Custom Fields in QuickBooks
Every business has some sort of unique information that is important to its operation. While QuickBooks provides the places to store the basic information that every business needs, you will usually find that you need to store additional data such as a customer’s vehicle registration number, or the weight of an inventory item. QuickBooks provides us with custom fields, a way that you can define your own places to store information. Today we’ll talk a bit about custom fields and how to use them in estimates, sales orders and invoices.
While watching postings in the QuickBooksGroup user forums I see that many people don’t understand how custom fields work in QuickBooks. Part of the problem is that QuickBooks handles them in a quirky way that isn’t always obvious. I’ve worked extensively with custom fields while developing my CCRQInvoice invoice utility for QuickBooks, and I’ll run through a simple example here with an invoice. Note that these steps are essentially the same for invoices, sales orders, estimates and sales receipts (and very similar to what you can do with purchase orders).
What we want to accomplish
For our simple example we’ll create an invoice form for a computer repair shop. On each invoice I want to have a field in the invoice header that identifies the particular computer system that was worked on, and for each detail line in the invoice I want to specify (if appropriate) the serial number of the component that was repaired. The following is a screen shot of what I want my invoice to look like.
How can I add this field and column? If we go to the layout designer we see that we can add a text box or a data field:
Those won’t help, though. A text box is merely a box of text that I enter when designing the form – it doesn’t let me change it when I am entering an invoice. A data field comes closer, but I can only add a limited number of fields that QuickBooks provides to me. I still can’t change the values of these fields when I am entering an invoice. So what can we do? This is where custom fields come into play.
Creating Fields for the Header
Let’s start with adding a field for the computer system that the invoice applies to. I’m making one invoice per computer system, and I want the ID for that system to show in the top (header) of the invoice. Some customers have only one computer system, others may have several.
To start, we have to add a custom field to the customer list. Edit any customer in the customer list and select the additional info tab. Click the define fields button.
This opens a window that lets you define custom fields in the customer list (as well as vendor and employee lists). Enter a name for the field you want to define (I’ve used “Computer System” here) and check the box.
This screen can be a bit misleading. It looks like you can add 15 custom fields here. However, QuickBooks will limit you to seven custom fields for any of the record types shown here.
Click on OK and you will see that the custom field is added to the customer record.
If you have information that you want to always show up in an invoice you create for this customer, enter that value in the field here. You can, however, leave it blank.
Now let’s add this to the invoice template. Edit the template and click on the additional selections (not the layout designer) and scroll to the bottom of the list of fields in the header tab. You will see that your custom fields have been added to the bottom of the list. Place a check mark in the screen and print columns to add the field in both places. You may need to use the layout designer to place the field in the desired location.
If we save this and look at an invoice that uses this template, you see that there is a field for “computer system”.
If you create a new invoice using this template you can enter the value of the “computer system” in this field, and it will print on the invoice. If the customer has one computer system we can put the ID in that field in the customer list, and when we select that customer for the invoice the value will show up in this field by default.
Please note the following:
- You can only enter 30 characters of information in a custom field.
- You cannot change the size of the field on the screen, but you can control the size of the field on the printed form in the layout designer.
- It is not possible to create a drop-down list in a custom field, or to have it formatted so that it only accepts dates or numbers.
Creating Columns
Fields created in the customer list can only be used in the header or footer of an invoice. If you want to create a new column in the invoice you must add a custom field to the item list.
Edit any item in the item list and click on the custom fields button.
In the custom fields screen click the define fields button.
This is similar to what you’ve seen before. You can create a label for the custom field, and place a check mark in the box. Note that you can only create five custom fields in the item list.
As with the customer record you can enter a value in the custom field for any item on the item list, and it will show as the default value in the invoice. You can also leave it blank. Note that you only have to define this field in one item, it will then be available in all items.
Edit the invoice template and select the additional selections button. You will see that the custom field added to the item list shows on the columns tab. Check both the screen and print boxes.
When we look at our invoice on the screen, you see that the serial column has been added.
You can enter the values for the serial numbers in this column. Please note the following:
- You can only enter 30 characters of information in a custom field.
- You can change the width the field on the screen.
- It is not possible to create a drop-down list in a custom field, or to have it formatted so that it only accepts dates or numbers.
- It is not possible to create a column that is used in a calculation, such as the difference of two values, or that has an effect on the quantity, rate or amount columns (this is a feature you can get in my CCRQInvoice product).
- Select the item first, before entering a value in a custom field. When you select an item it will replace the custom fields with the values from that item record (which could be blank).
Looking at the finished invoice
Here is our invoice, with the custom fields:
A few last points to make:
- Edit your template before you create the invoice. If you create an invoice, then edit the template to add the fields, your existing invoices might not contain the information from the lists. These fields are “populated” when the invoice is created.
- Values from custom fields show on some reports, but not always where you expect or with the values you want. Some reports will show the values from the list records (the item and customer list). Some reports will show the values from the transaction records (the invoice). Sometimes you will see the fields listed in a report and they never show any value. It is hard to predict.
- You can erase or remove custom fields from the lists, but only if you first remove them from any form template that uses the field.
This has been a quick review of custom fields – let me know if this helps you, or if there are any points that you would like to see clarified.
Brenda | Jul 13, 2008 | Reply
Can you extend the number or characters in a custom field? I need to be able to enter driving directions in a cusotm field?
