Inventory items posted to QBO Projects

1. The first factor is whether you are using the accrual or cash basis accounting method, as with a cash basis reporting the income and cost will not post until payment for items sold is posted. With an accrual method the income and COGS are recorded at the time of sale.

2. The first step is to setup the customer, then setup the products and services, which are mapped to specific income and COGS accounts upon setup, then setup projects under each customer.

3. Once you have done the above steps, you select the "project" under the customer name with each purchase and customer invoice, this is how income and expenses post to your projects. If you create projects "after" income and expenses have been recorded, you will need to edit and map the customer invoice and expenses to the related project and re-run your reports.

I understand how to post purchases to projects.  I am using the accrual method of accounting.  The problem is that we bring a pallet of grout (20 bags) into inventory and use 1-2 bags per job.  QBO does not provide an efficient method of charging goods taken out of inventory and posting to the Project Transaction Ledger and project reports.  Still looking for the best method.

One "solution" provided was to set up a fictitious vendor and using Add A Bill in the Project section post the item as a plus to the project and then  add a line item to the Bill of the same item as a negative without assigning to the project.  This did post the quantity and cost to the Project Transaction Ledger and show on projects reports.  However, this did not relieve my Inventory account of quantity or dollars.  Had to do a journal entry to balance inventory and COGS.

Basic Accounting Theory and GAAP....

@HCRCA 

this statement bothers me
However, this did not relieve my Inventory account of quantity or dollars. Had to do a journal entry to balance inventory and COGS.

You can NOT use a journal entry for inventory type items, nor can you use inventory asset in a purchase or an adjustment.

QB is designed where nothing posts to inventory asset, it is a summing account, think of the items as sub accounts where cost and qty is held

you also stated
update quantity on hand for each item n inventory. Inventory Account would be increased by the amount of purchased items.

I have no idea what you are referring to, but the purchase increases item qty and total value of each item purchased, nothing else.

QB is designed so on a purchase you use the item details part of the transaction, you select the items, qty of each and the total cost of each - that stocks the items with cost and qty

then you use the inventory item on an invoice or sales receipt - that posts item cost and income.

Journal entries should be the exception when using QB, they often do not work as you think they should, and when you use inventory type items they never work for inventory. It is much better to use the forms on the home page the way QB is designed to be used. Journal entries also bypass accrual/cash reporting, and will not show on many reports.

I agree with Rustler on all points.

Journal Entries are not the answer and will not meet your objective. The purchase and sale of products and services will control your inventory quantity on hand. On an accrual basis, the inventory will be adjusted when you purchase items and when you sale items, whether by sales receipt or customer invoice. If you have purchased an item for a project, simply select that project under the "Customer" field within your PO, Vendor Bill or Expense Entry. Make sure you have turned on all of related "Account and Setting" features to track inventory on hand by customer.

As stated earlier, my client is a contractor, not a retail establishment.  I discussed my needs to relieve bulk inventory with salesperson and was assured this is possible.  However, it is not.  To get an inventory item to posy to eh Project Transaction Ledger it MUST be listed on an invoice as a billable item.  My client does progress billing, not item billing.

Some of you comments explain why I cannot get a true value of inventory.  My client has never used true Inventory accounting and we have a warehouse full of items to recognize as an asset.

Thanks for your input.

@HCRCA I have been struggling with this issue as well, and it seems like they pushed out Quickbooks projects before they were ready. Were you able to find a reasonable workaround?

I do my books as Cash and cant get any vaid reports out of Projects. I've tried with both $0 invoices and sales receipts (it seems to adjust quantity properly) by I don't get a clean view of profitability, and have to do everything over in Excel  

What am I missing...We recently upgraded to QBO plus for the projects job costing and inventory features. I am a roofing contractor and grew tired of entering my job cost info into excel only to turn around and re-enter the same info into QuickBooks and was excited to upgrade to plus for these features. I am blown away by the fact that these two features do not work in conjunction with each other. How do I use products I have in my inventory on a project??? I purchase most of my materials in bulk and half of my projects are fixed fee so I do not charge my customer for the materials I use. For example, a pallet of tar paper has 20 rolls but a particular project may only require 8 rolls. How to I enter the 8 rolls of tar paper into my job cost? I have found a work around that I believe works and appreciate any feedback. If I create an invoice in my project and enter the materials (tar paper, etc) and quantity used, but I change the rate to $0, the customer won't owe anything in addition to the contract, my inventory is adjusted accordingly and the cost of my materials is applied to the project. Some of my projects go on for weeks, so I just go into the same invoice and keep adding additional materials as we use them on the project. Is this a valid work around?

Hello, @Stupid Roofer.

Let me share some information to ensure that you're able to record your inventory items accurately and use it in your projects.

When you record your Inventory Products, QuickBooks stores its cost in the Inventory Asset account on your Balance Sheet. That way, the original cost of the stock on your shelves is considered part of the value of your company. Since your customers will not be paying for the items used in the service you've offered the workaround you have would work for fixed fee projects.

Otherwise, what you're looking for is a bit more intricate than what QuickBooks Online currently offers as it's more of accounting software and less of an inventory management system. While it does offer some inventory management to align with accounting needs, I'm thinking it's not as in-depth as you'd like.

The good news is there are apps that may help with what you need. To check out the options, you can go to Apps in the left-hand menu and then search using key terms like "inventory management" to see what's available. The apps include explanations and even reviews from other users so you can properly research what you're using.

Let me know if you have more questions!