What are items?

Items are used when you’re billing for goods or products sold to your client. These items can be tangible, like parts, or intangible, like a hosting package. You’re also able to add sales taxes to your items so that they’re automatically added whenever the item is added to an invoice, and you can track your inventory by viewing how much is left in stock. Items can be assigned an income account to track your revenue by specific income categories in your reports.

 

Assigning an Income account for an item or service is part of Accounting and is only available on Plus, Premium and Select plans.

For details on how income categories behave in your Chart of Accounts, including how to edit, archive and unarchive them, review parent accounts and sub accounts on the CoA here.

 

If you’re looking to manage your services for tracking time, review What are services? instead.

 

• New Item
• Manage Items
• FAQs

New Item

To create a new item, use these steps:

1. Select the Items and Services section from the left menu
   
2. Next, select the Create New... button
3. Then select Item
   
4. Enter a Name for your item
   
5. If needed, add a Description, otherwise, leave blank if it’s different every time
6. If using Accounting, for Income Account, choose between Revenue, Billed Expenses, Discounts, Sales, Uncategorized Income, or any custom Income accounts
   1. If Advanced Accounting is activated, select the Add New Account button to create a new Income account instead
      
   2. Choose between Parent Account or Sub Account
      
   3. If Sub Account is chosen, in the Group Under Parent Account dropdown, select the Parent Account you want this new sub account to be organized under
   4. Next, enter an Account Name
   5. Then enter the unique Account Number, which is automatically populated for you but can be overwritten
   6. If needed, add in details in the Description field
   7. Select Save to create the new account
7. Add a Rate, or if the price differs every time, leave this blank
8. For taxes, check off up to two boxes next to any tax to have it included every time it's invoiced
   1. If needed, select Add Another Tax to add a new sales tax
9. Check off the box next to Track Inventory if you'd like to keep track of your stock
   1. Once checked off, specify the number in the in stock field - this can be updated again anytime
      
10. Select the Save button.

 

Your newly created item will now be visible in your invoices and estimates for billing. New items can also be created while creating or editing an invoice, estimate, or proposal.

Manage Items

If needed, use the quick filters above the list to quickly toggle between:

• All - View both active and archived items
• Archived - View only archived items

 

To make changes to an item, including its description, use these steps:

1. Select the Items and Services section
2. Then select the Items sub-tab
3. Select the item you’d like to edit, and a pop-up will appear
4. Make any changes as needed and select the Save button to finish.

Note: Making changes to the item while on an invoice will not save over the original item’s details, use the Items and Services section to edit the original item instead.

 

Bulk Actions

From the Items section, you can also update several items at once. Check off one or several boxes next to any item as needed, and select either:

• Edit - Check the box off next to a specific item to edit
• Archive - Move several items into your archived items list to keep your active list clean
• Delete - Move several items into your deleted items list
• Duplicate - Check the box off next to an item to duplicate it and modify the new item
• More - Select Change Income Account to update several items' Income account in bulk

 

FAQs

I tried to create a new item, but an error says the name is taken?

Item names must be unique. If the name is taken, the item name already exists elsewhere in your Archived Items and Services section, or in the deleted section. You can use the steps in How does archive or delete work? here to access the section and either edit the name to free up the original one, or restore the item if it’s been deleted.

Can my inventory sync with my connected apps in my FreshBooks account?

When you integrate with 2Ship and Shopify, your inventory's count from these systems will automatically update the matching item's stock inside your FreshBooks account too.