What QuickBooks Enterprise can do with Inventory (as of version 2020):
Track Inventory Parts and Inventory Assemblies (Bill of Materials)
Build sub-assemblies (Inventory Assemblies within other Inventory Assemblies)
Track Backorders with Sales Orders
Track Item Receipts separately to Bills with Enhanced Inventory Receiving. We rarely recommend this feature for a number of issues.
Prevent users from selling inventory not in stock (Negative Inventory)
Track Minimum and Maximum desired inventory levels
Track up to 12 custom fields on items
Assign a default class to an item -> great for reports of sales by class
Track Inventory in multiple locations and bin locations within the warehouse
Use FIFO Inventory costing method
Track Inventory with Serial Numbers or Lot Numbers
A fixed labor allocation cost can be added to inventory assemblies
Basic USB Compatible Bar-code scanning in transactions such as Sales Receipts, Invoices, and Item Receipts
Track Vendor Part Number, in addition to Manufacturer’s part number
Mobile (Android) based cycle counts and Mobile (Android) PO receiving
Advanced Pricing of items based on multiple criteria (Customer Type, Date, and Volume Sold)
Calculate Sales Price on items based on Purchase Cost (default item cost) with default margin/market per item
Track different costs for an item across multiple vendors up to 4 alternative vendors (QuickBooks Enterprise Platinum 2020). Note: but NOT at multiple currencies
Allocated Landed Cost (from other bills that contain shipping, customs, insurance, etc.) into inventory item cost (QuickBooks Enterprise Platinum 2020)
What QuickBooks Enterprise CANNOT do with Inventory (as of version 2020):
It cannot track lead time functionally, although the lead time can be stored in the preferred/alternate vendor table
It cannot track both Serial Number AND Lot Numbers
It cannot handle Serial number controls. While QuickBooks can track serial numbers, it cannot prevent a user from choosing the wrong one or leaving a serial number out of the transaction.
It cannot have unlimited Serial Numbers in a single line: there is a limit of 4096 characters in a single item line, so you would be limited to the qty of serialized items you can enter in a transaction line when you multiply QTY X Serial Number character length. Workaround is to use multiple transaction lines
It cannot track Expiration Dates (Although, Lot Numbers could be used as workaround)
It cannot produce Inventory Forecasting Reports
It cannot provide Proactive notifications of Inventory Levels
It cannot group Inventory into Categories (other than using sub-items or classes – which is sort of a workaround – custom field is another workaround, would reporting might require 3rd party app)
It cannot use the barcode scanning function for inventory adjustments. (Although you could use the android/scanner option to perform cycle counts)
It cannot calculate Individual FIFO layers per Lot
It cannot calculate Specific Cost Identification with Serial Numbered products
It cannot produce an Inventory Aging or Inventory Turnover Ratio Reports
It cannot generate a Report of all Open Sales Orders that contain Inventory Assemblies with their Bill of Materials details (you MUST manually create Inventory Assembly Builds in PENDING status to have something similar)
It cannot create a shortage report or required materials report based on bill of materials from open Sales Orders with Inventory Assemblies
It cannot have Bill of Materials with some items subject to markup and some not. (in other words, all bill of materials cost would be subject to a default markup/margin)
It cannot Track volume discounts on purchases
It cannot handle Inventory Matrixes (style grids) so every price in matrix would need to be its own item
It cannot have Product Alternatives to suggest when there is a shortage (substitute product)
It cannot restrict an user to sell product at specific price, price range, or above cost
It cannot create a non-Sellable site location (like in-transit locations) so all locations are eligible to sell from
It cannot create “Work Orders” or “Manufacture Orders” – a pending build would be the closest workaround
It cannot account for scrap during manufacturing process (would require a manual adjustment)
It cannot create Assemblies from Sales orders
It cannot produce a warning/pop-up indicating user is selling item bellow target margin/profit
It cannot setup a default markup/margin sales price calculation across the board
It cannot do an automatic/dynamic Sales price recalculation based on default margin/markup when bill of materials components cost changes
It cannot manage different statuses in the manufacturing process, there is only one status for assemblies (built or not built)
It cannot do multilevel bill of materials (but it can do nested assemblies – every build will create additional/separate builds for sub-assemblies)
It cannot track a component cost of less than $.01
It cannot calculate labor or overhead costs based on routing steps or a routing sheet
It cannot handle unlimited part numbers/names in a stable way. QuickBooks Enterprise starts having performance issues after about 25,000 items (but circumstances are different across QB Files, in theory a very low volume -less than 1000 transactions a year- in sales company could have 50k to 100k items, but its rare to have a company with so many items with low volume)
It cannot handle unit rounding when it comes to automated reordering inventory. If you have 1.8 units on hand and the reorder point is 5, it will suggest 3.2 instead of 4.
It cannot handle minimum order quantities or required multiples. There are cases in which a vendor will only sell you at least 48 units and can only sell you 12 units at the time
It cannot inventory assemblies if components are out of stock, it creates a pending build and slows down the process (probably for the better)
It cannot prevent others from selling specific items in a Lot Number or Serial Number that has been placed into a Sales Order. In other words, the existence of the Sales Order does not block the use of those items