Create a Non-inventory or Service Item in QuickBooks Online

How to Create a Non-inventory or Service Item in QuickBooks Online: Video

            This video lesson, titled “How to Create a Non-inventory or Service Item in QuickBooks Online,” shows you how to create a non-inventory or service item in QuickBooks Online. This video lesson is from our complete QuickBooks Online tutorial, titled “Mastering QuickBooks Online Made Easy.”

Overview:

            To create a new non-inventory or service item in QuickBooks Online, click the “Settings” button in the QuickBooks Online toolbar. Then click the “Products and services” link under the “Lists” heading to open the “Products & services” page. If you already created a product or service, click the “New” button in the upper-right corner of the page and select the item type to create to open the product/service information pane. Alternatively, if creating your first new product or service, click the “Add an item” button in the “Products & services” page to open a product/service information pane at the right side of the window.

Enter the Item’s Basic Info:

            First, type the name of the item into the “Name” field in the “Basic info” section of the pane. If needed, then select the type of item to create from the “Item type” drop-down. The choices are “Inventory item,” “Non-inventory item,” “Service,” or “Bundle.” An “Inventory item” is a product you buy and/or sell directly and for which you track quantities. A “Non-inventory item” is used for items you buy and/or sell, but for which you don’t need to track quantities. A “Service” item is used for services your company provides to customers. A “Bundle” item is used for items you sell together as a set. To create a non-inventory or service item, select either the “Non-inventory item” or “Service” choice from the “Item type” drop-down, as needed.

            Optionally, if you use SKU numbers, enter the item’s SKU into the “SKU” field. Optionally, to upload a picture of the item, click the “Add an image” button to open a system dialog box, which you use to navigate to the picture of the item and click it to select it. Then click the “Open” button in the dialog box to upload it. To delete the picture of the item, if needed, hover over the picture in the pane and then click the “Delete” button that appears.

            If you use product and service categories to organize your items, select the desired item category from the “Category” drop-down. To create a new product or service category, select the “Add new” choice from the drop-down menu, type the new category name into the “Create category” pane that opens, and then click the “Save” button.

Enter the Item’s Sales Information:

            To sell the item to customers, ensure there is a checkmark in the “I sell this product/service to my customers” checkbox in the “Sales” section of the pane. Then enter the description of the item to show in sales forms into the “Description” field. You can enter the item’s default sales price into the “Price/rate” field. Use the “Income account” drop-down to select the income account used to track sales of this item.

            If needed, to change the item’s sales tax setting, select a choice from the “Sales tax category” drop-down. If needed, to select a specific sales tax category, click the “View all sales tax categories” link in this drop-down menu to open a “Select a sales tax category” pane, expand the desired category to view its options, select the desired option, and then click the “Select” button at the bottom of the pane to return to the main “Add a new product” pane.

If Needed, Enter the Item’s Purchasing Information:

            If needed, to enable using this item in purchasing forms, check the “I purchase this from a vendor” checkbox in the “Purchasing” section to show additional purchasing fields. Then enter the item description to show in purchase forms into the “Purchase description” field. You can enter the default purchase price into the “Purchase cost” field or leave it blank if the cost varies too much and you want to enter it at the time of purchase. Use the “Expense account” drop-down to select the account to which to attribute purchases of this item. If you have a preferred vendor for the item, select them from the “Preferred vendor” drop-down.

            To save the item and close the pane, click the “Save and close” button in the lower-right corner of the pane. To instead save the item and open another new pane to continue entering items, click the “Save and new” button, instead. Alternatively, to cancel creating the item, click the “Cancel” button and then click “Yes” in the confirmation prompt.