Blog

Still struggling to adjust your inventory in Quickbooks? The software automatically makes adjustments based on sales, so when a product is sold, it reduces the inventory of the respective product by one. However, there are times when you may need to adjust the inventory manually. For a step-by-step walkthrough on how to adjust inventory, keep reading.

Before we begin, it’s important to note that decreasing the inventory of an assembly item may cause the final assembly built to switch to “pending” status. Intuit recommends running a pending built report both before and after making inventory adjustments to ensure your account remains functional.

To adjust inventory, click Vendors > Inventory Activity > Adjust Quantity/Value on Hand. Next, select Adjustment Account from the drop-down box and select Total Value or Quantity and Total Value (depending on what you need to adjust). Click the Adjustment Account drop-down box again and select the account you wish to adjust. Proceed with the changes and click “Save” to finalize the adjustments and finish the process. Sorry if you were expecting more, but that’s all it takes to adjust inventory in Quickbooks!

If you find yourself making frequent manual changes to your inventory, you may want to create a separate account specifically for tracking adjustments. You can create a dedicated account for all adjustments, or you can create a new account for all gains and another account for expenses and losses. It’s entirely up to you, but many accountants prefer the latter (create two accounts — one for losses and another for gains). In doing so, you’ll have an easier time keeping tabs of adjustments made to your inventory.

It’s also important to note that multiple accounts are needed when making adjustments to two or more inventory items which are assigned in different accounts. Failing to create multiple accounts will prevent you from accomplishing this task. Intuit has a helpful guide published here that offers more information on how to create multiple inventory accounts.

Hopefully, this will give you a better understanding on how to make inventory adjustments in Quicbooks. It’s a relatively simple process that should only take a couple of minutes. And once you’ve learned the basics, you should have little-to-no problem making future adjustments.

Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!