Item Types

The inventory Item Type field is used to specify what type of item is being added:

Inventory Merchandise that you purchase and resell, and for which you track on-hand quantities.
Service Services such as miscellaneous fees, charges, or hourly labor for which on-hand quantities are not tracked. Learn more.
Non-Inventory Same properties as service items, but often used for incidental items such as store supplies or small items that you do not wish to count. Allow you to have two categories for non-merchandise items; and the ability to post them to different accounts in your QuickBooks Desktop financial software. On-hand quantities are not tracked. Learn more.
Assembly (Pro) An item built from other pre-existing inventory items and optionally sold at a discount. The component items, once added to the assembly are no longer available individually. Learn more.
Group (Pro) Provides a method to quickly sell a group of items that are already in your item list, optionally at a discounted group price. Unlike an assembly, groups are not pre-built and the included items remain available individually. Learn more.
Special Order (Pro) Used to sell custom or one-time merchandise that you do not currently carry in inventory and may never carry. Special order items can only be added to inventory while creating a document to order, receive, or sell them. Later, the special order item can be converted to a regular inventory item, if desired. Learn more.

Note: Miscellaneous items are not inventory items, so are not included here.