How to Add Inventory Items in QuickBooks Desktop, With Quantity on Hand and Value

Before you start

• Turn on inventory: Edit > Preferences > Items & Inventory > Company Preferences, then select Inventory and purchase orders are active. The Inventory Part type isn't available until you do.
• Have your last stock count and its value for each item. For a product you haven't received yet, you'll enter zero.
• Item names can be up to 31 characters. QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Premier hold up to 14,500 items, active and inactive combined. Enterprise has no item limit.
• If you build the product from components, set it up as an Inventory Assembly instead. Our bill of materials guide covers that.
• If you track stock by warehouse with Advanced Inventory in Enterprise, the new item window has an Inventory Site Info button for entering quantity at each site.

For assemblies, see How to set up a bill of materials and build assemblies. For warehouses, see How to track inventory by site.

Step 1: Create the Inventory Part item

1. 1Go to Lists > Item List.
2. 2Select Item at the bottom of the list, then New.
3. 3In the Type list, choose Inventory Part.
4. 4Enter the Item Name/Number. Use the part number or SKU your team searches by.
5. 5If the item belongs under a parent item, select Sub-item of and pick the parent.
6. 6Under purchase information, enter the Description on Purchase Transactions. It prints on purchase orders and bills.
7. 7Enter the Cost you pay, choose the COGS Account, and pick the Preferred Vendor you usually buy from.
8. 8Under sales information, enter the Description on Sales Transactions, the Sales Price, the Tax Code and the Income Account.

Step 2: Enter the opening quantity and value

1. 1Under Inventory Information, keep the Asset Account QuickBooks fills in, or choose another inventory asset account.
2. 2Enter a Reorder Point if you want QuickBooks to remind you when stock runs low.
3. 3In Quantity on Hand, enter the quantity from your last stock count. Enter zero for an item you don't have yet.
4. 4In Total Value, enter the value of that count. Together, the quantity and value set the item's starting average cost.
5. 5Set As of to the date of that count.
6. 6Save the item. Select Next instead to save it and open a blank item for the next product.

From here, purchases, sales and builds change the item's stock. To correct the count later, see How to adjust inventory quantity and value. To choose a reorder point, see How to set reorder points.

Step 3: Add many items faster

• Select Next after each item to keep entering without closing the window.
• To copy a similar item, right-click it in the Item List and select Duplicate Item. Everything copies except On Hand and Reorder Point, which start at 0. Give the copy a new name.
• In Enterprise, go to Lists > Add/Edit Multiple List Entries and choose Inventory Parts in the List field. Type in the empty rows or paste rows copied from a spreadsheet, then select Save Changes.

If something doesn't look right

• Inventory Part isn't in the Type list: inventory is turned off. Turn it on in Items & Inventory preferences first.
• You sold the item before entering any stock: with no opening quantity and value, the item has no average cost. The sale uses the Cost on the item, or $0 if it's blank. A later bill at a different cost then posts a correction to cost of goods sold. Enter opening stock or a purchase before the first sale.
• Converting an existing non-inventory or other charge item to inventory: pick an As of date later than the item's most recent transaction. With an earlier date, you'd have to re-enter its sales and purchases up to today.
• Changing an item to Inventory Part can't be undone. You can't switch it back to its old type.
• Two entries for one product: merge them, and the transactions from both end up on the item you keep.
• An item that appears on any transaction can't be deleted. Open it and select Item is inactive to hide it instead.

Where QuickBooks Desktop leaves the work to you

• Someone has to enter every item and keep names, descriptions and units consistent, often across thousands of SKUs.
• The opening quantity and value are only as good as the last count.
• Supplier price lists and part number changes arrive as spreadsheets, each in its supplier's own format. Someone has to clean them up before they go into QuickBooks.
• Duplicates appear when two people set up the same product under different names. QuickBooks can merge them, but only after someone spots them.

How Logistify helps with item setup

Logistify doesn't create items in your company file. Product Catalog Cleanup turns supplier spreadsheets into clean SKUs, so the list you set up starts consistent. Once your items exist, the Sales Order Service enters customer orders for them into QuickBooks Desktop as sales orders.