inventory vs cogs

You've come to the right place,  @eyevbc. 
 

Let me help you understand how QuickBooks Online (QBO) handles stock assets and Cost of Goods Sold (COGS).

Stock Assets is when you purchase an item, the bills, Cheque or Credit Card Charge will debit the Item's Stock Asset account and credit your Account Payable, bank or credit card account and will no be debited to the expense account. Since, this is an asset that you can sell.

On the other hand, stock COGS only be affected when selling item thru invoices or sales receipts. You can pull up the Transaction Journal Report for those invoices or sales receipts. This way, you can check which account will be credited and debited.

To learn more, you can refer to this article: Understand stock assets and cost of goods sold tracking
 

If you're tracking  inventory manually then, feel free to check out this article: Can I track inventory manually in QuickBooks Online?. This article includes a detailed steps on how you can set up two perspective accounts which will track your inventory value and your cost of goods sold.
 

When you purchase inventory using Checks, Expenses or Bills, we can use the asset account to track its value in the Account field and it will "transfers" the money into the asset account, increasing the value of your inventory.

Also, I'd recommend you refer to your accountant. They can share additional information and guidance, as they know what's best for your business.
 

In case you'll want to adjust stock quantity in the future, you can check out this article: Adjust stock quantity on hand in QuickBooks Online
 

You can always come back if you have any clarification on how to manage your inventory. I'll be around. Take care!