This topic has already been covered in Accounts Payable and Item Receipts. Here, that information is pulled out and clarified a bit.
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Choose a supplier from whom you have received the material.
>NEW TRANSACTIONS >RECEIVE ITEMS. QuickBooks will open a screen that looks a lot like the screen for regular payables, except now you are in the ITEMS tab. In 2013, they’ve also added a huge bold-faced ITEM RECEIPT note at the top of the page, so you know exactly what you’re doing.
The cursor will be over the vendor name you chose. The second you tab to the next field, it will bring up a pop-up: Open POs exist for this vendor. Do you want to receive against one or more of these orders?
When you hit YES, it will show you all OPEN purchase orders. Note that if you have not closed purchase orders with e.g. 1/10 case left, those will show up on this list. That’s additional incentive to keep them clean.
Choose one of the open purchase orders. Single-click (QuickBooks adds a check mark), then OK. QuickBooks auto-fills everything from that open purchase order, and auto-fills the memo line with “Received items (bill to follow)”.
The auto-fill will assume that you’ve received everything on the purchase order. If you received more, or less, correct quantity. If price changed, edit the cost field (it will bring up the pop-up asking you if you want to update the item record and change sales price).
Here is where you enter SITE (which warehouse location). Site is a drop-down list for uniformity. If it’s going to a new warehouse, you can add that information by typing in the field. You’ll then get a pop-up that asks you to define the site. I recommend using the SET UP button and entering address, phone number, etc., so you have the information readily available next time.
Next is what they added just to make warehouse people happy! LOCATION: This is your definition of where within the warehouse the item is located. For non-company warehouses where you do not handle warehouse transactions, make site = VIRTUAL with location = N/A.
Next is the customer:job field. I like to leave this blank and let A/R handle the inventory transaction. This is a company decision.
Lot number: This is where you enter that information! Important note: If you ordered a truckload of e.g. backpacks, and the bill of lading or other documentation shows that there are three or four lot numbers within the single shipment or item receipt, you should enter all lot numbers individually. Remember to follow whatever process your company agreed to, for consistency’s sake.
If you will be invoicing as a whole and don’t want four separate lot numbers to appear on your customer’s invoice, you should then put all lot numbers into that line. Or add a note attached to that PO so you know and will remember.
Recommendation: Do it the hard way; enter all lot numbers. If the supplier recalls a specific lot number at a later date, or if your customer has trouble with a particular item, you need to be able to isolate the problem child. You cannot do that if you ignore the separate lot numbers. It’s a management decision, but one that should be discussed prior to setting up inventory in QuickBooks.
Note that if you receive multiple lot numbers, or if you put the received items in multiple locations within the warehouse, you can easily handle this by hitting the SPLIT LINE button at the bottom of the screen. (That’s new in QuickBooks 2013.) Keep hitting it until you have the number of lines you will need. It copies down everything except quantity and lot number. You can edit any line (and you will need to do so for quantity) until it’s correct.
If you enter quantities incorrectly and need to adjust, you can hit the CLEAR QUANTITIES button at the bottom of the screen, and it resets quantities only.
If you cannot remember something specific about the purchase order for which you’re entering items, you can hit the gray SHOW PO button at the bottom of the screen. It will pull up the purchase order you are receiving against. Navigate back to the item receipt through OPEN WINDOWS on the left-hand side of the screen (if you’ve gone with OPTION ONE).
If you received items from two or more purchase orders – you issued separate purchase orders, but the supplier combined shipments – you can add the second purchase order to this item receipt by clicking SELECT PO at the top of the screen. It will bring up additional open purchase orders.
If the supplier invoiced you fax costs, or fees for a rush delivery, that you are NOT including in inventory cost, after you’ve finished receiving your inventory items, you can click the EXPENSES tab. Enter e.g. Cost of Goods Sold:Warehouse and shipping, the amount, and description and whatever else as you would for a regular payable.
Then the amount of items PLUS expenses equals the TOTAL at the top of the item receipt.
Regarding Reference Number for Item Receipts: I recommend you use the bill of lading number, or something else that is trackable. Do not use the invoice number, even if you have it, for item receipt.
For the warehouse team: One big improvement in QuickBooks 2013 – you may now print the item receipt! It calls it the STOCK LIST. It shows vendor name, date, item receipt reference number, memo field (“Received items, bill to follow”), and everything received on this Item Receipt, including warehouse and location within warehouse.
DEHeap Enterprises, Inc. 