QuickBooks Users: Adding an Item to Inventory and Immediately Selling It

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If you add an item to inventory while creating a document, such as a sales receipt, it is strongly recommended that you enter the average unit cost, if known.

Adding a new item without entering a cost, and then immediately selling the item, will result in a discrepancy in your QuickBooks inventory value, since no cost of goods can be posted for the sale. In this case, a compensating adjustment will have to be made in your financial software.

One way to handle this is to conduct periodic physical inventories and then make an aggregate adjustment in your QuickBooks financial software. This helps keep your inventory value accurate, especially if you regularly make sales of items without defined costs.