QuickBooks 2005: The Missing Manual

Purchases & Vendors

To turn inventory on and off or to control QuickBooks' billing behavior, in the icon pane, click the Purchase & Vendors icon. The Purchases & Vendors preferences all appear on the Company Preferences tab, changeable only by QuickBooks administrators. Although the preferences are relatively straightforward, here's a guide to why you might want to use each one:

• Inventory and purchase orders are active. If you want to track inventory using QuickBooks, turn on this checkbox. After doing so, you can perform inventoryrelated tasks such as creating inventory part items, producing purchase orders, and generating inventory reports.

• Warn about duplicate purchase order numbers. Turn on this checkbox if you want QuickBooks to warn you when you are creating a purchase order with the same number as one you already entered. If you notice a delay when you create purchase orders, you can open the Preferences dialog box and turn off the checkbox to prevent QuickBooks from searching all your purchase orders for duplicates.

• Warn if not enough inventory quantity on hand (QOH) to sell. If you prepare an invoice to sell more doodads than you have in stock, QuickBooks warns you—as long as you turn on this checkbox. Suppose you sell 500 quarts of sesame soy swirl frozen yogurt, but you only have 400 quarts in stock. When you attempt to save the invoice for the 500-quart order, QuickBooks displays a warning message box informing you of your shortage. QuickBooks doesn't go any further ...