COGS and P&L discrepancy

Hello there, XL_Velo.

I appreciate you reaching out to us here in the Community with your concern about the Profit & Loss report.

For the shipping COGS, it will not be included in COGS with inventory product if the shipping is not included in the cost of the item.

You may also check on how to customize reports in QuickBooks Online to add some options that you want with your reports.

If you have any other questions about running reports, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm always here to help.

Hi, I'm not concerned with those few shipping charges, I'd like to know why the 22K of inventory sales does not show up on the COGS portion of the P&L report. 

Thanks for getting back to us, @XL_Velo.

Since the inventory sales are still not showing after checking it, try signing into your QuickBooks Online (QBO) using a private browser (incognito). There are times that the browser is already full of frequently accessed page resources, causing some unusual responses.

Here's how:

• Press Ctrl + Shift + N (Google Chrome).
• Ctrl + Shift + P (Firefox).
• Control + Option + P (Safari).

Once logged in, pull up the Profit and Loss report again to double-check.

If they're showing, return to your default browser and perform a clear cache to refresh the system. However, if the issue persists, try using other supported browsers.

To learn more information about managing reports in QBO, consider checking out this article for future reference: Run reports in QuickBooks Online.

I'm also adding this article that tackles tracking your inventory in QBO: Set up and track your inventory in QuickBooks Online.

Don't hesitate to leave a comment below if you have any other issues or concerns. I'm more than willing to assist. Have a wonderful day!

Hello, I tried this and it didn't work, but I figured out why. When QBO was started, it was started by someone else who set it as Accrual but it's much easier for us to use a Cash based system, even though we have inventory. We are a small shop and have no employees, and all invoices are paid within a day or two of being sent. I changed the accounting method in the advanced settings sometime last week as I have never filed taxes before (we just opened) so I figured I should change it to Cash before filing. When I toggle the P&L report back to accrual, my inventory sales show up in the COGS. This is great! But how can I get it to show when I'm used Cash based accounting as that is what I prefer to use going forward?

Thank you!

Thank you for getting back, @XL_Velo.

I appreciate you for performing some troubleshooting steps to get the correct balance of your report. I'm here to share with you some additional information about the Cash and Accrual methods of accounting.

Moving forward, please make sure to set the dates of your report correctly to get the accurate result when switching from Cash to Accrual and vice versa.

You can open this article to learn more about the difference between cash and accrual methods for QuickBooks Online: Choose between cash and accrual accounting methods in reports.

Moreover, you can skim through the topics from this link for more hints about handling your reports: Run reports in QuickBooks Online.

If you have any other questions, let me know by adding a comment below. I'm always here to help. Have a good one!

Thanks, but I feel like I maybe did not ask the right question. 

All of the work done up until recently on QBO was on the Accrual basis (August 2020 to March 2021). Upon preparing our taxes, I realized this and changed to Cash in the advanced settings menu. When I run the P&L for last year, the COGS appear when Accrual is selected, but they disappear when Cash is selected (see attachment). 

Is there a way to make last years transactions appear as if they were done as Cash (i.e. show on the P&L when I toggle to Cash, i.e. retroactively make it look like we were using the Cash basis the whole time)?  

Note: the books were being handled by someone else and I've found only recently that they actually weren't being handled at all, so nothing to date has been reconciled. I'm basically doing everything from the past now to make it right, so I'm fine with undoing things to make this work as Cash as it should have been.

Thank you again.

Hi XL_Velo,

While looking at your screenshots, I also expect COGS to be reported to your P&L because your transactions are sales receipts, and they are paid at the time of sale. Therefore, the accounting method won't actually matter in this case.

Since the basic troubleshooting steps didn't work, I would recommend bringing this issue to our Support team. That way, they can start a screen-sharing session to find the root cause. Please contact them on weekdays from 6 AM to 6 PM PT.

If you have other questions about reports or anything about QBO, just let me know.

Did you find a solution??? I'm getting the same stupid responses from QB Support as if these people have absolutely no idea how accounting principles even work

Hello there, @7399socks. I appreciate you posting your concern again in our Community thread. 

I recognize the need for this to be rectified as quickly as feasible. I just wanted to let you know that I responded to your previous post. You can submit any follow-ups there to keep it streamlined and offer you the best resolution. 

If you didn't get notified of your first post, please visit this link: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/reports-and-accounting/re-help-cash-basis-reports-....

Refer to this article if you want to save the customization settings of your reports in QuickBooks Online: Memorize reports in QuickBooks Online.

Please let me know if you have further concerns. I'm always looking forward to helping you. Take care!

Unfortunately, if you use Inventory items, the Accrual P&L report in QuickBooks is horribly inaccurate and plagued with errors.