QuickBooks Item List

I don't really mess with the books other than to browse or in a pinch ... since 20 yrs ago when mamma took over and bought a 'putor and all to doo it. (I used a sheet of paper is all)

But I git in trouble when I sell parts that don't really have a known part number, and especially if I don't even have a real name for the part. What we call it this year may be different than what it's in the 'putor as....

But the catch is that _ that customer may only have a few items in our list at all, and you can figger out which one it is from that short list. But to doo that, you need to go into the item list specifically and search through that customer's parts. (And apparently she doesn't like to doo that?)


Our Q/B's is set up like we have our own parts that we sell to anybody. (retail) Like I could sell the same recoil housing to anyone. But 99% of our parts are customer specific of course.

I was wondering if there is a "parameter" (setting?) than can be changed to tell the software that when you pull up "Customer 123" that when you go to the "item" field on the invoice, that only the items related to that customer will pop up to search through?

Mamma says "No, it doesn't work that way!"

I'm thinkin' that for the amount of $ that Quicken charges for this shtuff, that it should be editable between both styles of business.

Anyone know differently?

(and don't tell her that I asked here either!)


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

I'm running a truly ancient QB setup, so things may have changed...

If your customers have account numbers, can you make the customer-unique parts start with numbers keyed to their customer number? I know once you start stuff like that, it becomes a minefield to keep that number out of their invoices, etc. so it may not be the way to go.

So I'm: Chip Chester's Tchotchkes, and my account number with you is 2387. So all my unique part numbers start with 2387, then have a dash, extension, or a couple zeroes as separators, then an extension number that either meshes with their part number system, the original PO or drawing number, or just a sequential number that works for you. That way, if you sell my unique parts to someone else, it shows up quickly. If your version of QB 'auto-fills', then the list of unique parts should pop up pretty quickly.

And by old, I mean Version 5 or so.

Chip

The way I do it (which is not necessarily the best way) is to put the items I create as sub items under the customer name. Then when creating an invoice, type in the customer name as the item, and as I type his name, then the rest of his items pop up in an automatic drop down list.

I'm using QB Pro, 2014 version.

HuFlungDung said:

The way I do it (which is not necessarily the best way) is to put the items I create as sub items under the customer name. Then when creating an invoice, type in the customer name as the item, and as I type his name, then the rest of his items pop up in an automatic drop down list.

I'm using QB Pro, 2014 version.

Click to expand...

Just a slightly more user friendly spin on Chester's idea then?


I'm sure that she has the latest and greatest version. She gets the updated version every year for the updated tax tables and whatnot.




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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

I was going to Suggest what HFD suggested. I highly recommend using non-inventory items,
Unless you are very careful to manage it, It is easy for the inventory to get out of control and requires big adjustments at the end of the year. You can also do subassembly where you pick one item and it grabs all the other associated with that part. Played with them but didnt care for the way it worked.

Brian

Ox said:

Just a slightly more user friendly spin on Chester's idea then?


I'm sure that she has the latest and greatest version. She gets the updated version every year for the updated tax tables and whatnot.




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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Click to expand...

Yeah, I quit subscribing because it was finally just me on the payroll and I can use the $500 per year to boost my exorbitant wage I did have to jump through hoops to create manual payroll items but have finally gotten a system of reports worked out.

There is so many different ways to do things in QB's, but often they can be kind of unconventional!
I'll mention one method I thought of, if you don't want to mess with changing your Item numbers.
But it does require using some not well known keyboard shortcuts to make it efficient.
(BTW, there is no ''nice'' way to do what you want in QB's)

Since you do sell those items to other customers sometime, you may not want their account # or name in the Item.
So if you can, use a different field in the item to make the item searchable by customers name.
For example, If you don't use the 'Manufactures part number' field, you can put your customers name there. you can even put multiple customers names there.
Then, in the invoice, click in the item column, then hit Ctrl L. That will bring up the item list.
Now go to the 'Look for' field at the top, and type in the customers name. hit Enter.
Now you will have a list of only the items that contain your customers name somewhere in the items data.
Choose the Item you want, and hit Ctrl U, to place it in the invoice.

Or maybe better yet, you can make a custom field in your item, call it 'customers' and enter the names there. That is also a searchable field.

The key here, is using the Ctrl L to search, and the Ctrl U to place it in the invocie.

Chipoffblock said:

Since you do sell those items to other customers sometime, you may not want their account # or name in the Item.

Click to expand...

No, I am not going to sell the same part number to two different customers.
Even customers that use the same parts have different item numbers for them.

Does that change your reply?



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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

make a note in you cam file of what the part number is maybe
or have a old school cheat sheet, or Rolodex

In your Item List-

I prefer to use Non-Inventory Parts.


Create a Parent Company, that will be the customer Heading on the Items list
You do this by creating a New Item, I use the Customers Business Name to keep simple, link to your Sales Account and hit OK to create.

Now when you create a new item for that Customer you "Check" the box "SubItem of" then in that field call up the Customers Name from the choices...tab to next box as usual entering Part number, description, price etc.


When entered by hitting OK at the end, that new item will now become a "SubItems" of the Parent company and as such will be placed just under the parent company on the Items list..indented slightly so EZ to distinguish from other items.




Soooo when Item list is set up like that..

When you want to Invoice that customer you go about as normal,,,but when it comes to choose an Item you start typing in the Customer Name, QB will load the Parent name with all their items under header...scroll thru and pick the wanted item.

We use a 3 letter customer code as a prefix to each part, so the customers parts are always searchable as a group. example....xxx-part number 1234. when searching your item list, just type your customer's code and they all will be displayed

machfab said:

We use a 3 letter customer code as a prefix to each part, so the customers parts are always searchable as a group. example....xxx-part number 1234. when searching your item list, just type your customer's code and they all will be displayed

Click to expand...

This is what we do for customer specific stuff. Although we use another plugin to do our parts with QBO, so i am not sure how well that translates.

Ox said:

No, I am not going to sell the same part number to two different customers.
Even customers that use the same parts have different item numbers for them.

Does that change your reply?

Click to expand...

Sorry I did not see your reply sooner, somehow my notifications were turned off....

Our Q/B's is set up like we have our own parts that we sell to anybody. (retail) Like I could sell the same recoil housing to anyone. But 99% of our parts are customer specific of course.

Click to expand...

I must not have read the last part of that sentence in your OP, I just saw 'I could sell the same recoil to anyone', and thought that is what you were doing!

Then the other suggestions of making Item for your customers names, or codes, and their parts as subitems under those, would maybe be your best option...

QB 2006 Premier running on an old XP machine.....

As was said up there ^^^ I use non-inventory items.
All item (part) numbers for each customer starts with a 3 or 4 letter code like:
Zylon Industries would be ZYL(part number)

That way all you need to do is type z and all the parts from any company named z come
up in the list. Plus it's easy to search the Item list this way, all that customers parts grouped
in the list like you sorta wished for.

For one time unique parts, a repair job, or other situation where I don't think I need to
create an actual Item, I use my favorite choice from the item list....

MMW (Miscellaneous Machine Work)