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V8 - Setup checklist for new SOS Inventory accounts

This section provides a step-by-step process for successfully setting up a new SOS trial account and integrating it with QuickBooks Online. Some steps must be executed in QuickBooks Online. They are detailed here as well.

We recommend that you register for live training! Everything in this article is covered in our free introductory classes:

1000 - Starting SOS Inventory and Key Settings
1001 - New Customer Orientation
1003 - Item Creation and Management

The following steps must be completed by the user who will serve as the master administrator for the QuickBooks Online and SOS Inventory accounts:

In QuickBooks Online

Start a new QuickBooks Online account if you do not already have one.
If QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced is used:
1. If your QuickBooks account is new, in QuickBooks Online go to Settings > Account and settings. Then go to the Sales tab to turn off Quantity on hand tracking. This eliminates possible duplicate entries in your journals.
2. If you have an existing QuickBooks Online account with Quantity on hand tracking enabled, contact SOS Support before proceeding.
Complete the Chart of accounts. Account numbers are optional, but names must be unique.
Complete the Sales tax center (if needed).
Specify the Sales form settings.
1. Under Settings > Account and settings, Sales tab—Under Sales form content, enable Shipping, Discount, and/or Deposit in QuickBooks if you will use these features in SOS Inventory.
2. Under the Advanced tab
  1. If you enabled Shipping and/or Discount, go under Chart of accounts and choose the associated Shipping account and/or Discount account. (Deposits automatically go to Undeposited funds.)
  2. If you are going to use classes and/or locations (called departments in SOS Inventory), go under Categories, then enable Track classes and/or Track locations.
    1. For Track classes: In the Assign classes dropdown, choose One to each row in transaction. This must be enabled if you plan to use categories.
    2. For Track locations: Choose the desired option under the Location label. (Note: Regardless of the label chosen, in SOS Inventory, it will always be called Department.)

Create your SOS Inventory account

Start SOS account using one of these two methods:
1. From the Apps tab in QuickBooks Online, find SOS Inventory and select Get app now. You will receive a message to please wait while creating your account.
2. From the SOS website, www.sosinventory.com, click on Free trial to create a new SOS Inventory account, selecting the subscription plan you want to use.
  1. This will present you with the page stating to pick a plan. Select one by clicking the button under the plan you desire. Another page will ask for more information before you click on Submit.
  2. You will receive a message to please wait while creating your account.
  3. Once created, you can go in SOS to the Settings menu > QuickBooks setup page and click on the button Connect to QuickBooks. Then follow the steps to authorize the connection.
Regardless of the method you used to create your SOS Inventory account:
1. The initial sync will begin sending a copy of needed information from QuickBooks Online to SOS Inventory. This sync can take anywhere from 8 minutes to 24 hours, depending on the amount of data in your QuickBooks Online account.
2. You must wait until the sync is completed before using SOS Inventory. Once the initial sync is complete, you will receive an email at the address that started the account, saying the sync is complete.
3. If you connected via SOS Inventory, log out of SOS and then log back in to make sure your company name from your QuickBooks Online account is shown in the Company menu in SOS.

In SOS Inventory

Under the User menu:
1. Go to User settings. Set your time zone, and if desired, the date format and notification method.
2. Go to User Profile to update your password and security question. You may also enter your mobile number to receive notifications on your cell phone, if desired.
At this point in the setup process, you may want to delegate or share the completion of the remainder of the setup process to one or more persons who will serve as company administrators in SOS Inventory. You can define users by going to Company menu > User administration.
1. Select Add new to add a new user.
2. Enter the name and email address of the user.
3. Check the Administrator box so that the user has the appropriate privileges, then Save and close.
4. The user will receive an email from SOS asking them to log in and complete their profile.

The following steps may be completed by any user with administrator privileges.

