Apparel (Matrix) Inventory
QuickBooks is a flexible accounting product but it has limitations when it comes to anything related to Inventory. One of the areas CCRSoftware is interested in is the Apparel industry, where your basic inventory item may come in a variety of sizes, colors and styles. We call this a matrix inventory. This can apply to other industries as well, wherever you have a product line with many variations in options or styles.
In QuickBooks this can be difficult to manage. Do you try to set up an item for every variation/combination? Wouldn’t you like to have one line in an invoice with a matrix of sizes all in that line? Do you use sub-items to specify the variations? There are many approaches, and none of them work well.
The QuickBooks POS system has a “matrix” setup that lets you create variations of items fairly simply, but this doesn’t carry through to QuickBooks Pro, Premier or Enterprise.
What I would like to do is to start a discussion here of what features you would like to see in QuickBooks as it relates to this kind of inventory situation. Over time, if there is interest, I’ll discuss some ideas as to how we think we can add features to QuickBooks that will support these kinds of industries.
So, let us know – are you interested? What kinds of features do you need that relate to the topic? Please post a comment here if you would like to participate in the discussion.
Category: General Tips, Inventory
About the Author (Author Profile)
Charlie Russell is the founder of CCRSoftware. He’s been involved with the small business software industry since the mid 70′s, focusing on inventory and accounting software for small businesses. Charlie is a Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Look for Charlie’s articles in the QuickBooks and Beyond blog, as well as his California Wildflower Hikes blog.
Connect with Charlie at Google
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I cant wait for QB matrix any longer. Who has an apparel program that works and what is it? Thank you.
Hello, looking to purchase quick books 2012 premier. Do you know if this version has matrix inventory or is there an addon module that works with it. Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you. Harold
Harold, QuickBooks 2012 doesn’t have a “matrix” inventory feature. At this time I’m not sure if there are any addon products that do, but I haven’t pursued this.