Adjusting your inventory

Although QuickBooks automatically adjusts your inventory quantities after every purchase and sale, you may need to adjust them yourself from time to time. If the quantities change because of, say, fire, theft, or breakage, you need to adjust the quantity on hand for each inventory item affected.

To adjust your inventory:

  1. Choose Vendors > Adjust Qty/Value on Hand.

    Note: You can also adjust inventory using the Transaction Center.

  2. Enter the name of the expense account where you track inventory loss and shortages.

    If you need to assign the expense to more than one account, enter a separate adjustment for each account. You can enter additional adjustments by clicking Next instead of OK.

  3. (Optional) Enter the new quantity of each inventory item whose quantity has changed.

    You can also enter the new quantity by entering the difference in the Qty Difference column. To enter a difference that reduces the quantity, be sure to type a minus sign before the number (for example, -25).

  4. (Optional) If you need to, edit the value of the inventory after adjusting the quantity.

    Most businesses can accept QuickBooks' recalculation of the value, which is based on average cost. When you edit a value, you change the average cost of the items in stock.

    To edit the value, select the Value Adjustment checkbox. In the New Value column, enter the value for each inventory item whose value you want to change.