QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise: Step-by-Step through the Item Profitability Report

We introduced you to the new 'Item Profitability Report' in our QB Monday Minute two days ago. The new report only became available with the recently releases R13 update to QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise v24.  Remember, Intuit did not release a v25 (aka: 2025) edition of QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise and supposedly has no intention of future annual versions. They have however been releasing new, enhanced or improved features to QBD-Enterprise v24 every quarter or so.

The new Item Profitability Report allows users to quickly identify profitable and unprofitable items. With this new report, you can:

• Track how your items are selling and compare the quantity sold, cost, sales price, planned vs. actual markup, and margin in one view.
• Identify item sales needing improvements.
• Gain insight into what your item costs have been doing with both 'actual' and 'original cost' pricing information.

Remember, this new report is only available in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise v24.0 R13 (and above).

You can check to see if you have the R13 update by opening the Product Information window inside QuickBooks (as shown below) using the F2 key (or CTRL+1).

Accessing the Item Profitability Report

Follow these steps to access the Item Profitability Report:

1) From the QuickBooks Reports menu item,

2) Select Jobs, Time & Mileage.

3) Select Item Profitability.

4) Read the brief overview of the benefits of the report.

5) Select Close to continue.

6) View the Report. (The inserted box in the Report example below is informational only).

Item Profitability Report 'Details'

The Item Profitability Report provides the following details for each of your 'Items' based on information in the Item Setup window.

• Item's Cost,
• Item's Sales Price, 
• Item's % Markup [as shown in the example below, the % Markup is calculated as: = (Sales Price - Cost) / Cost.]
• Item's % Margin [per the example below, the % Margin is calculated as: = )Sales Price - Cost) / Sales Price.]

Note: Because this item is directly related to the data appearing in the Item Setup window, users (with the appropriate permissions) can modify any of this data simply by double-clicking on any item, or the cost or sales price for an item. Users can change the Cost or Sales Price data, and QuickBooks will compute the % Markup and % Margin based on those changes.

In addition, the following data on the Item Profitability is derived from 'actual transaction data':

• Quantity Sold
• Actual Cost
• Actual Revenue
• Difference (Diff), which as [shown in the example above is calculated as: = Actual Revenue - Actual Cost.]

Aggregated actual transaction data is used to compute:

• % Actual Markup which [as shown above is computed as: = (Actual Revenue - Actual Cost) / Actual Cost.] In other words, what you actually paid in comparison to the actual revenue the item generates.
• % Actual Margin [as shown in the example above is computed as: = (Actual Revenue - Actual Cost / Actual Revenue.] This figure represents your actual profit over all sales based on the revenue minus cost relationship.

Accessing Other Reports from the Item Profitability Report

You can use the Item Profitability Report to access several other reports in support of the information displayed on the report.

• Item Actual Cost Detail Report (as shown below) can be accessed by double-clicking on the Actual Cost of any item. The aggregated transaction data is the source for the information displayed on the Item Profitability Report.

• Item Actual Revenue Detail Report (as shown below) an be accessed by double-clicking on the Actual Revenue of any item. The aggregated transaction data is the source for the information displayed on the Item Profitability Report.

Be aware that any item in the Item Profitability Report might show unexpected results if a user sets the cost and sales price differ from the item's actual value.