So you’re on the phone with a customer…

They are inquiring about a product of yours to see when you can ship it.

How do you answer them?

Get up and walk out back to check your inventory status?

Put the order in and cross your fingers there is enough stock for it to ship?

Consider using the “available to promise” button within QuickBooks instead!

AVAILABLE TO PROMISE – WHAT YOU HAVE IN STOCK TO SELL

In this video, I’d like to introduce you to another “magic button” within QuickBooks to help with your inventory management.

When working with clients on consulting calls, it’s surprising how many don’t realize the power of this little button within their estimate, sales order, purchase order and invoicing screens.

Take a closer look at the QuickBooks available to promise button in action:

QUICKBOOKS USES “SOFT ALLOCATION” FOR INVENTORY, NOT “HARD ALLOCATION”

As you will see in the video, QuickBooks does NOT take an item out of stock until an invoice is actually created. The Inventory Stock Status report shows that open sales order and pending builds are allocating items against on hand stock. However, they are not deducting or reserving against the stock at this stage. This is known as “soft allocation.”

Some businesses actually require a “hard allocation” of their inventory. This means that the on-hand qty of the item is actually reduced when the order is entered, NOT when the item is shipped/invoiced. Does this describe you? If so, QuickBooks is likely not a viable candidate for your inventory management.

MORE QUICKBOOKS INVENTORY RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Inventory reorder alerts in QuickBooks
• How QuickBooks allocates/reserves inventory
• View gross profit margin on items sold with this QuickBooks report
• Another QuickBooks “magic button” – get paid faster 

NEED HELP WITH YOUR QUICKBOOKS AND INVENTORY MANAGEMENT?

I’ve been helping businesses with this for over 30 years and welcome the opportunity to help you. Learn more about my consulting packages today!