QuickBooks 2012 Inventory, Corrections and Updates
There was a very large number of new and changed features in QuickBooks 2012, and that makes it tough to do a truly detailed analysis of all of the features. I missed a few things in my early reviews of the new inventory features in QuickBooks Enterprise, so here are some corrections and updated information. My thanks to Catherine Fisse, a Senior Product Manager at Intuit, for patiently walking me through these corrections without beating me on the head too much. I’m very grateful to Catherine for her candid discussion of the new inventory features in QuickBooks Enterprise.
All of the changes that I’m listing here apply only to QuickBooks Enterprise.
I should note that there is a reasonable chance that many of the problems that I outlined in earlier articles, as well as those I point out in THIS article, will be fixed in subsequent releases. I’ll try to mention these fixes as the later releases come out. I’m not allowed to talk about a release until it is actually publicly available.
Lot Number Tracking
Inventory Center: I missed something in the R1 release of the Inventory Center when Lot Tracking is enabled– Recall Information. This provides you with links to information that you might want to access if you have a “recall” situation, where a lot of a component has been recalled and you need to see how this affects your inventory information.
Quantity on Hand by Lot Number: In my article on the Lot Tracking feature I mentioned that you could not get the quantity on hand by lot number from an inventory report. The Lot Numbers in Stock report doesn’t have that information. Well, I was only partly right. The quantity by lot is not on THAT report, but there IS a Quantity on Hand by Lot Number “Quick View” in the Recall Information section of the Inventory Center. This isn’t a report, it is a “view”, and I wish that we could get it as a report. But, at least it is there!
Lot Tracking Preferences by Item: This is a big one that I missed . I complained about all of the warnings you get if you have Lot Tracking enabled BUT you are working with an item where you do NOT need to track lots. If you have a part that isn’t being tracked then all transactions give you warnings if you don’t enter a lot. Very annoying. What I missed was the Lot Numbers button in the Edit Item window. If you click this, you can disable the lot number warnings for an individual item. Or, perhaps, enable it. If you have a small number of items that are tracked by lots, set your global Preferences to NOT warn, then turn on the warning for those individual items. This is GREAT! Well, almost great. The button is there, the intent is there, but there is a bug. You still get warnings even if you turn an individual item to “Don’t warn me”. Still, that should be fixed soon. Easier to fix the bug in the feature that exists than it is to add a completely new feature in the next release.
Lot Numbers in Stock Report: The next thing I want to point out was actually mentioned as a problem in my Serial Number article, but the same issue exists in the Lot Numbers in Stock report. If you have large number of lots for an item, they aren’t all listed on this report. You get SOME of the lot numbers, but the line won’t wrap to show you all. You can widen the column, but if you have a lot of lots you are out of luck. However, I missed one feature – if you double-click on the lot number column, a Quick View window opens that will list all of the lot numbers. I still would like to get this info on a report, along with the quantity in each lot. At least we DO have the ability to see the lots.
Tracking Lots through Multiple Level Assemblies: I was a bit off base on another criticism that I had – relating to multiple level assemblies. You CAN track a lot number of a low level component through multiple levels of builds, as long as you use lot numbers at every level. I didn’t do that in my first tests.
Let’s take a look at a very simple example. I have a component “Lowest” that is used in an assembly “middle”. Then, in turn, “middle” is used as a component in the assembly “High”. Here is a view of the product structure (using CCRQBOM, an add-on product that works with QuickBooks).
I have some “Lowest” items in a lot “LOT1”. I’ll issue a build assembly transaction for “middle”, using LOT1, creating a lot for “middle” named “MIDDLE2”.
Then I’ll build an assembly “High”, using the part from lot “MIDDLE2”, and creating a lot “HIGH2”.
Now, if I run a Transaction List by Lot Number for part “Lowest” and lot “LOT1”, I can see all of the transactions and lots that would incorporate that part from that lot. This is important, as I can see all the high level builds that have incorporated that part from that lot. Unfortunately, I still have a problem with the report itself. It doesn’t list which part I’m looking at (“Lowest”) anywhere, and it doesn’t tell you with assemblies are involved in each transaction, You CAN double click on each transaction to see the assembly that is affected, but that can be a lot of work.
Search: In my article on Lot Tracking I mentioned that the Search feature didn’t do a great job of finding information by lot number. According to Catherine Fisse, the Recall Information section is a better way to search for information about a particular lot, rather than relying on Search.
Serial Number Tracking
Serial Numbers in Stock Report: In the Serial Number article I mentioned that the Serial Numbers in Stock report won’t show you the entire list of serial numbers that are available. As I mention above for Lot Tracking, you can double click on the serial number column to open a Quick View that will list all of the serial numbers for that item.
