You just finished a Sunday inventory count, and the number staring back at you doesn’t match what you expected. Or worse — you reorder a case of something at $42, then find out three weeks later you’d actually been paying $38 the last two times, and nobody adjusted the numbers in between. Either way, cash is sitting on your shelves or in your walk-in — and without solid inventory management, you don’t have a fully accurate read on how much.
What’s new
QuickBooks’ latest product release includes inventory upgrades built for businesses that live and die by what’s on the shelf or in the kitchen. Per Intuit, the new tools include:
Item Receipt — record what actually shows up before the vendor bill even arrives, so your on-hand counts stay accurate in real time.
Moving Average Cost valuation — your cost per unit updates automatically as supplier prices change, instead of using a locked-in cost that goes stale the moment your produce supplier or linen service raises rates.
Sales Order to Purchase Order linking — connect what customers have ordered directly to what you need to reorder, cutting down on restocking guesswork.
These are available natively in QuickBooks Plus and Advanced, and as a $40/month add-on for Simple Start and Essentials.
Why this is a cash flow issue, not just an inventory issue
Every dollar sitting in unsold inventory is a dollar that isn’t in your checking account. For a restaurant, that’s perishable product that may spoil before it turns into revenue. For a retailer, it’s shelf space and cash tied up in slow movers while you’re still paying for the fast ones.
The problem usually isn’t that owners don’t care about inventory. It’s that the numbers in the accounting system lag what’s actually happening on the floor or in the kitchen. If your cost-per-unit is stale, your margin numbers are wrong. If your reorder points are guesses, you’re either sitting on too much cash-in-stock or scrambling — and often overpaying — to restock last minute.
What to actually do with this
If you’re on Plus, Advanced, or add these inventory management tools to a smaller plan, try Moving Average Cost valuation first. Even a rough side-by-side of your current locked-in costs versus updated real costs can turn up margin surprises you didn’t know you had.
If you’re on Simple Start or Essentials, weigh the $40/month against how much guesswork is currently costing you in overordering, spoilage, or emergency restocks at premium prices.
The bigger question these tools can’t answer
Better inventory data tells you what you have and what it costs. It doesn’t tell you how much cash you should actually be carrying in inventory versus your bank account, or whether your reorder habits are quietly draining your cash cushion every month. That’s a conversation about your whole cash flow picture, not just your stockroom.
If you’re not sure how much of your cash is trapped on shelves versus working for you, let’s talk it through together.
