Which item type should you use?
QuickBooks provides ten types of items to help you fill out sales and purchase forms quickly.
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Service. Use for services you either charge for or purchase, such as specialized labor and consulting hours.
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Inventory part. Use for merchandise or parts you purchase, track as inventory, and then resell.
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Non-inventory part. Use for materials or parts you buy but don't keep on hand as inventory. These can be either part of your overhead (for example, office supplies), or they can be materials you buy to finish a specific job and charge back to your customer.
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Other charge. Use for miscellaneous charges that are not services, labor, materials, or parts. Examples include delivery charges, setup fees, and service charges.
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Subtotal. Use for calculating a subtotal. You must use a subtotal item before calculating a discount or a charge that covers several items.
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Group. Use for fast entry of a group of individual items already on the Items list.
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Discount. Use for an amount to be subtracted from the total. If you are applying the discount to more than one item, you must first use a subtotal item and then apply the discount to the subtotal.
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Payment. Use for a payment you received at the time you write an invoice. A payment item reduces the amount owed on an invoice.
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Sales tax item. Use for calculating a single sales tax.
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Sales tax group. Use for calculating two or more sales taxes grouped together and applied to the same sale.