Specific Cost for Serialized Inventory

Thank you for reaching out to us, AL72. I would be happy to provide some insights on how to track inventory successfully using QuickBooks. 

To begin with, it is essential to understand how QuickBooks handles inventory assets, average cost, and Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). 

Normally, inventory COGS is only affected when you sell inventory items on invoices or sales receipts. When you sell an inventory item, you can run the Transaction Journal Report for the invoice/sales receipt. This report will show the Sales/Accounts Receivable transaction and the Inventory/COGS transactions that will credit the Inventory Asset account and debit the COGS accounts.

To pull up the report, follow these simple steps: 

1. Go to the transaction toolbar, select Reports, then select Transaction Journal.
2. Select QuickBooks Reports menu, then select Transaction Journal.

However, if you sell inventory that you do not have, you can force the next bills, checks, or credit card charges to adjust the Inventory Asset account and the COGS account. The amount on each side of the Inventory/COGS transaction is: Number of Items Sold x Average Cost of Item. 

For more details and information, you can visit this article: Understand inventory assets and cost of goods sold tracking

In addition, you can check out this article guide to learn more about managing your inventory, Products, and Services in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT): Manage inventory

Please feel free to reach out to us anytime if you have further questions about inventory in QBDT. The Community is always here for you. Best regards.

@AL72 

Do you need FIFO costing?

They call it an Enterprise Product yet can't track a simple SN for an item. Sounds silly.

Why is it such a hassle to track inventory by it's Serial #? Most of the businesses who sell Serialized inventory need to track the cost of each item separately. And majority of those businesses are SMBs.

Isn't there an inventory build feature where you can add various items (or components) to create a unique product? If so, why can't that be serialized and then tracked for its unique cost?

By the way, QBO version is a pain to work with. The Desktop version was so much better.

I would recommend Odoo instead of QBO. Was a fan of QB but not any more.

@Qualpro 

"Isn't there an inventory build feature where you can add various items (or components) to create a unique product? If so, why can't that be serialized and then tracked for its unique cost?"

The serial number part is easy as that's built-in in Enterprise.  It's the unique cost (specific ID method of inventory valuation) that's a bit more work.  If you want to use the specific ID method of valuing your inventory then presumably you know it's going to be more involved and the cost of each item justifies using the specific ID method as that's generally only used for higher-cost, lower quantity items (cars, equipment, etc.).  Enterprise allows you to choose between FIFO and average cost for inventory valuation but if you want to value inventory using the specific ID method, you just need to set up a separate inventory item for each unit, add the cost using a WIP account, then move it to a finished goods inventory item when complete.