Why do my group items have a $0 cost?

Welcome to the Community, razimov.

All products that are added to group items already have cost. This is the reason why your group items are showing zero.
 

Once you add this item to your invoice or any sales forms, you'll see the individual product cost.
 

To know more about how inventory works in QuickBooks Desktop and this will affect your Profit and Loss report, check out this article:

Understand inventory assets and cost of goods sold tracking.

FIFO Options in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise.

Don't hesitate to comment below if you have other questions with QuickBooks Desktop. Take care and stay safe.

I've tried doing that but my cost is still at $0. Why doesn't it show the base rate for me? I'm assuming the base rate is the calculated average (the default by quickbooks desktop premier right?) or fifo cost because that is what is important to me so I can visually bump up the price without having to go back and check the average cost.

I'm not sure why the picture didn't attach on my previous post.

I got it to work but that is not what I was asking originally. I don't want the sales price to be part of my BOM cost, I'd like the average cost circled in green so that I can see how much profit I made after my I get paid for that order.

I typically would make all items have a sale price of $0 and then I would create a Type - Other Charge in the Item List called "Subtotal" and I would add this subtotal at the end and give it the fixed value. Otherwise, if I have to manually set each item's price it takes too long and I'd rather just give a total price at the end.

A group item is just a nick name that used to list a bunch of items at one time. You have the option to show all of them, or none of them. A group item adds the sales price of all items in the group and that is the sales price for the group.

You can do it your way, or I add a discount item I set up and enter the amount of the discount. That adjusts the total group price. I think it allows the customer to see the individual prices and feel good about the discount amount he thinks I am giving him.

On an invoice the base rate is the sales price of the item, the sales price from the item screen.

QB does not display item average cost on an invoice. The only way to see it is after saving the invoice you use ctrl+y to bring up the QB journal entry for the transaction.

Okay that's definitely one step closer but I don't understand why it doesn't just does the opposite and in the end shows a $0 profit.

The average cost is correctly shown but gets voided by the opposite value.

@razimov 

RE: but when I combine them into a group, it [the group] shows it as $0 for the cost column.

Yes, as @Rustler mentioned, a group item has no cost in and of itself. It's just a container to let you quickly paste a bunch of items on an invoice.They have no cost: you can't buy them. You can only buy the items in them. Groups were around before QuickBooks even had an inventory feature and just aren't intended to show the cost you're after. It would be better if the cost columns on the item list was just empty for group type items.

What works more like you want is an Inventory Assembly, which will show cost. Assemblies are much more robust, but also has some overhead you may not want. You have to "build" assemblies from other items in order to then sell them, for example, which removes those items from inventory as if you used them up.

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@razimov wrote:

Okay that's definitely one step closer but I don't understand why it doesn't just does the opposite and in the end shows a $0 profit.

 

The average cost is correctly shown but gets voided by the opposite value.

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the negative 9.97 coming out of inventory asset is the inventory item being sold, item  cost.

I have no idea what parts purchase is all about.

Typically you purchase the inventory item to get it in stock.  That stocks the qty of the item on hand and the item average cost.  When you sell the item on an invoice, the qty on hand goes down, the cost is removed from inventory asset and posted to COGS, while the sales price posts to income.  That is what does not seem to be happening.

Inventory and assembly  items have three accounts, check yours
income - your sales income account
expense - COGS
asset - inventory asset

K, this isn't the best solution because you have to enter and update everything manually but....

When you set-up a New Item or Edit Item you can add custom fields such as "Group Cost" and "Group Price" and then enter the values manually. First Click on Define Fields, name the field, click the check box beside Use, click OK and when back in the New or Edit Item box click Custom Fields and enter the values - which you'll have to calculate (cost) or get by entering the Group Item into an estimate or invioce (price). Then in the Item List you can right click on the column header, scroll down and click on Customize Columns and add the Custom Fields so they show up in the Item List. The values show up in item reports (along with the separate values of the inventory items). I haven't done anything on the cost side of things because I have just started setting things up this way but it's going to be really helpful as I get a lot of customers asking "how much is this or that" and I want to see the price right away. Also great for exporting the information to create price lists. You'll have to go through each Group Item and enter the values in the Custom Fields when the costs and prices change but overall it can save time and give good info..

My apologies, it does not show in the item reports, I was reading it wrong. Darn!