QuickBooks Desktop 2024 – Enhanced Item Categorization

Editor's Note: Intuit recently released QuickBooks Desktop 2024, including QuickBooks Enterprise (v24.0). Murph has evaluated pre-release versions of these products for months and spent hours communicating with Intuit personnel so we can help you learn about the new products. This is one in a series of individual product articles intended to provide additional content to what's provided in Murph's QuickBooks 2024 Product Summary.

About QuickBooks 2024 Enhanced Item Categorization Features

Until 2023, QuickBooks Enterprise only provided the following ways to identify items and inventory:

• Item name/number
• Purchase description
• Sales description
• Manufacturer's part number
• Serial or lot numbers (for Advanced Inventory users)
• Barcodes (for Advanced Inventory users)
• Custom fields

Even with this diversity of nomenclatures, only the Item Name/Number field allows you to configure a hierarchy of items by creating layers of sub-items. Still, nothing prevented a user from selecting the parent item rather than being required to choose only sub-items.

But then, QuickBooks Enterprise v23 delivered a new way to identify your items/inventory. Item Categories provided a more effective way to manage inventory classification and establish a hierarchical system with up to four sub-category levels.

While improvements to Item Categories were made in release updates during 2023 to Enterprise v23, QuickBooks Enterprise v24 incorporates additional functionality within the enhanced Item Category List, the inclusion of Item Categories in the Add/Edit Multiple List Entry window, and expansion of the Find & Select by Item Category option within item-related reports.

Enhanced Item Category List

Enhancements made in QuickBooks Enterprise permit users to better manage Item Categories with operations like add, edit, delete, and batch move or reallocate items within categories.

To use Item Categories, you must have activated the Inventory and purchase orders preference in Items and Inventory Company Preferences. You also must Activate categories within the same preference.

To use the enhanced Item Category List, go to the Lists menu in QuickBooks Enterprise and select Category List.

Adding an Item Category

1. From the Category List, select Manage Categories, then choose Add new category
2. Enter the Category Name, select or add a sub-category, as appropriate,
3. Enter an optional Description
4. Select 'OK' when finished

Edit Item Category

1. From the Category List, select Manage Categories, then choose Edit Category
2. Edit the Category Name, subcategory
3. Add an optional Description as appropriate
4. Select 'OK' when finished

Assigning Item(s) to a Category

1. Select Uncategorized under Category Name from the Category List in the left-side window.
2. Check-mark one or as many items in the Uncategorized list on the right-side you want to change from Uncategorized to a specific Category.
3. Click on Batch Actions, then choose Move to a different category.
4. Select the new Category or sub-category where you want the items moved.
5. Then click Save.
6. Select OK when QuickBooks asks you to confirm moving the items.

Delete Item Category

1. Ensure you have moved any items from the Category to be deleted before deleting the category.
2. From the Category List, select Manage Categories, then choose Delete Category.
3. QuickBooks asks you to confirm deleting the category.
4. Select Yes, Delete to finish the delete process.  

Item Categories - Add/Edit Multiple List Entry

Users can now import items from Excel into the categorical hierarchy simply by pasting items using the Multiple List entries feature.

1. From the Category List, select Item, then choose Add/Edit Multiple Items.
2. QuickBooks will open the Add/Edit Multiple List Entries window.
3. Select the appropriate list; in most cases, this will be Inventory Parts or Non-inventory Parts.
4. Click the Customize Columns button to customize the display columns so the Category list is shown in the Add/Edit List window.
5. Adjust the position of each data field within the Add/Edit List window to match the data field locations within your Excel spreadsheet.
6. When the data field positions match, copy the data from the Excel spreadsheet and then paste it into the Add/Edit Multiple List Entries window.
7. If data is missing or erroneous, QuickBooks will identify any data that's missing or in error.
8. When you are satisfied with your data, click Save Changes to incorporate your data.
9. Close the Add/Edit Multiple List Entries window; QuickBooks will return you to the Category List where you started.

Item Categories – Improved Find and Select

Enhanced search capabilities have been provided in most transactions using Find & Select for item categories.

1. Click on the Invoice icon from the Home Screen to open an Invoice.
2. When the Invoice opens, click on the drop-down within the Item field.
3. QuickBooks Opens the Find/Filter and Item list window.
4. Click the new <Find & Select Items/Filter by Category> option.

     5. QuickBooks will display the Find & Select Items window.

     6. Click on the new Filter Items by category option; the Item Categories are displayed to be selected as filters.

     7. Select any Category to change the Item display to only those items associated with that category.

     8. Check-mark any or all Items listed for the specific Category type.

    9. When you have made your selection, click Add Selected Items.

  10. QuickBooks returns you to your Invoice and adds the selected items.

Item Categorization – Other Find & Search functionality

Users can also benefit from the availability of Item Category Find &Search within Inventory Cycle-counts and Advanced Pricing (shown below).

