Product/Customer limit in Quickbooks

[pharry]

I've raised this issue before, and now there is also a company in the UK with this issue. They've done a wonderful job of explaining the issue. I want to post again so you know I'm still here, and still have this issue!

Quickbooks handles a finite number of products and customers. We can spend more money and get a higher limit. But no matter what the limit is, I'll hit it eventually. I add and retire roughly 500 products a month. This is a HUGE issue for me. Luckly so far I've been able to make it through a complete year, and then at year-end, I start a new file. This is very, very time consuming because all the inventory must be input manually, and the prior year payroll must be input. In addition to labor-intensive, there is also tremendous room for error with all the manual inputs. This is not a long term solution for me.

Has Actinic looked at a product called Fishbowl? If not, could you please? Fishbowl handles an unlimited number of products, and then interfaces with QB for the financials. Fishbowl handles the inventory and is quite powerful. Overkill for me, but since I must have support for unlimited products, I'm willing to spend this money and go that route of Actinic could build a link (two-way link). The link would have to be to/from Fishbowl and not QB.

The issue is big enough for me that if I find other e-commerce software that links to & from a product that handles unlimited inventory, I will be forced to consider it. I simply can not keep on with what I'm doing now.

Thanks!

[cdicken]

Hi Pat

Many thanks for taking the time to post. We haven't looked at Fishbowl - but I will get the team to look at it as a complentary integration offering.

[pharry]

Thank you, Chris! I would really appreciate that. Please keep me posted on what you learn.

[cdicken]

Hi Pat. I've had a word with the managment, and unfortunately - this could only ever be done as a bespoke development, as we have no plans to develop it ourselves.

Sorry about that.

[Mike Hughes]

From what I understand, the balance on hand is ignored when you import the Inventory items but can then be adjusted to the correct level using an IIF file.

There is a tool available that should help you do this and you can try it for free. See http://www.bigredconsulting.com/aboutlistimport.htm

I'm also going to post this in the other thread on QB limitations.

Mike

[oldhasbeen]

Hi Mike (and Pat!!)

We're playing with this programme at the moment. Not having much luck with it and their explanation of how to use it doesn't help.

You can't contact them by telephone so we're having to rely on email - even the email we've had back is not very helpful (I'm sure they're trying to be and we've guaranteed them a sale and many recommends if it works!!).

It seems that the trial version will only handle the first 10 listings of the iif file you export from QB - our actual stock items don't start until line 12! We seem to be running round in circles.....

I think we may have racked our brains over this for so long now, we can't see the wood for the trees anymore.

If anyone has time to have a look at this (perhaps someone who understands the machinations of excel a bit better ), a lot of people would be eternally grateful.

Regards - Helen

[pharry]

Hi Pat. I've had a word with the managment, and unfortunately - this could only ever be done as a bespoke development, as we have no plans to develop it ourselves.

Sorry about that.

Well this is really sad news for me. I just can't believe that Helen & I are the only companies with large volumes of product and heavy turnover. I think Actinic is pushing themselves out of a big market not being able to support companies like ours. Yes, I realize it is QB that doesn't support us, but with Actinic linking only to QB (for the US), Actinic also becomes very limiting.

I'll continue to search for ways to make QB work for the time being, because both Actinic and QB are meeting my needs as long as I start a new QB file each year and manually input inventory for 5500 products. But when it looks like I won't be able to last a year before needing a new QB file, then the road will end for me.

[BPJSURF]

Pat,
I worked with "fishbowl" with two companies here in New Jersey. I set up fishbowl and configured it too work with Quickbooks 2006 enterprise.

My impression of fishbowl is poor. It hardly does what it claims it does and has far too many qwerks to be consider a production solution.

I would advise that you consider looking into Quickbooks enterprise which has much larger database capacities then Pro or Premeir. The enterprise solution is a much more robust solution. Your problem of exceeding databases sizes is not an Actinic problem its actually a Quickbooks limitation.

You should also consider working with Quickbooks POS, Point of sale has a much more robust database engine and can handle larger quanitities of products and manage the products more effeicently. Actinic recently completed the intergation of Quickbooks POS to Actinic LINK. I have a running demo of the solution and can walk you through the configuration and operation of the solutions.

Another consideration is too look for some future products which will be made available by Intuit including a sql based solution which will handle much larger volumes of products and give you more flexibility in working with inventories and products. I am told that there is a new sql solution which they are working on but little details are available.

As always you can reach me directly if you would liek to discuss
732-528-7635 x203

Brian

[pharry]

Thanks for the input on Fishbowl, Brian. I'm glad to see that an interface can be done. When we last spoke, I believe you told me it would not be possible to do. Of course, I'm disappointed that it looks like this won't work for me either.

