In Quickbooks, an item is anything that your company buys, sells, or resells to run your business.  Items are your products, services, and things such as shipping and handling charges, discounts, and sales tax.

When you select an item from the Item list, Quickbooks fills in a description of the line item and calculates its amount for you.

Quickbooks provides 12 different types of items.  Some items, such as service or inventory part items, help you record the services and products your business sells.  Other items, such as the subtotal or discount item, are used to perform calculations on the amounts in a sale.

To add an item, follow these steps:

1. From the Lists drop-down menu (see image of pop-up window above), select the Item List option.
2. Click the Item radio button at the bottom of the pop-up window, and then choose New.
3. Select the Type drop-down arrow and select the type of item you want to create.
4. Enter a name for the new item (Note: the name you select for the item will be displayed on documents printed from Quickbooks; such as purchase and sales forms).
5. Enter the description that you want to appear on sales forms when you use the payment item.
6. In the Rate field, enter the amount you want to charge for the item or, if the rate varies, leave as zero.
7. In the Account field, choose the account that is associated with this item (in most cases, you will assign the item to an income account).
8. In the Tax Code list, select the appropriate sales tax code or create a new one. If you do not see the Tax Cod list, you must turn the tax preference on in the Sales Tax area under Edit -è Preferences.
9. Click OK or Next if you want to enter another item.

Key Terms

Items – An item is anything that might appear as a line item on an invoice, including subtotals, discounts, and sales tax, as well as the products and/or services that you sell.  You enter items on your invoices and sales receipts.  For example, a writing consultant might set up one item for editing services with an hourly rate, and another item for writing services with a different hourly rate.  On an invoice the items would be entered with the number of hours worked as the quantity.

While providing a quick means of data entry, items also handle the behind-the-scenes accounting.  When you create an item you link it to an account.  When the item is used on a form it posts an entry to that account and another to the appropriate accounts receivable, accounts payable, checking, or other account.

Did You Know?

Adding Multiple Items at once – If you need to add several items to your Quickbooks company file, consider using the Add/edit multiple list entries feature.  For more information, refer to the in-product Help.