QuickBooks Online - Used Car Inventory

UPDATE: Due to new QBO restrictions planned with classes, I don’t recommend this method anymore unless you are comfortable upgrading to QBO ADVANCED.
I have been asked how to handle vehicle inventory for a used car dealership. This walkthrough shows how to handle the inventory for a used car dealership for 2 different purchase and sales scenarios.

[@lisabrush8043]

Thanks very much for your help! I’m going to take a better look tomorrow when I’m at the office. You have no idea how much you have helped me! I tried to find the option to pm you in the intuit community but I couldn’t see how to do that

[@marshall8802]

its no problem. Im glad I could help. You can always comment here or send a private message if you have any other questions. I'll help if I can.

[@kbusedautosales8309]

Please make 2024 version :D

[@moeal-kurdi903]

Thank you for this my friend. Great video it will help me lots since I Just opened a small used car dealership .

[@edwardjordan3057]

Awesome video answered all my questions

[@revitmotors2101]

How do we add a Trade in to inventory on a sales receipt, then after the fact floor that car?

[@josselynvalderramos8918]

How would you input information if you sell the vehicle in payments to the customer?

[@zal-waili5354]

Quick question, wouldn't all of these extra costs to prep the vehicle be classified as cost of sales instead of expenses? (GAAP & IFRS)?

[@debbieboeddeker4388]

Hi, this is a great video! Do you know the flow for QBO when there is a trade in involved? Thanks!

[@nieesp7251]

Marshall, how would you input info in QB online if you sell the vehicle in payment to the client?

[@BoulderHybrids]

Could you do it a similar way but use QBO "Projects" feature and make each vehicle VIN a project?

[@autodreams7669]

Very Helpful video! What about taking in a trade and adding vehicle to Inventory?

[@karenogle7985]

This video has really helped me . We just opened up a Used Car Lot with the majority of vehicles Floor Planned, do you also stock the vehicles (trade-in and non-floored vehicles) the same way you do the floored vehicles?

[@maryohalloran3481]

Hi! Thanks for the video. Is there a way to track what zip code your customers are from? For instance, I want to know where the majority of my customers are from in order to know where to expand my advertising.

[@marshall8802]

If you have the customer full address in the sales form, you can run reports that show customer address. You can also export them to excel for sorting and grouping options.

[@keinbugoto5739]

Hi Marshall. This video is awesome! It really helps me to set up my accounts. Are you in Florida. ? I would love to received a class from you. I would like to see how to finalize setting up my company . I have 2 credit cards that I used to pay for the parts. Could you please explain me how to set up that part. Tks

[@douglasschreiber3456]

OK. So, I have 8,540 "classes". Each being a vehicle put in and out of inventory over the last ten years. Purchase price, reconditioning, sale price etc. all assigned to specific class. Reports work, statements work, Now, as of April 10th, limit to 40. Recommendations? Currently using both QBO plus for one dealership and pro 2016 for another.

[@marshall8802]

As I stated, with the new restrictions on classes coming down the pipe... if you want to continue to use classes you should either upgrade to QBO Advanced which offers unlimited classes, or transfer your data to QB desktop. I have ready other articles where people are using "projects" for the vehicles instead of classes. I'm not sure how they are setting that up though. The other option depends on how many vehicles you have on your lot at any 1 time. If you don't have more than 40, then you would still be able to use classes and just make inactive those that are no longer needed,

[@douglasschreiber3456]

@@marshall8802 Thanks for quick response!!. Trying to decide between QBO online at $150 per month(unlimited classes) or Upgrading my desktop pro 2016 to 2019 and using Right Networks hosting to access from any of 3 offices. So desktop says "1 user". Would I be able to install on 3 computers...different locations....and be able to access through Right networks?

[@marshall8802]

@@douglasschreiber3456 According to desktop license agreement, you can install desktop software on up to 2 computers that you own. (Wether you will get an error when trying to install on a 3rd, I don't know). For hosting with Right Networks they may allow more than 2 installs... you would have to check with them. Another option in addition to Right Networks is to install the software and company file on a PC that has plenty of power, RAM, etc and use remote software like RealVNC, or Teamviewer to remote into that PC at anytime and run the program. Just another option to consider.

