Comments on: Manufacturing WIP in QuickBooks

By: Charlie

Charlie — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:43:26 +0000

Tracy, that is hard to answer. You can work with multiple level BOM’s in QuickBooks by using an add-on product my company produces, CCRQBOM (http://www.ccrsoftware.com/CCRQBOM/CCRQBOM.htm), but that doesn’t have anything specific to WIP. There are a number of addon products that manage inventory for QuickBooks by taking the inventory out to a separate file and process, but I don’t work with any of them so I don’t have a specific recommendation. You can look at ACCTivate, Fishbowl Inventory, ERP Lite and others that you would find in the Intuit Marketplace (http://marketplace.intuit.com/ ).

By: Tracey

Tracey — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:36:45 +0000

Charlie,
What would you recommend as far as software that works with Quickbooks to track inventory and WIP? We assemble many sub-assemblies for the furnaces we build. I don’t think Quickbooks, by itself, is robust enough for our needs. What do you suggest?

By: Charlie

Charlie — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:05:25 +0000

Jose: I’m not clear as to what you are asking. When you say “sub items”, are you referring to subassemblies? Assembly items used as components? If so, QuickBooks lets you add assembly items as components, but it won’t automatically expand or build the sub assembly. You have to use an addon product like CCRQBOM (http://www.ccrsoftware.com/CCRQBOM/CCRQBOM.htm). If you mean something else, please clarify.

I’m also not clear what you mean by “send a complete sale order to assemblies”…

By: Jose

Jose — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:23:20 +0000

We are working with bill of material and we can’t make the system to affect inventory when we use sub items
and we also we can not send a complete sale order to assemblies and after print the invoice

By: Charlie

Charlie — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:26:51 +0000

And I’ll bet that when you invoiced, you were going to negative inventory balances for the sold item? I should have pointed you that direction – negative inventory balances create big problems with COGS, as QB can’t figure out how to do the average costing for the items. When you replenished the shortage with a build, it corrected things. The COGS valuation should be accurate after it makes the adjustment, it would be wrong while there is a negative balance on hand for anything.

By: Sandy Kovalcik

Sandy Kovalcik — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:55:27 +0000

Charlie, I actually figured this out. It turns out we had invoiced for certain assemblies before they were “built”. At the time of the invoicing there was a zero entry to reduce inventory and increase cost of goods. When we subsequently entered the build, QB went back and “completed” the sale transaction at the same time it created the build transaction; hence effecting the inventory account as well as the cost of good account. Interesting stuff. Sandy

By: Charlie

Charlie — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:39:41 +0000

Sandy, nothing comes to mind at this moment, but without looking at the file it is hard for me to envision what might be going on, sometimes. If this occurs on a regular basis, I would monitor COGS after every build to see if it happens, AND monitor COGS periodically even without builds. I’m thinking that it might not be the build itself, but some change that happens after the build? You need to pin down the circumstances.

Other things can change builds after they are built, but I wouldn’t expect this to be the manifestation. For example, if you issue a build, but then do an inventory transaction that changes component levels to go below what was needed, QB changes the build to “pending”. That isn’t the case here, but it is an example of how one thing can affect another.

Also, the old tried and true – do a “rebuild” of the file to make sure that there isn’t a fluke due to a bad index. Although I don’t expect that to be the issue.

By: Sandy Kovalcik

Sandy Kovalcik — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:22:14 +0000

Charlie, Thanks for the suggestion. I thought there are no registers for expense accounts in QuickBooks. In any case, I can see that the adjustements to Cost of Goods are a Build Assy transaction type, and that is what is so perplexing. I guess I can just adjust for these problem entries in CoG by Journal Entry against the inventory account where they rightfully belong and monitor the CoG account to see when it happens again and adjust as needed. There aren’t that many of them, but it bothers me that I just can’t figure out what’s going on. Intermittant problems are always the worst. Thanks anyway. Sandy

By: Charlie

Charlie — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:16:04 +0000

Sandy, I’ve not run into that myself. I’d have to see a copy of the file (and if it is an intermittant issue, I don’t know if I would see anything). If a build impacts COGS, you should be able to open the register for that COGS account and see the adjustment and what kind of transaction it was? And work back from there?

By: Sandy Kovalcik

Sandy Kovalcik — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:33:13 +0000

I frequently find your articles to be very helpful. I use Premier Mfg & Whsl 2008. When I do a build assembly, it typically reduces raw material & increases finished goods, as it should. But sometimes, when I do a build either all or part of the underlying entry impacts my Cost of Goods AC. This appears to be intermittent; a build for the same item will sometimes have a correct underlying entry & sometimes impact Cost of Goods. I can’t figure out why this is happening. I have looked at the component items in the BOM but can’t find anything irregular. Any suggestions? Thanks, Sandy