Bad debt and write offs

My question is what's the correct way to bad debt an inventory item? We have an item that we want to take out of inventory and put to bad debt. I have played different scenarios in my head but not sure which way is the proper way and which GL's it's going to hit. Initially we thought that we could just transfer the product out of inventory. But we can't seem to locate where we could label that transfer as bad debt. I then thought that maybe we could do a return of goods of the item, but again, we can't seem to locate where we can label it as bed debt. Then I thought I could issue a credit memo for the item and then set it to bad debt. I feel like this option is the correct one. Accounting is also worried about what GL's will be hit in any of these scenarios. 

  • Normally the Inventory Adjustment account is used. This is an Income Statement account.  When you setup your Product Lines you assigned a  GL account to Inventory Adjustments.  Work with your CPA to see which account he would want to use.

  • If you are sure of the GL Account you want to utilize, you can do an Inventory Issue out of inventory.  An II Transaction will support you modifying the GL Account and setting it to Bad Debt, if that is the account you want to utilize.  In more modern versions, user security is defined by Inventory Transaction Type.  An Inventory Issue is not common, so you may need to modify your Role Security to give you permission to do an Inventory Issue Transaction.  

  • And one last note - a credit memo puts items back INTO stock, not take them out.

  • in reply to bethbowers

    ah yes. I realized what I said after I said it. Thank you