So Many Item Numbers

Ask the Accountant…

Question: When I create orders in SAGE and bring them over into QuickBooks, I like to create generic items, such as apparel, and change the description each time. It seems like I would have too many items otherwise. What do you think?

Answer: In QuickBooks Premier, you can have up to 14,500 list items. In QB Enterprise, the limit is 100,000. I don’t think I have ever seen a distributor run up against the 14,500. We do tend to have reorders and really don’t order too many different items over time…certainly not 14,500.

I like having items created with their item number or SAGE Product Code (SPC) if you use that and the item description. That way, when you reorder an item, the information is already in QB. You can also run reports of sales by item number in QB which can provide very helpful information.

QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise can be modified to better serve ad specialty distributors. Harriet Gatter is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, a former accounting professor and a former ad specialty distributor. She advises ad specialty distributors to use QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise, often in conjunction with other industry-specific software, to manage the complexities of the ad specialty business, with the results being time saved, errors eliminated and an overall accurate accounting of your business. Contact her at hgatter@accountingsupportllc.com.