You’ve gotten your business set up, you signed up with QBO, and now you’re ready to enter your Products and Services. After finally finding it (they hide it in the Sales tab), you go to put in your lawn mowing service, which is straight forward enough. The only thing to really check is confirming whether your state taxes services or not. Since you also sell concrete, you go to enter this but it’s giving you two options: Inventory or Non-Inventory.
Which should you choose?
It depends on the situation, to be honest. If you are selling it directly to clients and you want to track it, then the best option would be inventory. As long as you keep up with using QBO’s invoicing option and count your inventory every month, this should be a good option. You will be warned when your inventory count is low (a number that you choose, such as at 10 units), giving you the opportunity to reorder before you run out.
But let’s say that you actually use this concrete in client projects and don’t need to track it quite as diligently. You might also sell something that is difficult to track, such as small packets of screws. Well then, your best option would have to be non-inventory. With this option, you are able to have the item on your list of products and are able to add it to invoices if needed without the need to keep super accurate records for tracking purposes.
If you commonly sell items together, such as wood with your DIY class, then you are able to create a bundled item to include on your invoices.
There you have it, the four options available for you to enter in QBO. Make sure you pick the right one when getting started. Good luck!
