As the old saying goes, “I’m killing two birds with one stone.” In reality, it is more like four, not just two.
First, I’m writing a "Warehouse Wednesday" feature about using Barcode scanning with QuickBooks Online.
Second, I’m writing a QuickBooks Online feature about the SKU field.
Third, I’m repurposing an old article from seven and one-half years ago.
And fourth, I’m seeking more input from you on this topic, which drew a reasonable amount of knowledgeable responses back in the day.
In late 2015, which seems like eons ago, I wrote the article (reprinted below), “What If: I try to scan a Barcode into the New QBO SKU field?"
That article was developed as a result of a reader question, and resulted in me conducting one of my then frequent experiments to see if I could make or break certain aspects of QuickBooks (Online or Desktop).
The keys to the experiment involved:
- QuickBooks Online with Products and Services turned on so that (then recently added) SKU field could be accessed to store numeric data).
- A Barcode Reader, which in the case of the experiment was a Hand-held Products Model 3800 USB-corded Barcode Scanner; nothing so elaborate as a blue-tooth device or mobile app barcode interpreter.
- Patience, which I had little of then, especially for things that don’t work the way I want them to, and even less (patience) these days as an elder statesman.
The outcome:
You can read about the experiment in the reproduction of the 2015 article below, but the outcome can be summarized in just a few words… “There seemed to be a bug.”
There were a variety of oddities that really should not have existed since a barcode scanner is nothing more than an input device, not much different than a keyboard.
It simply should have been a matter of using a properly configured barcode scanner to scan barcodes into both the SKU field (which would store the barcodes in their numeric equivalent) and then scan barcodes into the Product/Service field on any QBO forms that should then match-up with new SKU field.
But this isn’t what happened. Multiple bugs were encountered related to inputting the barcode into the SKU field; QuickBooks recognizing a scanned barcode as a numeric value already entered into the SKU field; and various reporting difficulties.
Once again, I will let you read the details in the reproduced article.
Are You Using Barcodes with the QBO SKU field?
As I mentioned in the aforementioned opening, one big reason to recall this article is to get the input of a group of ProAdvisors I’m confident have far greater patience than this old man. They also would have kept on with their efforts to use barcode scanners.
Perhaps some of you are using more sophisticated barcode devices now, which indeed turn QuickBooks Online into a more inventory friendly software.
How about it, colleagues?
Do you have anything new you would like to contribute? If so, go right ahead and add some new comments to this article.
“What If: I try to scan a Barcode into the New QBO SKU field? (Article reprint below.)
A reader wrote in to ask if we knew if the new SKU feature for QBO could make use of Barcodes. Since a barcode scanner is nothing more than an input device, not much different than a keyboard, it would seem natural to have a barcode scanner properly configured on your computer. This should be able to scan barcodes into the SKU field (which will be stored as their numeric equivalent) and scan barcodes into the Product/Service field on various QBO forms that make use of the new SKU field.
Our Experiment
First we created a new item—for this purpose “Business Cards”—and then scanned a barcode into the SKU field.
The barcode numeric identifier was 12801275717888. (By the way, solely for reference purposes, we scanned an image of the barcode, and then uploaded that image into the image field of the QBO Inventory Item.
You can see in the illustration below that the barcode numeric identifier was recorded in the SKU field, and that the SKU value equals that of the barcode shown in the illustration field.
We then attempted to scan the barcode into various QBO forms, placing our cursor in the Item Product/Service field and scanning the barcode using our barcode reader (shown below).
The barcode numeric identifier was populated into the field, then QBO displayed the Add/pick pop-up window, as well as another window in which you would pick the type of Product/Service (Inventory/Non-inventory/Service).
When it does this process, the entire form window goes dark with the exception of the ‘Add/pick’ pop-up window, as can be seen in the illustration below. It is almost as if QBO recognizes the numeric, but only secondarily does it recognize the numeric as corresponding to an SKU.
It apparently first thinks it is a new item that you might need to add.
If you proceed with manually selecting the SKU item from the pop-up window (shown below), the entire process proceeds in a near normal fashion with a couple of noted exceptions.
First, the Product/Service type window I eluded to which should be associated with the Add new item feature does not close automatically. You must close it manually, and the form template screen does not return to full (normal) brightness until you close that window.
Second, even though you accepted the proper item from the pop-up window, the Product/Service field remains blank while the associated description and other fields such as price, show up correctly. (This seems to be a bug in the new feature.)
In order to preclude the possibility that the "bug" is exclusive to using a barcode form of input, I tried the same thing by manually typing in the full barcode numeric value into the product/service field. I received the exact same results.
On the other hand, if you type in only a sufficient portion of the numeric value for QBO to find the SKU, and then pick the item, both the item name and description show up in the appropriate fields.
I must therefore conclude that the bug is associated with the actual QBO SKU feature as a value as a whole.
Another very odd thing happens when you attempt to view the transaction in reports (shown above).
If you run the Sales by Product/Services Detail report, and you add the Product/Service column to the report, the transaction item shows up as a Service when in fact it is an Inventory item.
I am unclear as to if this bug is the result of the SKU functionality, the fact that the Product/Service is not retained when you pick from the pop-up displaying the SKU, or if it is in fact associated with the Inventory product type since, again, I get the same result even if I pick an SKU item, rather than barcode scan the product/service field.
All in all I must say that the new QBO feature does not appear to be "prime time" ready for barcode numeric values to be used. It may in fact not be fully "bug free" in even normal hand-keyed or drop-down-picked interface use.
If you have begun using the SKU feature, and noticed any odd behavior associated with this new functionality, please let us hear from you by posting your observations in the 'comments' section below.
By the way, for purposes of our experiment we used a Hand-held Products Model 3800 USB-corded Barcode Scanner.
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