Inventory tracking

When you sell from negative inventory, you create problems in QB. When there is negative inventory, it doesn't know what cost to assign to COGS, so it 'guesses'. This creates a big mess in QB. Just entering the invoice for the purchase of the inventory later doesn't fix everything. You can try entering the invoices as of their proper date, but I suspect you'll still have problems with inventory/COGS. When this happened with one of my clients, we decided that it wouldn't be cheaper and less time consuming to start over with a new file. Good luck!

Michelle L. Long, CPA, MBA Author of: Successful QuickBooks Consulting: The Complete Guide to Starting and Growing a QuickBooks Consulting Business

When you sell from negative inventory, you create problems in QB. When there is negative inventory, it doesn't know what cost to assign to COGS, so it 'guesses'. This creates a big mess in QB. Just entering the invoice for the purchase of the inventory later doesn't fix everything. You can try entering the invoices as of their proper date, but I suspect you'll still have problems with inventory/COGS. When this happened with one of my clients, we decided that it wouldn't be cheaper and less time consuming to start over with a new file. Good luck!

Michelle L. Long, CPA, MBA Author of: Successful QuickBooks Consulting: The Complete Guide to Starting and Growing a QuickBooks Consulting Business

Thank you. That explains why we have the mess we do. Looks like we will need to enforce data entries in sequence as they happen once we clear up the current situation. Thanks again.

Al Levesque

When you sell from negative inventory, you create problems in QB. When there is negative inventory, it doesn't know what cost to assign to COGS, so it 'guesses'.

The program uses the default cost entered on the item setup screen when an item with zero or negative count is sold.

When the user later records receipt of said item the prior historical cost of goods sold is replaced with the actual cost entered by the subsequent receipt. If receipts are entered in the correct date sequence the program should end up with the correct inventory quantity, valuation and historical cost of goods sold.

This creates a big mess in QB. Just entering the invoice for the purchase of the inventory later doesn't fix everything. You can try entering the invoices as of their proper date, but I suspect you'll still have problems with inventory/COGS. When this happened with one of my clients, we decided that it wouldn't be cheaper and less time consuming to start over with a new file. Good luck!

Michelle L. Long, CPA, MBA Author of: Successful QuickBooks Consulting: The Complete Guide to Starting and Growing a QuickBooks Consulting Business

You obviously cannot sell negative inventory. You will need to do one of two things:

1. Take a physical inventory of items marked in QB as negative quantities; or
2. If you are selling special order items, enter them as a special order items in QB with an associated cost. You should be able to override the cost for each item sold.
3. Also, check your receivers to make sure inventory and costs are being entered under the correct item descriptions.

Yes I agree here, do a physical and "reset" your inventory via adjusments. Then get your operations in order and start receiving your inventory on the right dates.