How to See Which Items Make Money With the Item Profitability Report in QuickBooks Desktop

Before you start

• Check your release. When we checked in October 2026, Intuit's article said the improvements are only in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise 24.0 R13. It asks you to check that you have the latest release and update if you don't. Press F2 to see yours.
• The report covers inventory, non-inventory, service and assembly items, among other types.
• Actual Cost and Actual Revenue come from the transactions you record in QuickBooks.
• Know your inventory cost method. Intuit's Invoice Profitability article says the actual cost in that report follows your valuation method, average cost or FIFO.

Behind on releases? See how to update QuickBooks Desktop to the latest release. For how cost is worked out, see average cost vs FIFO in QuickBooks Desktop.

Step 1: Open the report

1. 1Go to Reports > Jobs, Time & Mileage.
2. 2Select Item Profitability.
3. 3Read the short overview of the report's benefits, then select Close to see the report.

Step 2: Read the columns

Markup compares profit with cost, and margin compares it with revenue. An item bought for $80 and sold for $100 has a 25% markup and a 20% margin.

What the numbers tell you

• A positive Difference means the item made a profit.
• A negative Difference means you lost money on the item, or sold it at a loss.
• A zero in some fields can point to wrong customer or vendor details on a transaction.
• Intuit notes that results can look odd when an item's set cost and price don't match what you actually paid and charged. Compare the item setup columns with the actual columns to spot this.

Step 3: Drill into an item

• Double-click Actual Cost to open the Item Actual Cost Detail report: each cost transaction linked to the item.
• Double-click Actual Revenue to open the Item Actual Revenue Detail report: each sales transaction linked to the item.
• Double-click Difference to open the Item Profit Detail report: each time cost or revenue was recorded for the item.

The Item Profit Detail report also shows the sales rep on each transaction. It lists the item's set cost and sales price beside the actual cost and sales price. We suggest using it to look for sales below the set price or purchases that cost more than expected.

Step 4: Fix an item's setup from the report

1. 1Double-click Cost, Sales Price, % Markup or % Margin for an item.
2. 2In the Edit Item window, review the item's setup and change it if needed.
3. 3Close the Edit Item window.

Intuit says QuickBooks uses these values as defaults on purchases and sales you record later. You can still change them on each transaction. If different customers pay different prices, see price levels and customer pricing.

Why an item's cost or profit looks wrong

• Service items, discounts and other charges can show $0.00 cost. Intuit's Invoice Profitability article says QuickBooks treats their cost as $0.00, and that other profitability reports do the same.
• Services can get a cost. Open the item from Lists > Item List. Check This service is used in assemblies or is performed by a subcontractor or partner, then enter the cost and an expense account.
• Cost is a snapshot. Intuit says the cost on an invoice is captured when the invoice is created, so a later purchase at a new price doesn't change it.
• If you find an error in a transaction, Intuit suggests checking the item's cost and sales price from when it was created or last changed.

If inventory value itself looks off, see how to fix an inventory valuation mismatch.

Related reports

• Invoice Profitability by Customers (Reports > Customers & Receivables), in Enterprise: each invoice line's revenue, direct cost and gross profit. You can group it by customer or job, rep, class or item type.
• Job Profitability, in the Jobs, Time & Mileage group: all the income and costs of a job from start to end.
• Sales by Item Summary, in the Sales report group. When it doesn't match your Profit & Loss, Intuit lists causes like different dates or basis, items set to the wrong account, and entries without items.

For stock on hand and inventory value, see QuickBooks Desktop inventory reports.

Where QuickBooks Desktop leaves the work to you

• Checking the release on each computer and updating it, as Intuit's article asks, is up to you.
• Difference covers only the cost transactions linked to each item. For overhead and overall profit, run a Profit & Loss, as Intuit suggests for its Invoice Profitability report.
• Services, discounts and other charges can show $0.00 cost. Adding a cost to service items is a manual setup step.
• The report shows which items make or lose money. Deciding on prices, suppliers or promotions is still a person's call.
• The numbers are only as good as the items and transactions behind them.

How Logistify helps

This report is built from your item list and the transactions recorded against each item. Logistify's Product Catalog Cleanup turns supplier spreadsheets into clean SKUs for that item list. Its Sales Order Service enters customer orders from email, PDF, WhatsApp, SMS, voicemail or paper into QuickBooks Desktop as sales orders, with a person reviewing exceptions. Logistify is a managed service, not a connector, MCP server or plugin. It doesn't run or analyze this report for you.