[@douglasschreiber3456]

@@marshall8802 OK. We give that a try. subscribed to Right Networks today, and upgrading pro 2016 to pro 2019 now. Will then try to upgrade 16 to 19 at office tomorrow? think I'll need to purchase another upgrade for my existing 16 there? or use license from home to upgrade there?

[@marshall8802]

@@douglasschreiber3456 Well like I said, the license says you can install 1 copy on 2 different PC's. So if its just the 2, you shouldn't need to purchase a 2nd 2019 license.

[@marshall8802]

For those of you who have asked about "trade-ins" and other advanced inventory questions such as depreciation of a car on your lot, I'd recommend speaking with an accountant whose familiar with QuickBooks. I'm not an accountant so I don't want to give incorrect information. I'm just someone whose familiar with how to do different tasks in QuickBooks.

[@jamesj9555]

nice video, smart talented.

[@heatherhomenuk6822]

Hello, do you have a workaround for dealer not using inventory in QBO. Using Afc Line? Small dealer help with simpler system

[@thehayesdiary]

Can we do this with Simple Start subscription? Journal Entry the inventory?

[@insurancecoverage]

Since most dealers using Quickbooks are tracking sales and recon costs in their sales systems, does it make sense to aggregate inventory instead of going through the effort of adding each vehicle separately. If so, what steps and accounts would you recommend.

[@lisabrush8554]

Quickbooks Desktop does not have an Inventory Class option when adding an inventory item. Do you have any suggestions on how to use class in this situation?

[@marshall8802]

In desktop, even though you cannot associate a class with the item itself you can still create the class in the class list and associate it on the vehicle purchase, vehicle expense, and vehicle sales transactions. The only advantage in online QB of assigning the class to the item is that it auto populates for any transactions involving that item. In desktop you can still manually plug in the class on the transactions. I will probably create a similar video for desktop at some point. Hopefully this video has helped you, please let me know.

[@DUCKYONVR578]

Are you planning to do a desktop version tutorial? This was super helpful! Though I have the desktop version and I’m not sure I’m doing it correctly. 😳

[@marshall8802]

@@DUCKYONVR578 I wasn't originally planning on it, but I can see how it would be helpful. Hopefully I can get it done by sometime next week.

[@SidGymMom]

I have Desktop Premier 2019. I could use a Desktop tutorial also, but this was extremely helpful. Also - If there are Buyer's fees associated with the original purchase from the auction, where do you suggest accounting for these?

[@marshall8802]

@@SidGymMom Hello. I work on a Mac mostly so I don't have access to desktop premier 2019. I can say that you can assign a class with each transaction, even if you don't assign it to the item. As far as the buyer fees when you get it from the auction.... if you have your QB setup for billable expenses and you pass this fee onto the customer whose buying the vehicle, you can create a billable expense when you purchase the vehicle. Assign the billable expense to a "dummy customer" that you use for tracking until a real customer purchases the vehicle. Then go find the expense from when you purchased the vehicle and reassign the correct customer to the expense and resave it. This way when you sell the vehicle it should pull the expense to that customer. This is a slightly messy way to do it but as Im not familiar with premier 2019 as I am with QB Online, its the best I can think of right now. I will keep mulling it over through and if I can come up with something cleaner I'll certainly post again. Up next AUTOPLAY 32:43 Complete User Registration system using PHP and MySQL database Awa Melvine 3.8M views Calm Piano Music 24/7: study music, focus, think, meditation, relaxing music relaxdaily 3.7K watching LIVE NOW 7:11 Microsoft word tutorial |How to insert images into word document table rahmat maulana 5.1M views 15:58 Wearing $5 Clothes From Wish For A Week Safiya Nygaard Recommended for you 20:11 Try Not To Laugh At This Ultimate Funny Dog Video Compilation | Funny Pet Videos Funny Pet Videos Recommended for you 20:07 5 Biggest Makeup Mistakes On Mature Eyes Tutorial Over 50 | Fabulous50s fabulous50s Recommended for you 9:20 Biggest Rip Offs That You've Probably Been Tricked Into Buying list25 334K views 19:11 Programming in Visual Basic .Net How to Connect Access Database to VB.Net iBasskung 6.1M views 6:04 dressing edwardian lady1 priorattire Recommended for you 25:38 How to Pay Off your Mortgage in 5-7 Years The Kwak Brothers 2M views 2:03:50 The piano guys playlist 2 hours Música clásica y orquestal Recommended for you 10:33 Classroom Management Strategies To Take Control Of Noisy Students Rob Plevin Recommended for you 20:29 Landed Cost in QuickBooks Desktop: allocating freight cost to inventory value Hector Garcia CPA 18K views 12:22 Here's Why the Plymouth Prowler Is the Weirdest Car of the 1990s Doug DeMuro 2.6M views 7:09 Beethoven Flash Mob - Wayzata Symphony Orchestra and Edina Chorale - Minneapolis Nov 16 2015 Wayzata Symphony Orchestra Recommended for you 3:32:04 #GhibliJazz #CafeMusic - Relaxing Jazz & Bossa Nova Music - Studio Ghibli Cover Cafe Music BGM channel Recommended for you 8:00 13 Car Buying Mistakes - How Auto Dealerships rip you off - How to buy a Vehicle from a Car Dealer Kevin Hunter 3.2M views 2:30:28 Java Project For Beginners Step By Step Using NetBeans And MySQL Database In One Video [ With Code ] 1BestCsharp blog 4.4M views 10:39 NEVER EVER PAY COLLECTIONS! KEEPING IT REAL WITH CREDIT 4.3M views 6:40 18 Things You've Been Doing Wrong Talltanic 12M views

