How do I record the sale, payment received, and the Cost of Goods Sold side for an item where the client is an import-export business and doesn't carry inventory?

Hey there JBrown1,

I love that you're looking for the best and most efficient ways to record your income and expenses using QuickBooks Online. Once you know the right transactions to enter, it's simply a matter of following the correct steps. I want to help you out with this.

Here in the Community, my team and I are trained to answer questions related to the technical side of QuickBooks such as how to record an invoice or expense, or how to add inventory or non-inventory items. When it comes to the complex accounting methods required for some businesses, we're not experts in that area. I'm happy to give you a few tips on how you may be able to record these transactions, but the best course of action in this case is to consult with an accountant. Keep reading to learn how to connect with a QuickBooks-certified accountant. 

In QuickBooks Online you have the options of entering an Inventory, Non-Inventory, or Service to your Products/Services list. Inventory items are the products that you track quantities for, Non-inventory items are those you don't need to track quantities for even though you buy and sell them, and Services are the services that you provide to your customers. In this case, it sounds like you may want to enter the items your business is buying and selling as Non-Inventory items: Add product and service items to QuickBooks Online.

When you set up the items you'll be required to select both an Income and Expense account. With advice from your accountant, you'll want to choose the appropriate account to track the money movement associated with these items. How your COGs account is debited or credited is another question that you may consult your accountant on. In terms of how to record the sales, you may consider entering a Billable Expense. You'll want to turn that feature on in your Account and Settings first, so here's how:

1. Navigate to the Gear.
2. Choose Account and Settings.
3. Select the Expenses tab from the left.
4. Use the Edit pencil to make changes to the Bills and expenses section.
5. Turn on the following features: Show Items table on expense and purchase forms, Track expenses and items by customer, Make expenses and items billable and enter any other additional details.
6. Hit Save when you're done.

To Enter billable expenses you can follow the steps in the linked article, being sure to check off the Billable Expense column and select the Customer that you'll be Invoicing for the expense.

When it comes to entering Deposits, there are also a couple of ways to do this. One is to turn on the Deposits field in Sales > Sales form content section of your Account and Settings.This adds a Deposit field to the Invoice so that you can enter the amount the customer has paid down and subtract it from the total you're invoicing them for. There's also another way to do this, and the steps are all clearly outlined in this article: Record a retainer or deposit.

If you're already working with an accountant, all you'll need to do is navigate to the My Accountant tab in QBO to invite them to work on your books with you. If you don't have one but are looking to consult with one, the Find a pro to help button or the Find an Accountant page of our website will get you where you need to be. We have a database of QuickBooks-certfiied ProAdvisors that are ready and willing to give you a hand with specific accounting scenarios such as this. 

I know you'll get to the bottom of this soon, and hopefully some other Community contributors will chime in with some advice and expertise to assist you. Take care!