QuickBooks Online (QBO). To know more about what's included in your subscription, check out this article: Reports Included in your QuickBooks Online Subscription. 

Reach out to us if there's anything else that you need about inventory. Remember, we're here to make sure that we can assist you further.