In a future article, Insightful Accountant will write more about using Item Categories for Advanced Pricing within QuickBooks Enterprise.

Item Categorization – Supplemental Reports

Multiple Inventory and Sales reports were enhanced by adding the Item Category field as a default column or including Item Category as a column, or sort by Item available under the customized settings.

• Item Listing Report – Reports > Lists > Items Listing > Customize Report > Display > Columns > Category.

• Inventory Valuation Summary – Reports > Inventory > Inventory Valuation Summary is now pre-sorted by Item Category even though Item Category does not appear as a unique column on the Report.

• Customize the Inventory Valuation Summary so you can filter by Category. First, add the Category column: Customize Report > Display > Category. Now, filter the report for a specific category: Customize Report > Filters > Filter > Category > Select a category rather than All Categories. The category Butters (Premium): Butters were selected in the example below.

• Inventory Stock Status by Item – Reports > Inventory > Inventory Stock Status by Item. Item Categories are now a column on the report by default. Accordingly, the Item Category and subcategories get totaled and sub-totaled. (Note: Multiple columns have been removed from the report below to emphasize "totals" presentation.)

• Physical Inventory Worksheet – Reports > Inventory > Physical Inventory Worksheet. Not only have Item Categories been added to this report, but they are also available within the 'sort' functionality on the report taskbar. In the example below, the worksheet was sorted by Item Category. It also is possible to filter by Item Category (shown in the second example below).

          It also is possible to filter by Item Category, as shown in this second example.

• Negative Inventory Listing – Reports > Inventory > Negative Inventory Listing is another valuable report that can easily incorporate Item Categories and be sorted by them. Add the Category column: Customize Report > Display > Category. Then, sort the report by Item Categories by selecting Category from the sort options in the report taskbar.

Concluding Remarks

Remember to read Insightful Accountant daily for other articles in our 2024 QuickBooks Desktop series.

Acknowledgments

I want to thank the product managers, team leaders, developers, and Alpha/Beta test team members working behind the scenes, striving to deliver a new and better QuickBooks Desktop every year. It is far too easy to forget to thank these folks who "make QuickBooks a reality."

I especially appreciate Nipun Bhatia, Ninad Marathe, and Shobhit Sharma of the QuickBooks Desktop and Enterprise teams in India for assistance in affirming features and feature-related issues presented in this article. 

My special thanks go out to Intuit's Kim Amsbaugh, who always keeps me "in the loop."

Finally, to everyone involved at Intuit and the various QuickBooks teams, "Thank you."

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Nomenclature used herein:

^{QuickBooks 2024 refers to all versions of QuickBooks Desktop 2024 and QuickBooks Enterprise (v24). [This designation may also appear as QB24.]}

^{QuickBooks Desktop 2024 refers to all versions of QuickBooks Desktop Plus and QuickBooks Desktop Accountant for 2024. [This designation may also appear as QBD24.]}

^{QuickBooks Enterprise 2024 refers to all versions of QuickBooks Enterprise v24 and QuickBooks Enterprise Accountant for 2024. [This designation may also appear as QBES24.]}

^{Otherwise, products are referenced explicitly by individual product names.}

Disclosures:

Materials within this feature, including graphic illustrations, were developed from various pre-release versions of QuickBooks 2024.  As such, the final product version you acquire may appear, act or be somewhat different from that described or illustrated herein.

Portions of this feature have been adapted from Intuit QuickBooks Desktop 2024-related content, including in-product help resources. All such source materials were adapted by Insightful Accountant solely for educational purposes.

As used herein, QuickBooks, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, QuickBooks Desktop Plus, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise (all versions), and QuickBooks Desktop Accountant refer to one or more registered trademarks of Intuit Inc., a NASDAQ "INTU" publicly traded corporation headquartered in Mountain View, California (USA).

Other trade names used herein, including any other vendor (app/software) products discussed, may be registered, trademarked, or otherwise held by their respective owners and are now acknowledged accordingly. They have been referenced for informational and educational purposes only.

This is an editorial feature, not sponsored content. No vendors within this article have paid Insightful Accountant or the author any remuneration to be included within this feature. This article is provided solely for informational and educational purposes.

The publication of this article does not represent any form of endorsement by either the Author or Insightful Accountant.

_{Note: Registered Trademark ® and Copyright © symbols have been eliminated from the articles within this publication for brevity due to the frequency or abundance with which they might otherwise appear or be repeated. We attempt to credit such trademarked products or copyrighted materials within our respective article footnotes and disclosures.}

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