[@lauraclark9312]

Do you have a tutorial or work around if you are using QuickBooks Pro?

[@marshall8802]

Hello. With Desktop Pro you have unlimited classes so you can use this same exact method with desktop QB pro.

[@craftyoldman]

Do you know how to setup the new Projects for Used Car Inventory? I saw another video but he did not explain it well'

[@joannetlili1757]

How do you enter a transaction when there is a trade involved ?

[@sarahweller197]

Hi Marshall. I saw you do not recommend this for 2 reasons 1.) because QB online is updating classes. and 2.) because its not GAAP. I tried to set this up with classes and it still seems to work with QB on line. Is that the case? Or do you recommend a different way (maybe projects?) AND can you help me understand what makes this not GAAP and how we can fix that?

[@marshall8802]

Someone else commented that this is not GAAP. Im not an accountant so I cannot say for sure. As far as it still working in QBO, yes it WILL work but QBO Plus now has a cap with Classes at 40 so depending on how many cars you are setting up, you can keep it under the limit and then delete a car/class once you no longer need it.

[@ericmagero789]

I bought a car cash how do I add it in QB online ??

[@varietyaadmin6008]

Why is it the you add new inventory and make the quantity on hand 0?

[@varietyaadmin6008]

Is it because when you make the purchase in the system, will increase the quantity?

[@kyeharrell6798]

Marshall: You state (in the notes) you don't recommend this method without classes, is it doable without?

[@marshall8802]

Kye, It's doable without classes but you have a rough time of tracking the expenses to the specific car and then running a P&L thats accurate as to how much you are making on each car. If you dont need to worry about per car profits and just want to track your expenses and sales as a big group, then you can still do the inventory method and just bypass any of the class settings.

[@kyeharrell6798]

@@marshall8802 Thanks so much for the reply. This dealership is my side job; I've been using qb desktop for years which worked fine; but now they have switched to qb online via a feed from "dealer center" and the setups and info being pushed over are making me pull my hair out. I'm coming into it a month after they've been open).

[@marshall8802]

Kye Harrell It sounds like a pretty rough time… When the company migrate over to online did they provide any kind of tried and true daily walk-throughs for how to enter stuff and track it and report on it? As long as you were able to describe the process of what happens in real life then if you call QuickBooks online technical support they are usually pretty good as far as figuring out the best way to replicate that in the program and then report out on it.

[@kyeharrell1305]

@@marshall8802 What version do I need to be able to use "classes"? Online Plus? Might try and talk them into the upgrade if so and turn off this error ridden feed feed from Dealer Center and do the store the "normal way". Thank you ...

[@marshall8802]

@@kyeharrell1305 Plus will allow you 40 classes. QBO Advanced gives unlimited classes. Also, keep in mind this is just 1 way to do the inventory. I'm sure there are other ways to do it in QuickBooks Online. This also doesn't take into account depreciation of the vehicles or anything more in depth.