Update Item Prices in QuickBooks

With so many supply chain issues, you may find it necessary to update item prices in QuickBooks. But how can this be done easily?

How to Update Item Prices in QuickBooks

• From the menu at the top select “Inventory > Change Item Prices”
• Or from the menu at the top select “Customers > Change Item Prices”

The Change Item Prices Window

The Change Item Prices window will now open. Select the Item Type at the upper left of the window. Note – you must have inventory enabled in QuickBooks to change inventory parts or inventory assemblies.

Once you have selected an item type you can begin updating prices.

Steps to Update Item Prices in QuickBooks

1. Select an Item Type
2. Select the items you wish to update or select “Mark All” at the bottom left of the list
3. Enter the change amount or percent.
   • If you wish to raise all prices by a set dollar amount enter a number only. For example, entering “10” will update all prices by $10.00.
   • If you want to update all prices by a percent enter “10%”. You must enter the percent sign or it will assume a dollar amount.
   • Entering “-10%” will reduce the price by 10%.
   • The change can be based on Current Price or Unit Cost.
   • There is also an option for rounding. This can be important if you don’t want a bunch of odd prices.
4. Select “Adjust” to see the amount QuickBooks has calculated. At this point nothing has been changed. You can change the amount or percentage again and simply click “Adjust” as many times as you like.
5. Once you are happy with the price changes, you must select “OK” at the bottom to save the price changes.

Important Note:

• This will only update new transactions. It will not update sales transactions already created such as invoices or sales receipts.
• Estimates and Sales Orders created before the update will use the old price when creating an new invoice. Here is an example:

A Sales Order is created for a hammer at a sales price of $10. The price is then updated to $12 for the hammer. Since the Sales Order was created with the old price of $10, the invoice will also use the price of $10 even if the invoice was created after the prices were updated. This also applies to Estimates.

This may work well if you have promised that all orders placed before a certain date will use the old price regardless of the shipping date. For example, all orders for hammers placed before September 30, 2025 would be $10 even if shipped and invoiced in October. All new orders placed after September 30 would be at the $12 rate.

An Alternate Way to Update Item Prices in QuickBooks

Another way to update item prices is to select “Add / Edit Multiple List Entries”.

From the top menu, select Lists > Add / Edit Multiple List Entries

Using the Add / Edit Multiple List Entries Window

This is a great way to edit lists in QuickBooks. Just be careful. There is no “undo” button. Here are the steps:

1. Select the type of list you wish to update
2. You can filter the list. For example, you could select items with a specific preferred vendor. You can also use the “find” field to the right to search for specific items.
3. You can manually update the prices. This may work well if you only need to update a couple of dozen prices from a price sheet without having to open each item.
4. Select “Save Changes” at the bottom. Remember, there is no undo button, but there is no limit to the number of updates you can make.

Where to Begin

Where do you begin? How do you know what prices need to be updated in the first place?

You can review the current margins on your products using the Sales by Item Summary Report. From the menu at the top, select Reports > Sales > Sales by Item Summary.

Search for items with a negative or low gross margin. You may also need update price rules and quantity discounts.

This report can be also downloaded to Excel by using the option at the top of the report window.

Automatically Update Item Prices in QuickBooks

Once the price list is updated, enabling the Automatic Cost and Price Updates Feature can maintain consistent gross margins.