In SOS, go to the Settings menu and complete the following to ensure all desired settings are enabled before loading any data:
Go to the Company menu (your company name) and complete the following as needed:
1. Company settings.
  1. Company address (required for meeting compliance regulations)
  2. Company header (recommended)
  3. Multicurrency (required if QuickBooks Online account is using Multicurrency)
  4. Home currency (required)
  5. Automated time zone (required)
  6. Logo (recommended).
2. User administration. Define additional users if needed.
  1. Go to Company menu > User administration.
    1. Select Add new to add a new user.
    2. Enter the name and email address of the user.
    3. Select the appropriate privileges for the user, based on their role in your organization.
      1. Check the Administrator box if the user is an administrator.
      2. Check the appropriate privileges if the user is not an administrator. For example, if the new user is a sales representative, you might not want to give privileges pertaining to purchasing or manufacturing.
      3. Save and close when done.
    4. The user will receive an email from SOS asking them to log in and complete their profile.
3. Account info. Go to Company menu > Account info and check to ensure the account is at the plan level you desire. This is especially important if SOS Inventory was enabled via the App center in QuickBooks Online.
4. Locations. Go to Company menu > Locations.
  1. Edit the default location so that you have its address and contact information for use on purchase orders and other transactions.
  2. If you are a Plus or Pro plan subscriber, add any additional locations you may need for your inventory management.
    1. Select Add new to create a new location.
    2. Enter the name, address, and contact information for the location.
    3. Check the appropriate settings if the location should be bin-tracked or used as a non-nettable location.
    4. Then save.
Other settings. Select and configure additional settings under the Miscellaneous section of the Company menu, as well as additional functionality under the Settings menu that apply to your organization. The most used options include the following:
1. Under the Company menu
  1. Locations (very important)
  2. Form templates
  3. Sales reps
  4. Shipping methods
2. Under the Settings menu
  1. Cart connections (i.e., BigCommerce, PayPal, Shopify shopping carts)
  2. ShipStation Setup
Now you can begin loading your data.
1. Go to the Company menu > Export data.
  1. In the Standard block, select Items.
    1. In the Columns block, click on the button Add all columns required for import.
    2. In the Actions block, select Save as Excel/CSV. An Items spreadsheet will be placed in your device's Download folder automatically.
2. Complete the Items spreadsheet with all the information that you know for each item.
  1. Review information about Bulk editing items.
  2. Make sure you are following the Guidelines for editing data as you complete the process.
  3. At minimum, you should enter the following data:
    1. Name (must be unique)
    2. Sales description
    3. Sales price
    4. Purchase description (optional, but if used, must be different from Sales description)
    5. Cost
    6. Item type (Inventory Item, Non-inventory Item, Item Group, Service, Expense, Category, Assembly, Other). If your company is on the Pro plan, Labor and Overhead will also be item type options.
      1. A Category-type item must be entered on the spreadsheet before any items can be assigned to that category.
    7. Quantity on hand
    8. Value on hand (total value of stock)
    9. Income, inventory asset, cost of goods sold (COGS), and expense accounts, as appropriate to item type
3. Go to the Import data page (Company menu > Import data) and upload your items into SOS.
  1. This should have created an inventory adjustment if you added Quantity on hand and Value on hand data for your items in the sheet.
  2. On the left side menu, go to Inventory > Inventory adjustments to find the adjustment created by the data export/import.
    1. Click on Edit to open the transaction.
    2. Change the account at the bottom to Opening balance equity.
    3. Save and Close the adjustment. This will send journal entries to QuickBooks Online to load the values in Inventory Asset and the offset in Opening Balance Equity.
Go to the Sync menu > Sync now to send all new items and journal entries from the adjustment to update your accounts in QuickBooks Online.
Now you can load any other data you need, such as vendors, customers, and bills of materials (BOMs) if you created Assembly-type items. These can be added using the bulk edit process, as you did with items.
1. Go to the Company menu > Export data.
  1. In the Standard block, select Vendors, Customers, or BOMs.
    1. In the Columns block, click on the button Add all columns required for import.
    2. In the Actions block, select Save as Excel/CSV. The appropriate spreadsheet will be placed in your device's Download folder automatically.
2. Complete the spreadsheet with all the information that you know for each line.
  1. Review information about bulk editing vendors, customers, or BOMs.
  2. Make sure you are following the Guidelines for editing data as you complete the process.
3. Go to the Import data page (Company menu > Import data) and upload your spreadsheet into SOS, selecting the appropriate data type (Vendor, Customer, or BOM).
Learn more about your workflows. See the Training registration page for classes that cover the following topics:
- Purchase workflow
- Sales workflow
- Advanced manufacturing

If you have any questions as you are going through this, please contact SOS Inventory Support. Email support hours are 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Central, Monday through Friday, as well as 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The SOS Support team is available by phone at 817-422-5909 from 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Central time, Monday through Friday.

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