How do I get a product report?

Unknown

To create lines in an invoice I had to create products But I see no way to get a report about those products.  This is rather frustrating, I didn't realize I needed to create a separate category for each product item (and it seems rather redundant to do so.)I'm using Quicken Home and Business and have for years but with the frustrations I've been having (one step update doesn't work anymore, and now I have several accounts that I don't even seem to be able to import transactions into and have to do it by hand) I don't really feel like having to pay a yearly membership fee to upgrade it

Unknown

What the heck is the point of having to create all the Products if they won't show on any reports!!!!

mshiggins

What the heck is the point of having to create all the Products if they won't show on any reports!!!!

From C. D. Bales:


"To create lines in an invoice I had to create products But I see no way to get a report about those products."


What you created are known as "invoice items". You can Add, Edit, and View invoice items at Business > Invoices and Estimates > View all invoice items.


There is no Quicken report intended to print just invoice items.


You can create a dummy invoice (in a dummy Invoice account, if you wish) which contains every invoice item, then print that dummy invoice.


" ... I didn't realize I needed to create a separate category for each product item ....".


You do not need "to create a separate category for each product item".


You can use the same category for all invoice items.

Unknown

What the heck is the point of having to create all the Products if they won't show on any reports!!!!

I realize I do not HAVE to create a separate category for each invoice item.  But since the invoice items don't show up on any reports, If I want to see or work with the information about invoice items I need to create something matching that will show up on reports.I'm not asking for a way to print out the list of invoice items.I'm asking for a way to see what/how many of each invoice item have sold over a given period of time.For instance, I'm a farmer (very small farm so none of the big ag software makes sense) and I had to fill out the census of agriculture this past year.  They wanted me to tell them how much of which crop sold and for how much, because I created all my farm invoice items with the category crop sales, I can't generate a report that tells me how much lettuce I sold as opposed to how much tomatoes or microgreens.  Had I realized that I needed to repeat the invoice item name in the category and or description I might have been able to answer the questions rather than guessing.  If I have to create and keep a separate spreadsheet for such things, it seems redundant to enter it all in quicken and start paying yearly for it.

volvogirl

What the heck is the point of having to create all the Products if they won't show on any reports!!!!

Quicken does not track Inventory.  If you need that you need to use QuickBooks.
http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting-software/small-business-software.jsp  

mshiggins

What the heck is the point of having to create all the Products if they won't show on any reports!!!!

From C. D. Bales;


"I'm asking for a way to see what/how many of each invoice item have sold over a given period of time."


Had you said that originally, you would have gotten a different answer.


"Had I realized that I needed to repeat the invoice item name in the category and or description I might have been able to answer the questions rather than guessing."


And the different answer would have included the fact that you certainly would have been able to answer the question about how much revenue you received for each of your crops , if you had used a unique category for each crop. It's a fairly trivial exercise to utilize a unique category for each item you sell: and a fairly basic practice.


[It's not clear why you think creating a separate category for each invoice item is redundant: it's not. Income and expenses are reported by Category in Quicken. Income from each of your farm product sales is one of the pieces of information you are asking for.]


But I know of no way in Quicken to track the quantity of invoice items you have sold.


You would have to do what you do not want to do, when you say:

"If I have to create and keep a separate spreadsheet for such things, it seems redundant to enter it all in quicken and start paying yearly for it."


[The frequency of payment is not material: the cost/year would be more meaningful, and the new Quicken "membership" model is, on average, no more expensive/year than the previous Quicken model.]


I see no reason why you should use and pay for any product that does not work for you.


You're in business, so you don't want to pay more for things than they are worth to you - perfectly normal.


Quicken is also in business, and they don't want to pay more for things than they are worth to Quicken, including product features - also normal.


Users of Quicken business features are a small fraction of all Quicken users (and users with your specific business needs are probably a smaller subset of that small number of business users).


The features that are available in Quicken represent Quicken's best educated, informed, guess about which features will be worth the cost to create and maintain. Quicken can't be expected to offer features that it believes will cost more than the benefits they bring to Quicken.


You can export Quicken invoices (including their individual invoice items, categories, quantities, and amounts) to QIF files. There are many other Personal Financial applications out there, but I could find none that handle "business" transactions, so none that will process the invoices in a QIF file. Further indication that there are limited choices.


You have rejected "the big ag software": it will (apparently) do what you want but it (presumably) costs too much. Now you complain that Quicken is not offering you enough capability for the money you are willing to spend. I think you've backed yourself into a corner of your own creation. Perhaps some of that alleged redundancy will start looking less troublesome as you compare your choices.

Unknown

What the heck is the point of having to create all the Products if they won't show on any reports!!!!

you say I can export my invoices as a qif file.  is there some way to export them (including the invoice items) as something I could view in a spreadsheet?

mshiggins

What the heck is the point of having to create all the Products if they won't show on any reports!!!!

From C. D. Bales:


As I understand it, you need both the quantity and the $amount of sales for each product. You now know how to get the $amount in Quicken - no exporting required; it's the quantity that is the problem.


"is there some way to export them [invoices] (including the invoice items) as something I could view in a spreadsheet?"


Yes and no.


A QIF file of invoice account transactions contains all the detail of each invoice, including quantities and amounts of each of the individual invoice lines.


Excel can open a QIF file ... but it just places all the QIF file data in one Excel column.


What you want is a way to spread the multiple fields from each QIF file transaction/split-line into multiple Excel columns - so each row then represents one Quicken transaction (or one split line).


Someone with the necessary Excel expertise might be able to convert the single Excel column into multiple Excel rows ... one row per invoice split line.


There is a free Excel Add-In that reads QIF files for banking and investment accounts and converts the QIF data into one Excel row per transaction/split-line. But nothing I could find will do that for QIF file accounts receivable (invoice) accounts.


I know of nothing in Quicken that even displays the quantity of individual invoice items in invoices (other than the invoice itself, in the invoice account or when printed).