What the QuickBooks Online physical inventory worksheet leaves out

QuickBooks Online has a Physical Inventory Worksheet report, and it gives you one line per inventory item with a blank line for the count. It has no place for the location, the counter or the time, and a count by location needs all three.

What the QuickBooks Online worksheet lists

The report lists each inventory item on one line with Product/Service, Memo/Description, Category, Preferred Vendor Name, Quantity On Hand and a blank Physical Count line. Service items are not listed.

The report has no location column and no line for who counted, when, or a signature. Quantity On Hand and the blank Physical Count line share one row, so whoever holds the sheet can see the number the books expect.

A blind count needs a sheet where the counter does not see that number. Use the report to check that every inventory item you expect is on your own count list before the sheets are printed.

Why one line per item has no room for locations

QuickBooks Online does not track inventory by location within a warehouse. On the Plus and Advanced plans, each item has one quantity on hand and the inventory adjustment form takes one number per item.

So the worksheet cannot say which location a quantity belongs to, and neither can the books. If three locations hold one item, you end with one counted total and one book number.

What the Products and services export adds

The Products and services export lists each item, inventory and service, on one line. Its columns include the quantity on hand and the purchase cost. It has no location column.

Intuit's export article has you go to Products & services, then More, Run reports, then Export/Print, then Export to Excel.

Intuit's note inside the exported file reads: "Quantity on Hand is calculated at the time you export your Products and Services list." The quantity on that sheet is the number at the moment you exported it, so write the export date and time at the top.

What Intuit's counting instructions include

If your company shows an Inventory counts option under Products and services, Intuit's instructions have you record quantities in a New Quantity column and say that finalizing the count creates an Inventory Quantity Adjustment (Intuit's inventory count article).

Those instructions have no step for recording a location, assigning a counter, recounting or approving a variance. Location, counter and recount detail would still live on your own sheets.

What a count sheet needs on count day

A count sheet for count day needs the following.

• One sheet per location, headed with the location name and the zone, so a discrepancy is traced from the sheet and not from the books.
• An item identifier the counter can match on the floor, such as the item number or barcode on the label.
• A blank count box with no expected quantity, because a counter who sees the expected number may count toward it.
• The counter's name and the time, written by the counter.
• A recount column, filled in by a second person who has not seen the first count.
• A line that says empty for a location with nothing in it, so you can show the location was covered.
• A cover list of every location in the plan, ticked as each sheet comes back.

Number the sheets and log them out and back in. The cover list shows you at the end that nothing was skipped.

Movement is the other thing to settle before the sheets go out. Stop receiving and shipping in a location while its sheet is out, or have the counter write each movement on the sheet. A note lets you explain a variance later, and a missing note leaves you guessing. The case for counting every location, and not a sample, is in why physical counts still matter.

From sheets to one number per item

Your hand reconcile sums each item across the sheets, compares it with the books, recounts and adjusts. The QuickBooks Online inventory limitations guide writes that procedure out in full.

The adjustment form in Intuit's adjustment article takes one number per item. So location, counter and recount detail stay on your sheets, and QuickBooks gets one number per item.

Keep the signed sheets with the adjustment as its support.

How InventoryWare Count records a count by location

In InventoryWare Count, every counted quantity is recorded against a location. A count plan is made of the locations that get counted, and an item's counted total is summed across them. Count connects to QuickBooks Online and imports items with their QuickBooks quantity on hand.

On the phone the counter sees no expected quantity and no variance number for what they count.

The mobile counting app scans eight barcode formats with the phone camera. They are Code 128, Code 39, EAN-13, EAN-8, QR, Data Matrix, Codabar and ITF. An item can carry aliases and multiple barcodes as identifiers.

Count prints location labels as a PDF. It does not print count sheets.

So the counter and the date counted come from reports, not from lines on a paper sheet. The count history by location report shows the count plan, the date counted and who counted for each count. It also shows the item's snapshot, counted and variance quantities.

The variance report lists each item with a variance. These are its columns:

• Item number and description.
• The location or locations where the item was counted.
• Snapshot quantity and counted quantity.
• Quantity variance and percent variance.
• Cost impact, when the plan has cost data.
• Who last counted the item.

Variance and count reports can be exported to Excel and PDF. Items and locations can be imported from CSV, XML or Excel files and exported the same way.

The web app's count roles are User, Manager and Finance, alongside the company Admin. Only a count manager or the company owner can approve a discrepancy.

Count posts to QuickBooks only once the count plan is complete. Nothing posts until a manager approves the discrepancy, and only approved lines post.

An item that nobody counted is never zeroed automatically. Count is built for one complete count, and posting adjustments from a partial count is not available.