What is Negative Inventory?
The Quickbooks Negative Inventory issue (also called the Negative Quantity on hand issue) is caused when you enter sales transactions before entering purchase transactions. This means that you have sold inventory items that are not in stock. This is very bad in Quickbooks because it causes the following issues:
- Data Damage forcing you to constantly rebuild the file to bring your B/S to balance
- Cash-basis Balance Sheet is out of balance
- Profit and COGS amounts are incorrect
- Balance Sheet Inventory Account amounts are incorrect
- Incorrect Vendor Reports
- Error: LVL_ERROR--Error: Verify Account: Invalid balance. Amount overflow has occurred. Rcrd = 99.
- Error: Verify Account Balance failed. Calc bal = 0.00, List bal = *overflow*
- An overflow error has occurred. One of your accounts has exceeded
the maximum value allowed. Review the balances in your chart of accounts and lower the value of the
account to less than 10,000,000,000,000.
- Error: "It looks like something in your company file is causing your balance sheet to go out of balance."
- Error: Itemhistupdateengine.cpp -- LVL_ERROR--Error: Verify item history Target average cost mismatch error (expected value, found value).
- Error: Itemhistupdateengine.cpp -- LVL_ERROR--Error: Verify item history Target value on hand mismatch error (expected value, found value).
- Error: Itemhistupdateengine.cpp -- LVL_ERROR--Error: Verify Item History: Bad target COGS for Item.
How to Find if your data file has Negative Inventory?
Run the Inventory Valuation Detail (IVD) report in Quickbooks:
- In Quickbooks, select Reports > Inventory > Inventory Valuation Detail.
- Click the Dates drop-down and select All.
- Find all occurances of negative amounts in the On Hand column.
How to Fix Negative Inventory?
Adjust the transaction dates such that bills are dated before invoices:
- From the Quickbooks menu, select Reports and then Inventory and then Inventory Valuation Detail.
- Click the Dates drop-down arrow and select All.
- Scroll through the report to an item that is showing a negative amount in the On Hand column.
- If you can do so legitimately, adjust the dates of the bills and/or invoices so that the bill dates are before the invoice dates.
- Repeat steps 3 through 4 for each item with a negative quantity in the On Hand column.
Caution: It is not sufficient to adjust the current QOH to a positive value. You must eliminate each occurrence of negative QOH.
Is there a File Repair Service to fix this issue?
We offer a repair service to fix all instances of negative inventory in the file. The service will analyze your source data file to identify the items and dates the quantity on hand (QOH) went negative and then fix all occurances of negative inventory. The repaired file will not have negative inventory and will verify correctly in Quickbooks. There may be a change to the COGS and Inventory Asset account balances after the repair. There will also be a change to the Opening Balance Equity account that will be used to add the inventory adjustments. Your bookkeeper will need to add adjusting journal entries after the repair.
Please contact us for details.
