QuickBooks Inventory Management: What are the Issues?

Every business owner knows that inventory is an essential part of the business that they must track, including how much stock is available, how much has sold, the most salable item, and how many orders need to be fulfilled. If you are manually keeping records of this, it would be more difficult for you.

For manufacturers, you must contend with the difficulties of running a business, scheduling production, inventory management (including raw material management), and accounting.

The accounting side of things can be intimidating, as there are serious consequences for filing your taxes incorrectly. This is why many manufacturers use an integrated accounting and inventory management solution to help run their business.

Unfortunately, it’s not that straight forward. QuickBooks is a great entry-level software for accounting, and it has won many awards to back this up. However, manufacturers and distributors do not use QuickBooks inventory management, and we’ll explain why.

Is QuickBooks Enterprise Good for Wholesale Distribution and Manufacturing Companies?

While it may be an excellent fit for some, here are five problems you may face when managing inventory in QuickBooks.

1. QuickBooks Inventory Management Isn’t Designed for Manufacturers or Wholesale Distributors

Yes, managing simple inventory in QuickBooks Enterprise is possible, but it does not support businesses that handle job production. If you’re using QuickBooks, you’re going to end up organizing your jobs either in spreadsheets or with another tool.

The reason why QuickBooks Enterprise does not meet all your inventory needs is that that’s not what it was built for. QuickBooks is primarily an accounting software.

QuickBooks offers a full scope of features to meet your accounting needs, including features such as bookkeeping, payroll, and time-tracking. However,  QuickBooks provides limited inventory management functionality, and this may fail to meet your expectations.

2. You Will Need to Integrate with Other Software

With QuickBooks, you will need to fill in the gaps. For example, QuickBooks offers limited sales order management, particularly the ability to track unshipped orders.

Also, you will require additional software to make up for industry-specific features. For example, there is no feature for you to establish and save a master production schedule within QuickBooks. This means you have to figure out your production planning in another program.  Other missing features in QuickBooks include bill of materials, serial and lot number tracking. Again, you will need to find another solution for them.

3. You Cannot Convert Raw Materials into Finished Goods

In QuickBooks, you can track sub-assemblies or group items together to make a final product. However, you’ll need to sell the grouped item as the final product. (the grouped items will show up on the customer’s receipt).

4. Human Error Occurrences

One of the main benefits of using an integrated accounting and inventory management software is that it often reduces the potential for errors. With fewer errors, your organization can save time, money, and resources.

If you use other software or spreadsheets in addition to QuickBooks, your chances for human error greatly increases. This is because someone will be manually entering or transferring data from one program to another.

5. Limited Reporting

A significant issue in QuickBooks is that it offers limited reporting, especially when you want inventory data. The lack of inventory reports makes it difficult to get a clear picture of your business’s health and limits your ability to forecast new sales.

QuickBooks is great for helping small business owners manage their accounting and is a cost-effective option if you’re just starting your business. However, QuickBooks inventory management has a clear feature gap for wholesale distributors and manufacturers.

To meet your business and industry-specific needs, contact us today to try Spire for free.