I'm not willing to spend more money on a QB solution that still supports a finite number or products. No matter what the limit is, I'll reach it eventually. I'm only willing to spend money on a solution that handles an unlimited number of products. I haven't looked at the POS solution - since I don't scan anything, it all comes from the internet, will this work for me?

I realize my problem is with QB, and not Actinic. However, if there is an inventory system in place of QB out there than handles unlimited products, and another e-commerce solution in place of Actinic that handles a to and from link to that other system, then I'll be forced to consider it. Unless I can find a working solution for my Actinic/QB solution.

[BPJSURF]

Some clarification:
I set up fishbowl to work with Quickbooks, not Actinic. It was a terrible solution and both customers elected not too use the solution because of its limitations.

Unlimited products, hmmmm, Prepare to spend a considerable amount of money to handle unlimited products, I think you may want to consider how many products you need to manage in a year and look to work from within your parameters and budget.

Again I will repeat that Actinic link and Quickbooks enterprise is an exceelent solution and is used by many cleints. Some have 10k to 20k products in their Quickbooks and it runs very well.

Quickbooks POS will handle over 100,000 products and can handle larger order volumes, Its inventory system is more developed and is a very god system.

There are options for you to handle the problem. You just need to look at the pros and cons of the options. My suggestion is Quickbooks enterprise at it will meet your needs now and well into the future.

[pharry]

Brian, I have 6000 active products now, and add about 6000 new ones per year. And the number of new ones per year is growing. So an expensive enterprise solution will still only last me a few years, and I'll still have to face the problem of what to do when I reach the limit.

I can continue doing what I'm doing, but I don't like it. In fact, I hate it! Next year I'll put payroll in a separate file, and that will make the chore easier each year after that. But biggest issue for me is manually inputting all the inventory for 6000 active products after I create the new file. This is obviously very time consuming and prone to errors since it is manually input. If I could just import my starting inventory levels, I'd be much, much happier with the solution. Any ideas?

As long as I don't have to create a new file before year-end (I want one file for the year for tax reasons/reporting), and I could import the starting inventory levels, it would be much easier to live with my solution. If I hit the limit before the end of the year, I could go to a more robust version of QB - but only if I can find a way to import y/e inventory.

I hope this makes sense. Maybe I've just outgrown my e-commerce solution, but I hope not.

[BPJSURF]

The solution is to move to Quickbooks enterprise as this will handle your current database size and will handles a few years of additional products.

There is absolutly no need to manually key in 6000 products into a new quickbooks file. You can export your inventory list and even migrate teh file to excel and then import the file as needed. This is a simple well documented proceedure in Quickbooks.

You keep saying that you have outgrown your ecommerce solution when its your accounting solution which is causing you the troubles. Again look at enterprise. Consider hiring SSI for some quickbooks consulting to get you through the migration and updating of your inventory. You are answering your own questions it just a matter of buying the proper software and using it to best effect.

[pharry]

Brian, can you point me to this documentation? I have exported many times, and imported back to QB to create a new file. I export to excel, sort by active/inactive flag, delete the inactive products, then import this file into a new QB file. But, a really big "BUT", the inventory levels in the exported file are set to zero. When you export products from QB, it does NOT export the inventories. I have not found a way to export and import inventory levels, stock control, whatever you want to call it.

And you are missing my point about Actinic. From my point of view, my solution is a bundled deal. It's only as useful to me as the weakest link.

[BPJSURF]

from the Quickbooks pro help file:
Use your QuickBooks Inventory Reports to look at the value of your inventory based on quantity on hand, average cost, retail value, and more.

Go to the Reports menu, choose Inventory, and then click one of the following:

Inventory Valuation Summary, to see the current value of your inventory, by item.

Inventory Valuation Detail, to see which transactions have affected the value of your inventory.

If you want a copy of the report, click Print.

Related topics
Getting the most out of a report

Other ways to analyze inventory

Printing a report

You can also export this report to excel. From there you could run an item list. You could merge the two reports in excel and the reimport after all inventory items and quanitity have been updated as needed.

Brian

[pharry]

Brian - that's not my issue. I know how to do inventory valuation. My issue is: I must create a new file at the end of each year, before the start of the new year, in order to eliminate the inactive products and stay below the maximum allowable number of products. When I create an export of the products, the inventory levels are not included in the export. So when I create the new file, all the inventories are zero, and I must manually input the starting inventory level for all my products. Which is about 6000 products. Manual input is time-consuming and error-prone.