How to Add Stock in QuickBooks Point of Sale

Two ways to add stock

QuickBooks Desktop Point of Sale gives you two routes, and which one you use matters for your numbers. Creating an item sets up the product record. Receiving it against a purchase order is what actually increases the quantity on hand and records what you paid.

Creating a new item

Go to Inventory > New Item. Choose the item type, then fill in the department, item name, and your cost and selling price. Give it a UPC or item number if you scan barcodes at the counter - it is much faster to set this up now than to retrofit it later across hundreds of products.

Save the item. At this point the product exists but your quantity on hand is still zero.

Receiving stock against a purchase order

Go to Purchasing > New Purchase Order and add the items and quantities you ordered from your supplier. When the delivery arrives, open the purchase order and create a Receiving Voucher.

The receiving voucher is the step that increases your on-hand quantity and records the cost you actually paid, which is what your margin reports are built from. Receiving against the PO rather than adjusting quantities by hand is what keeps cost of goods accurate.

Adjusting quantity directly

For a stock count correction, use Inventory > Quantity Adjustment. Enter the counted quantity and a reason. Keep this for genuine corrections - using it instead of receiving vouchers is the most common reason a QuickBooks POS file ends up with inventory that does not match the shelf.

A note on QuickBooks Desktop Point of Sale

Intuit stopped selling and supporting QuickBooks Desktop Point of Sale in October 2023. Existing installations keep running, but there are no more updates, and payment processing and support have ended. If you are still running it, your data is fine - but it is worth knowing the clock is not on your side.

Most retailers we work with in Jamaica have moved to a cloud system that keeps the same habits - items, purchase orders, receiving - without a server in the back office. If you want to see what that looks like, our point of sale systems page walks through it, or get in touch and we will talk through your setup.