Inventory posting purchases to cost of sales not inventory account. yet audit jnl says posted to inventory

if i press "transaction jnl" button it shows that the jnl was entering the item into inventory but if i run a bal sheet and p&l it is showing nothing in bal sheet but purchase from supplier in cogs - does anyone know why its doing this?  QB help desk is also stumped and ran a dummy entry and it did exactly this in my system.  is there something in the back end thats not turned on or is it something to do with FIFO not working properly.  Note the items havent been subsequently sold.  thanx