How are you supposed to properly track inventory you have on hand that is used on projects?

Hi there, @zul.

Thank you for utilizing the Project feature. I can share some insights about tracking inventory on hand in QuickBooks Online.

All inventory items are tracked through our Products and Services list regardless if it's for projects or not. Moreover, there are reports you can run for inventory tracking.

Here are the reports you can run and customize to track inventory. They help you better understand the performance of your products and services.

• Inventory Valuation Detail
• Inventory Valuation Summary
• Physical Inventory Worksheet
• Sales by Product/Service Summary
• Sales by Product/Service Detail
• Purchases by Product/Service Detail

If you wish to update your inventory quantity on hand, you can follow the steps below:

1. Click the Gear icon.
2. Choose Inventory Quantity Adjustment.
   
3. Enter the necessary information.
4. Click Save.
   

For in-depth information, you can check this link: How to set up Inventory tracking.

Keep me posted on how these steps work out for you. I'll be here to keep helping. Wishing you and your business continued success!

Lynn, Thank you for responding, I've been using inventory for a bit now, where I'm stuck is whats the proper way to use existing inventory on projects.

If I'm purchasing additional inventory and apply it towards the project in a bill, everything works as expected. But there is no way for me to apply an inventory adjustment to a project, or to close out an invoice that is $0.00 and contains all products I've used on a project.

Ultimately I want to see the Products that I've had to use on a Project to show as Cost of goods sold, so I can accurately track my Projects profitability. 

Hi zul,

Inventory adjustment will only affect the Quantity on hand. Thus, adding the existing inventory on projects is unavailable.

To properly track your profitability, you'll want to make sure you used the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) account in the product/service item.

Please refer to this helpful article for more information: How to set up Inventory tracking.

We're always here for you if you have other questions. Thanks for posting.

Shiella, Thanks for replying all of my items have the proper COGS.

The issues I'm running into is I don't want them part of the Project invoice that I've sent to the client, but I need a way to reflect all products used on a project and for it to adjust my quantity on hand.

Thanks for getting back to us, zul.

The option to reflect all the products that you used on your project is unavailable. However, you have the option to create an invoice for the transactions you wish to adjust. Thus, I suggest reaching out to your Accountant to help you decide on what type of account is best for this one.

You can always reach out to me if you have other clarifications.

Adrian, Thanks for replying, do you foresee this as a feature to come? It seems like a common thing to do. 

I've tried adjusting with invoices that are $0.00 but it doesn't show in my books properly.  

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@zul wrote:

Adrian, Thanks for replying, do you foresee this as a feature to come? It seems like a common thing to do. 

 

I've tried adjusting with invoices that are $0.00 but it doesn't show in my books properly.  

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@zul If you're creating zero invoices for internal purpose with quantity but no amount, COGS should still reflect on the Projects Overview or Project profitability report on an accrual basis (but not on a cash basis) in QBO.

VPcontroller,

I do all my books as cash basis, and doesnt give a clear picture with mixed methods. Are there any other suggestions to get around this limitation of Projects?

I'm a bit confused...Quickbooks has an inventory, but doesn't allow me to add inventoried items to a project? What exactly is the point of having a project if I can't actually track items taken from my inventory to complete the project? COGS is a major part of what I need to track to figure out my ROI for a job. If I have an inventory, all of my costs per part are already stored. Then if I need to use 5 of those widgets for a project, you're telling me that there's no way to move 5 of those widgets from my inventory to the project? That doesn't make any sense and seems like something that could be addressed fairly quickly with the number of programmers you employ. How does everyone else use an inventory system if you can't remove items from inventory to add them to a project?

Hi @HomeEcGuy,

Let me give you some insights using the inventory for the project. You have to create an Invoice for the inventory you wish to take and use to the project.

I recommend that you can also use the advice of what @vpcontroller’s provided above.

You can visit this article for some details on how to add transactions for the project: Set up and use the Projects feature.

If you have any other concerns, don't hesitate and come back to the Community. Take care.

They are definitely lacking the understanding of assigning inventory to a JOB (project).  It appears they think more on the lines of retail and sales and not at all at construction type activity.  I am researching QBO and inventory really is the deciding factor for our company.  We do construction activity, carry inventory for our JOBS, which is held as an asset in Construction in Process until the JOB is complete.  When we use inventory, we release it to our JOB.  Then we can track inventory usage by JOB.  We are not going to invoice ourselves.  This is simple material management in any ERP system.  They just need to add Customer or Project field to the inventory screen and allow the person to choose the correct account, not just inventory adjustment.  I agree, it is a simple fix. 

Hi, @smk4.

We appreciate your thoughts about using inventory for the project. Rest assured, I'll send your recommendation to our product developers to add this feature soon.

Meanwhile, you may want to check our QuickBooks Desktop. This version has a feature that allows you to create a job and track income expenses for customer projects.

For more information, I highly recommend checking out our detailed comparison guide between Online and Desktop versions. Also, I've included an article on how to track job costs in QuickBooks Desktop for additional reference:

•  QuickBooks Products
•  Tracking job costs in QuickBooks Desktop

With this, you'll be able to get a better perspective in choosing which product would suit your business. If you have further questions, feel free to add a comment below.

That does not really help when a business is already paid for, set up and is utilizing QB Online Pro. 

There has to be a way to program to take an item out of inventory and into a project to have a better understanding to profitability. The way it is set up now, having an inventory is completely useless to me.

Thanks for getting back to us, @MelanieCharlesworth.

Let me provide additional information about your concern in QuickBooks.

At this time, we're unable to add an inventory to a project. You'll have to create an invoice for the inventory you wish to take and use to the project.

Also, you can use the advice of @vpcontroller provided above in creating invoices.

In case you need some related articles for your future tasks, you can always visit our Income and expenses hub for reference.

To know more the latest updates and features in QuickBooks Online, you can check our QuickBooks blog for future reference:

Please don't hesitate to comment below if you need further assistance. I'm just around to help. Take care.

@JoesemM I think the main issue is for us small business doing their books as cash, and It's concerning it's still not working.

I think all of us have no issues creating a $0 invoice if that is the work around, the problem is it doesn't reflect properly if you are running your books as cash.

How Frustrating!

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@zul wrote:

@JoesemM I think the main issue is for us small business doing their books as cash, and It's concerning it's still not working.

I think all of us have no issues creating a $0 invoice if that is the work around, the problem is it doesn't reflect properly if you are running your books as cash.

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I just picked up this thread, I am a fairly recent user of QuickBooks online, and selected the product because of its ability to use purchase orders and track inventory. To this point I have been creating an invoice as I work but this does not allow for job/customer margin tracking which is critical for business planning. As others have said here it is hard to understand why this feature has not been added as some comments here are 2 years old. I do understand that the inventory function is a separate module but certainly an interface can be created within the current framework.