How To Group Multiple Items Together In Quickbooks
One helpful tip to streamline your accounting is to create group items. While they aren’t technically required, there are several key benefits to using group items; they offer better tracking of similar items, reduce the amount of detail in customer invoices (most customers prefer basic invoices), and they allow for faster data entry. Unfortunately, however, most users completely overlook the group items, entering each invoice item individually. In this post, we’re going to break down the process of grouping multiple items together in a quick and easy step-by-step guide.
Creating a Group Item
While you are logged into your Quickbooks account, click the ‘List’ menu followed by ‘Go.’ This will open up a new menu with all of your current lists. Next, proceed to create a new item (like you would normally would) by clicking the ‘Item’ button at the bottom of your list.
From the available drop-down list, click ‘Type’ and then ‘Group.’ You’ll then be given the opportunity to name your new item group. You can choose a name that’s related to your product, or you choose a number. I recommend naming your group items with a relevant, easy-to-remember name that’s associated with your product/service. The name of your group item is entirely up to you, but choosing a relevant name rather than numbers will make things easier for you in the long run.
After choosing a name for your group item, you’ll be asked to enter a description. This is equally if not more important than the name since your customers will see the description printed on their sales invoices. Note: if you would like to display a list of your customer’s itemized products on their invoice, check the box next to ‘Print items.’ Leaving this box unchecked will prevent your invoices and sales forms from displaying itemized customer information.
The next step is to designate the items you wish to group. Go through the item column and select any that you want to add to the group. It’s important to note that groups are limited to 20 items. If you have more than 20 items that you wish to group, you’ll have to repeat these steps to create a second group.
Last but not least, in the ‘quantity’ field, enter the amount you want Quickbooks to use for each individual item. By default, this number is one; however, you can change it to 2, 5, 10, 100 or any other amount to fit your needs.