Please stop creating new accounts

QuickBooks Online automatically creates accounts in your Chart of Accounts based on your actions. For example, using the Stock qty adjustment feature generates an Inventory Shrinkage account. While Inventory Shrinkage and Stock Offset both adjust digital records to match physical stock, they differ fundamentally in their financial definitions and system workflows.

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Nonsense.  Previously, it used Stock Offset-1 (which we did not create) and now uses Stock Offset (which we did not create), it also used Stock Shrinkage (which we did not create) and now uses Inventory Shrinkage (which we did not create).

I hear you. This switching behavior you're describing where the account name changes from Stock Offset-1 to Stock Offset, or Stock Shrinkage to Inventory Shrinkage is a different pattern and worth digging into.

I recommend contacting our live support team for a deeper look into your account. Here's the link: How to get help with QuickBooks.

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I think there may be some misunderstanding about the issue.

Naturally, we create stock adjustments, receive stock and sell stock. We have been doing this for several years using the inventory accounts that QuickBooks originally generated when inventory was first enabled.

More recently (e.g. March 2026), as shown in the screenshot I shared, QuickBooks created a new set of default inventory accounts. This means we now have duplicate accounts, including:

Two stock adjustment accounts
Two stock asset accounts

I think two Cost of Goods Sold accounts
Potentially other duplicate inventory-related accounts

My concern is not that QuickBooks creates accounts automatically in response to user actions. My concern is that newer inventory workflows appear to create additional default accounts rather than reusing the existing "default" accounts already associated with our inventory items.

Unfortunately, we only discovered this after closing our books and reviewing the account balances. Because historical inventory transactions exist in closed periods, QuickBooks will not allow us to update inventory items to use a single set of accounts.

As a result, we are left with duplicate inventory accounts and rather messy fragmented balances across our P&L and Balance Sheet reports.

I have reported this here so that the behaviour can be investigated further by Intuit.  It might also help others before it is too late.

Sorry for my short message previously, we are incredibly frustrated with QB more recently than ever.

Back to the issue, I think there may be some misunderstanding.

Naturally, we create stock adjustments, receive stock and sell stock. We have been doing this for several years using the inventory accounts that QuickBooks originally generated when inventory was first enabled.

More recently (e.g. March 2026), as shown in the screenshot I shared, QuickBooks created a new set of default inventory accounts. This means we now have duplicate accounts, including:

Two stock adjustment accounts
Two stock asset accounts

I think two Cost of Goods Sold accounts
Potentially other duplicate inventory-related accounts

My concern is not that QuickBooks creates accounts automatically in response to user actions. My concern is that newer inventory workflows appear to create additional default accounts rather than reusing the existing "default" accounts already associated with our inventory items.

Unfortunately, we only discovered this after closing our books and reviewing the account balances. Because historical inventory transactions exist in closed periods, QuickBooks will not allow us to update inventory items to use a single set of accounts.

As a result, we are left with duplicate inventory accounts and rather messy fragmented balances across our P&L and Balance Sheet reports.

I have reported this here so that the behaviour can be investigated further by Intuit.  It might also help others before it is too late.