How do companies handle samples in QB? I'd like them to be be deducted from inventory, but I don't think invoicing is correct, as I'd like to also track them via a report

Hello RTBrew,

I can see how this sort of situation with samples would be tricky to account for in your books, and I also know how important it is to make sure it's accurate. I'm here to help you get on track with this in QuickBooks Online, and can point you in the direction of a resource that can help.

Here in the QuickBooks Community, we have an article that covers how to handle samples. It's titled Write off inventory items given as promotional samples. With this article, you'll see QuickBooks Online's recommendation for setting up accounts, creating transactions, and working with this data to ensure that your books continue to balance as they should. There are several steps to follow, but with this step-by-step guidance, you should be good to go.

Part of this process recommends creating an account specifically for your sample products, which may be useful later when you want to run reports to keep tabs on these kinds of transactions. Something like the Transactions by Account report may be useful here, but feel free to explore other reports to see what works best for you. For your reference, here's an article about available reports via the Reports tab: What are the differences in report features among QuickBooks Online subscriptions?

As the first article suggests, I also recommend working with an accountant to see if this is the best solution for your business. An accountant can be added as a user to your account via the My Accountant tab, but if you don't have an accountant, you can also use that tab to take advantage of the Find a pro to help button which leads to our directory of QuickBooks-certified professionals near you.

I hope this has been helpful for you. Don't hesitate if you have any further questions.