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February 4, 2024
Question

Inventory for Antique Store

  • February 4, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 0 views

Hello,

 

I have just set up quickbooks online and I have a question about tracking inventory costs and sales. Because it's an antique business I almost never have more than one of the same item. So I don't really want to have to assign each an item number. So, my question is, how do I track costs of inventory and sales of inventory properly? Thank you!

2 replies

February 4, 2024

It's nice to see you here in the Community, GlassOnion3. Let me help you track your products on your business.

 

To track your item's cost and item sale you will have to create an account for each. Make sure to put your Inventory items in your Cost of Goods Sold Account to easily track them. 

 

First, to track your item's cost, make sure that your items have the correct prices edited in Sales price/rate and Cost:

  1. Go to Sales.
  2. Select the Product and Services tab.
  3. Edit the prices in Sales price/rate and Cost on each item individually. 
  4. Select Save and close, once done.

 

And then we can go ahead and run an Inventory Valuation Detail report. This tracks the quantity on hand, value, and average cost for each Inventory item.

 

After this, to track the sales of your items, create an Income Account. The next step is running an Inventory Valuation Summary. This shows your transactions for each Inventory item, and how they affect quantity on hand, value, and cost.

 

To have QuickBooks automatically process your customer payments in the future and categorize them into the correct accounts, you can visit this article for reference: Record invoice payments in QuickBooks Online.

 

I'd like to know how it goes. I'll be on the lookout for your replies and for more inventory and QuickBooks-related concerns. Stay safe!

 

Rainflurry
February 4, 2024

@GlassOnion3 

 

Contrary to what @FaithA posted, you don't need to set up each item in QB.  You can just track your total inventory value without having to go through the time-consuming process of setting up every item. 

 

This is known as the periodic method of inventory and could be an entire class and, to be honest, is more in-depth than is appropriate for this forum.  The upside to this method is the ease of not having to set up each item.  The downside to this method is that you will not know the exact value of your inventory (and therefore your cost of goods sold), until you take a physical inventory of the store.  You will need to be able to identify the cost of each item on the floor so I assume you have a way of tagging each item with its cost.  When you buy items for resale, record the purchase in QB with a check/expense/bill and assign the purchase to an Other Current Asset account called 'Purchases' (set one up in your chart of accounts).  Then, whenever you take a physical inventory (or make an estimate at month-end), create a journal entry and close out the Purchases OCS to Inventory and COGS based on your estimate or the physical inventory taken.  The journal entry to close out Purchases to Inventory/COGS is debit Inventory/COGS and credit Purchases.  I would strongly suggest researching 'periodic method of inventory' to get a feel for it.  If nothing else, you can assign all the items purchased for resale to the Purchases OCA account and then let your CPA/tax accountant make the adjusting entries at tax time or however frequently you decide.