When I think of Lettuce, it must mean that I am trying to lose some weight. In the case of QuickBooks Online, this could be the harbinger of a significant improvement in the product with enhanced inventory tracking, taking the weight off of many businesses that could benefit from using QBO, but can't make the switch because of necessary functions.

Lettuce

 refers to an app that was previously available as an add-on to QBO but is no longer available due to the recent acquisition by Intuit. Since I am always interested in inventory solutions that integrate with QBO, I tested Lettuce in a trial a few months ago. My first impression was that it lacked some very key features, such as syncing products bi-directionally between it and QBO and any kind of vendor management for the purchasing of inventory, such as purchase orders and receiving. 

I also thought it was pretty expensive, being in the middle between

SOS Inventory

 (for Basic Inventory) and

Exact Online

in terms of cost, but not providing as many features as either of them. When I was in the trial, there was a "ghost" link to features that weren't even in the version I was using, such as circled on the right. I think all that will change now that Intuit has taken the reigns. I just HOPE that they do it right: it should be simple to use yet provide the most important functions of inventory:

• Purchase Orders (already in QBO)

• Receiving

• Bills, Checks, Credit Cards, etc. (to add inventory without having to do any of the steps above)

• SALES ORDERS!: this one is currently missing in QBO and it is much needed.

• Converting Sales Orders to Purchase Orders

• Groups (and maybe Assemblies)

• Inventory Adjustments (as a separate transaction so that any COGS account can be chosen and a value changed)

• Packing Slips and Pick Lists

• Custom fields or tracking for Serial Numbers, Multi-Warehouse, Bin Locations, Barcodes

• Inventory Transfers (between locations)

• Unit of Measure

And this list could go on. But I would imagine they would leave out manufacturing and the complex nature of Bill of Materials, work orders, and perhaps even assemblies since these are more "Enterprise-Level" functions. 

I am very excited about what may come of this news and would be happy to provide any input or feedback as to the course of its development. Now, if Intuit would just acquire 

Avalara

, then we would be all set.