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MikeyB
August 27, 2021
Solved

Allocating Inventory to a Job

  • August 27, 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 0 views

Hello - what is the correct process to follow when allocating inventory items to a particular job (for job costing purposes).... but you do not want those items to appear on the invoice... but still want your inventory levels to reflect the correct quantities?

 

We are a construction company, and our customers accept quotes for the total project costs.

We invoice the customer the quoted price (ie: $10,000 for a project/renovation), and then use materials out of our inventory to complete the work.   How do I post entries within QB Desktop to reflect the materials used for a particular job (DR: cost of goods sold,  CR: Inventory), but not have the program create the sales side of the transaction?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

Best answer by katherinejoyceO

Hi there, @MikeyB. 

 

Thanks for sharing what you need to achieve today. At the moment, the ability to transfer Inventory to a Job is unavailable in QuickBooks. However, you can search for a third application that can integrate with QuickBooks. 

 

To look for an app using Dekstop, click on this link: QuickBooks third-party apps.

 

For future reference, read through this article and learn more about reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

 

Let me know if you have more questions. I'll be right up to help you more. 

 

 

4 replies

katherinejoyceO
katherinejoyceOAnswer
August 27, 2021

Hi there, @MikeyB. 

 

Thanks for sharing what you need to achieve today. At the moment, the ability to transfer Inventory to a Job is unavailable in QuickBooks. However, you can search for a third application that can integrate with QuickBooks. 

 

To look for an app using Dekstop, click on this link: QuickBooks third-party apps.

 

For future reference, read through this article and learn more about reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

 

Let me know if you have more questions. I'll be right up to help you more. 

 

 

M
MikeyBAuthor
August 27, 2021

Thanks so much for the reply.   That does solve the mystery.... the functionality to transfer inventory items to a particular job does not exist currently in QB.

 

Hopefully it will be a function added in future editions! :-)

    R
    Rea_M
    August 27, 2021

    I can see the benefit of being able to transfer inventory items to a particular job will aid you in running your construction company with QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT), @MikeyB. That's why I'm here to share further details about this.

     

    We take your suggestions for transferring inventory items to a job as an opportunity on which area of the product's feature we need to improve on. With this, I encourage you to send feedback or product recommendation.

     

    Your valuable feedback will be forwarded and reviewed by our Product Development team to help improve your experience while using the program. Here's how:

    1. Go to the Help menu.
    2. Choose  Send Feedback Online.
    3. Click on Product Suggestion.
    4. Click on the drop-down for Type of Feedback and select Product Suggestion.
    5. Select the Product Area.
    6. Then enter your thoughts and suggestions.
    7. Once done, select Send Feedback.

     

    I've attached screenshots below for your reference.

     

    Also, I'm adding this article to further guide you in managing your business growth and inventory transactions in QBDT: QuickBooks Help Articles for Inventory Management. It also includes related articles about bills, payments, and inventory values, to name a few.

     

    I'm all ears if you have other inventory concerns and tracking job costs in QBDT. You can drop your comment below, and I'll gladly help. Take care always, @MikeyB. 

    M
    Mackeyloo
    May 1, 2022

    We are a construction company too.  I have set up the inventory item to hit WIP for both Cost and Sales.  I have also set up an Inventory Transfer item code that also post to WIP.  In the invoice I charge the customer for the inventory and then enter in the inventory transfer item code as a credit to create a zero invoice.  The net result is a reduction to inventory and an increase to WIP for the customer.  Perfect!

    S
    SEK07122022
    July 12, 2022

    This does work great for increasing the WIP account and reducing inventory, but when I look at the JOB COST DETAIL report by this customer it is showing a debit and credit and the net job cost as zero.  Is there something that I am missing or a work around that will allow me to see the cost increase to this customer job? 

    G
    Giovann_G
    July 12, 2022

    Thanks for joining the thread, SEK07122022.

     

    I understand how critical it is for you to see the cost increase for each customer job. Currently, it isn't possible to see the increase in cost per customer's job.

     

    You may manually enter the data after exporting the Job Cost Detail report to Excel as a workaround. To do this, click the Excel dropdown and select Create New Worksheet.

     

    I'm also adding this article to learn more about running and customizing reports in QuickBooks Desktop: Understand reports.

     

    You can memorize your report if you wish to save your current customization. Check out this resource for a complete guide: Memorize report.

     

    You're welcome to post again if you have further questions about tracking job costs. We're here to help you.

    J
    JB349
    March 7, 2023

    I am trying to solve this problem too.... came up with this...
    To allocate inventory to lump sum per quote jobs.
    I invoiced the job as usual "Total Per Quote $40,000.00" and presented it to the customer for payment.
    I then created another invoice listing the inventory parts and quantities totaling $8,000.00
    I created a discount item called "inventory discount" that is "non tax" linked to my sales account.
    I enter $8000.00 to remove the increased sales created by the inventory asset moving to the COGS Material account and there by increasing my sales account on this invoice.
    I have another discount item called "inventory sales tax discount" that is also marked "non tax" linked to my sales account.
    I enter the amount of sales tax $800.00. This now makes my invoice zero 0.
    The way to think about it is that technically the customer already paid this invoice in the lump sum per quote amount. The customer will never see this invoice. You moved your inventory from assets to expense and hit the profitability report for that job. AND the sales tax is waiting for you to pay in your Sales tax liability account.

    This is how we are going to do it.... if you see any flaws please let me know.... all my testing seemed to affect every account the right way.

     

    E
    ExcelGuy88
    April 19, 2023

    Would you mind giving further instructions on how you completed this? I have tried and can't figure out how to have the value show in projects while also being deducted from inventory qty and assets.

    V
    Vasuno1
    September 3, 2024

    Hello. I have achieved this before by creating Sales Receipts with the Job selected and the line items listed. However, be sure to place $0 as the price on the Sales Receipts. This will in effect attribute the whole cost of the item towards COGS and it will show up in your job profitability report. The next limitation I have reached with this is the fact that I cannot fine tune user-permissions to give my inventory staff access to the Sales module without access to sensitive customer and job information. But if you do not have any need for this separation of access, the Sales Receipt is the way to go. I saw someone suggesting a Sales Order in this thread too which is kind of the same concept.

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