Automatic Cost and Price Updates
I overlooked something here. In my article on Automatic Cost and Price Updates I said that this was only available for Inventory Part and Inventory Assembly items. Well, I fell into a trap on that one that I shouldn’t have. This feature is also available for service items, non-inventory parts and other charge items. All you have to do is make this a “two sided item” by checking the This item is used in assemblies… button. Once you do that, the Edit Markup button appears.
One little problem remains, although this button shows up for Other Charges, it doesn’t work. If you buy one of these items and the individual markup settings are set to ask you for the update, the new Item’s Cost Changed window does NOT open. Instead you get the older style window that we had before, without all the options. I’m sure that will get fixed.
Enhanced Inventory Receiving
One of the issues that I pointed out (in this article), not as a problem necessarily but as something you have to be aware of, is that with Enhanced Inventory Receiving many more transactions will be created than without this feature. I may have overstated the point – you get twice as many transactions (a bill and a receipt, instead of just a bill) and a few journal entries.
New Problems Found in 2012 R1
In my early testing I only had one Advanced Inventory feature turned on at a time. You can, however, combine things like Multiple Inventory Sites and Lot Tracking. This does make testing much more complicated.
I found, for example, that if you have Multiple Inventory Sites and Lot Tracking enabled, there are new reports available to you. For example, a Lot Numbers in Stock by Site report. That is useful, because when you are selling items you not only have to specify the site to use, you have to specify the lot number that is stored at that site. I haven’t dug into THAT aspect of things very much (it seems to work fine so far), but unfortunately I have not been able to get that Lot Numbers in Stock by Site report to run yet. It just doesn’t run, at least in my test installation.
Category: Manufacturing and Inventory, QuickBooks Tips/Tricks, Software Updates
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, and remembers releasing his first commercial accounting software product when you had a one-floppy disk drive system, loading the program from one floppy and then replacing that with the other floppy to hold the data. He has a special interest in inventory and manufacturing software for small businesses. Charlie is a Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor with additional certifications for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Enterprise. He also is a Xero Certified Partner. Visit his CCRSoftware web site for information about his QuickBooks add-on products. Charlie can be reached at charlie.russell@sleeter.com He is also the author of the California Wildflower Hikes blog and a regular blog contributor to the Intuit Inner Circle. Connect with Charlie at GoogleSubscribe
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Charlie;
I have requested several times that Quickbooks provide an alternate remittance address. Many of our suppliers use a separate address to receive payment rather than their regular address. It doesn’t need to be an indexed group of fields, but I am afraid that once again this has not been provided. Am I correct?
Ron, they added a second address (last year I think) for a shipping address, but that can’t be a billing address.
Charlie,
Great update here. This really helps accountants and their clients to understand the “rest of the story” on these new QuickBooks features.
We’re all in this together and I thank you for all the time and detail you put into these articles.
I know the people at Intuit appreciate the detail you report here, even if it sometimes comes off as critical. They know you are just there to help the world understand how things work and how you want things to work differently in some cases.
Maybe one of the Intuit people will chime in and let you know they appreciate what you do.
Doug Sleeter
I have been testing the Lot Number feature on Intuit’s test-drive website, located here.
http://enterprisesuite.intuit.com/contact/test-drive/enterprise-solutions/thankyou/
The lack of reports is a real disappointment. I can’t think of a reason why Intuit would spend time creating those single Item view screens, in place of the usual reports.
I would have also liked to have seen the Lot Number on more screens, such as the Current Availability screen.
The Physical Inventory Worksheet seems to have a bug.
There is the option to pick Multiple Inventory Sites.
However, when one or more is selected, an error is displayed saying Multiple Invty Sites is not allowed with this report.
I do not think we will fully implement QB’s Lot Number tracking system, as the reporting capabilities look to be too limited, but I really like the ability to assign/flag/segregate certain inventory items by using the Lot Number field to enter notes/comments. This extra flexibility is very useful.
Cliff, there are a couple of reports, as I show at http://www.sleeter.com/blog/2011/07/quickbooks-email-options/
As far as the Physical Inventory Worksheet, the copy of the program that I have works fine for me. I can select all inventory sites, or a specific one, from the dropdown option in the report. There are many options to set up here, perhaps you have a different combination of preferences than I do.
Lot Numbers in Stock by Site doesn’t work for me, either, so it’s not just you, Charlie!
It is nice to know about the Quick View info under the Recall Information heading; thank you for that.
