Inventory system that handles pre-sales or customer prepayments
I am an outsourced accountant and I am trying to find an inventory system or a process for my client who collects advanced prepayments on all his orders prior to ordering the product. It is a B2B custom apparel business, bulk orders. The client currently uses QuickBooks Online. He issues invoices when customers place orders with him and collects payments prior to getting the product. These invoices should NOT be counted as sales at this point - not until the actual delivery to his customers. I manually review these against his shipping logs every month and record an adjustment to show actual completed sales vs future/unshipped/deferred revenue.
I am looking to propose an inventory management system to him (also need to improve COGS visibility and inventory tracking) but I am hoping to find one that will help with these presales. Any recommendations? Any tips? How are other small - mid-size businesses handling these situations? If you are dealing with the same scenario please share how you make your accounting work in the most efficient manner.