One other thing I’d like to see added is an expiration date feature for lot numbers. Many of the folks using lot numbers are also going to want to use expiration dates in conjunction with them.
One other thing about using Multiple Sites in conjunction with Lot Numbers – On transactions, you cannot enter/choose the lot number until after entering the Site. Makes sense, but I was scratching my head for a bit, until I figured that out!
Thanks, Lyn.
I’m just starting to look at how things work when you have multiple Advanced Inventory features enabled. It can be quite complicated, sometimes!
–
Today I installed Enterprise 2012 with Advanced Inventory and seemed to have found a significant bug.
QB will not save the lot number in the Enter Bill screen, for the second receipt. The first receipt is OK, and the Lot Number will save. But when I start a new/second receipt and receive the same item against another PO, the Lot number will disappear after clicking the save button. QB will not save the lot number for the second Enter Bill receipt.
Unless I am doing something wrong, this seems to be a major bug.
Regarding the Physical Inventory Worksheet “bug” I previously mentioned, the bug still exists in my desktop version.
Attached are two screen shots. When I try to select Multiple Inventory Sites, I get an error, as shown in the second picture. While this is not a big deal, and Intuit may have designed it this way, they should then hide the “Multiple Inventory Site” option in the drop down list.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/589/bugdh.jpg
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/4267/bug2du.jpg
The more I explore the Lot Number feature/reports, the more I really dislike the lack of reports and available information.
Example – The “Transaction List by Lot Number” view/window. Why do I have to first select an Item Number? By being in the Inventory Center, I have already selected the Item. Instead of having to select the Item Number in the “Filter Report by Lot #”, I should be able to enter the Lot Number, and/or Item Number. Intuit got this screen totally back wards/wrong.
I also want a report that looks like this, with quantities per lot number, per Site location.
Item Number 123XYZ – Site XYX
Lot# AVDD Qty 30
Lot# DDDD Qty 20
Lot# BBBB Qty 25
Total Item Qty 75
Cliff, I’ll take a look. But, keep in mind, this is the R1 release. We know that there are going to be bugs, the question will be if they get fixed fast. This is an example of why I’m still recommending that people wait awhile to implement 2012.
Thanks!
Since my last post, I did some testing of the lot number not saving during an Item Receipt. When I enter a receipt quantity greater than 999, the lot number will not be saved.
If I receive a quantity of 1000 or greater, the lot number will not be saved. The only way to get the lot number to save is to change the quantity to a number less than 1000, say 1, save. Then go back and change it back to a 1000. The lot will then save.
What I said in my previous post, about the second receipt not saving, was because my first receipt was qty 280 (which saved OK), and second receipt was 1040 (which did not save).
You pinned that one down well, Cliff. I can duplicate this. I’ve passed this on to them, but I can’t say what release this will be fixed in.
Regarding the “transaction list by lot number” – Note that you can have the same lot number for different parts. So, they ask which part you want to work with, then which lot. The report should show all transactions that affect that part/lot, even if it was used in a build. I’ll agree that sometimes you shouldn’t have to enter the item if you have already selected the item from a list, but that is relatively minor.
Regarding the Physical Inventory Worksheet error – I didn’t understand what you were saying before – I missed that you were picking the “multiple inventory sites” option from the dropdown. Yes, that doesn’t work. I’m not sure when or if they’ll change that.
Hello Cliff:
I’m having the same problem with the “Transaction List by Lot number”, I want a report that show me all the items in stock by Lot number and per site location, without having to select the item number.
Exactly like the one you mentioned, I wonder if you got any solution, I really need that report.
Thanks!!
Intuit hasn’t changed that at this time (don’t know if they will). Take a look at some of the add-on report products to see if they can deal with this. I haven’t seen which of them are updated to handle this feature yet. Check Xpanded Reports, and QQube (www.clearify.com). I know that QQube will have the ability to do that, but I’m not sure if that is in the currently released version OR if it is the next release which is coming soon.
Not sure where the best place to post this.
There is another significant bug in the Inventory Item module.
When changing Unit Costs (and I also think Selling Prices) for more than one Item, the previous Item’s unit cost, that had been changed and saved, will change to the last Unit Cost entered for another Item.
This thread has a more thorough explanation.
http://community.intuit.com/posts/item-costs-and-sell-fields-changing-to-previously-edited-or-added-item
This is a rather significant bug, especially since it is easy to go unnoticed.
Thanks, Cliff, I’ll take a look.
Again, as I’ve said on several occasions, I don’t believe that R1 is ready for production use.
Cliff, This bug is fixed in the R3 update (http://www.sleeter.com/blog/?p=1790)