Charles Russell | Jul 13, 2008 | Reply
Sorry, Brenda, as I said in the article, you can only enter 30 characters of information at the most. That cannot be expanded.
Is this information that you want to change with each invoice, or is it something that is constant for a given customer? If it is directions for this customer, the best I can suggest is to find one of the larger fields in the customer record, such as the email or alt email. Enter the info there, then add the field in the layout designer. You can’t change it in the invoice, just in the customer record.
Other than that, if it is something that changes with each invoice, the best I can come up with is to suggest that you enter the information in a blank detail line of the invoice. You can enter up to 4096 characters in a description line (in the Windows versions of QuickBooks, not the Mac version).
Ann | Jul 29, 2008 | Reply
We renamed the “other” field in the header to “patient name” and would now like to do a report which includes “patient name”, but we can’t figure out how to add that field to any reports - Can it be added? All the info is in QB’s but we can’t seem to get at it.
Charles Russell | Jul 29, 2008 | Reply
Hi, Ann. Unfortunately, the “other” fields aren’t well supported. I generally recommend that people stay away from them when possible, and use “custom fields” instead. The “other” fields can’t be used in many (if any) reports, and often aren’t supported by integrated reporting tools.
Leanne | Jul 30, 2008 | Reply
I’ve never looked at Quickbooks before today, but the company I’m briefly temping for has been trying to get some item-related custom fields to show up on their packing slips. They have managed to get the columns added, but no values show up. From your tutorial, it appears that these values have to be manually added somewhere? (I may not be understanding correctly.) And if so, what’s the purpose of defining the custom fields in the first place?
To say that I’m confused is understating things.
Charles Russell | Jul 30, 2008 | Reply
Leanne: If you have created the custom fields in the item list, and added them to the template as columns, there are two places the information can come from. First - if you enter a value in the custom field IN THE ITEM RECORD, then when you ADD the item to the order the value will show up. Note that you have to ADD the item to the order AFTER you have set up the field, entered the value in the record, and created the template. Second - if you have checked the box to show the column on the “screen” then when you add the item to the order you can type in a value directly to that column.
Leanne | Jul 31, 2008 | Reply
The template was altered to include columns for the custom fields some time ago. The values are in the custom fields on the item record, but when we print the packing list, there is nothing in those columns. I’ve verified that there is indeed data in those fields on the item record, so I’m stumped as to why they are not getting passed to the template.
Charles Russell | Jul 31, 2008 | Reply
The fields are populated, usually, when you create the order with a template that includes the columns. This is a packing list, so odds are that when you first created the order you used a different template? If this is a sales order, for example, add the custom columns to the regular sales order template that you use to CREATE the order. You only have to include them on the screen, not the printed version. When you create the order, you should see the values on the screen. Once they are created there, you should see them when you switch to the packing list template.
If not, then there isn’t much more that I can say here in these notes, I’d have to look at your company file directly.
Bob | Jul 31, 2008 | Reply
We are instituting QBE 8.0 at our work and have customized an invoice. We added the customer’s telephone and I want to know if there is a way to format the field to read 000-000-0000. Right now all of the numbers are run together instead of being separated by area code, prefix, and number.
Thank you for your reply.
Bob
Charles Russell | Jul 31, 2008 | Reply
Bob, the formatting capabilities are very limited. You can’t transform data. You would have to go to a more sophisticated method of printing your invoices with a third party add-on to change this.
However, if you are using either a custom field, or a “data field” for the customer phone, it should just display the information the way you have it stored. So if it is entered in the customer record as 000-000-0000, it will print that way. If it is entered as 0000000000 then it will print that way.
Ed | Aug 1, 2008 | Reply
Does the number of available custom fields for a product change depending on which version of Quickbooks you use?
Charles Russell | Aug 1, 2008 | Reply
Not really, Ed. In the US editions you have the same number of fields in Pro, Premier and Enterprise. Same in the 2008 Canadian (single currency) and UK versions.
If you have an older Canadian version, or possibly the 2008 multi currency Canadian version (although I haven’t checked that) you may find that you have some more.
I don’t know about the Australian or Asian versions, which are based on older code.
Brian Rickard | Aug 6, 2008 | Reply
I noticed your article mentioned that it is possible to change the on-screen width of custom columns. For years we’ve been frustrated by the column widths that QuickBooks (currently using 2005 Premier Mfg & Whsle) assigns to our on-screen forms. It seems to prefer to give us very wide columns (e.g. 30%) for columns that need only contain a few characters (e.g. Qty or UOM), while limiting other columns that normally contain a lot of characters (e.g. Description) to a narrow rendition (e.g. 8%).
If you can provide us with a method that would allow us to view our forms on-screen with appropriately-sized columns, we would be tremendously grateful!
Thanks.
Charles Russell | Aug 7, 2008 | Reply
Brian, the simple answer to that is to upgrade to the current version of QuickBooks. This allows you to resized the width of the columns in the form that shows on the screen, where I believe that the 2005 version did not.
Jesse | Aug 12, 2008 | Reply
i have created a custom invoice following your instructions the best i could. the same address that i type into the Bill To field, though, is duplicating to each and every invoice. i cant type in unique addresses on each invoice.
on the last invoice, if i type in a different address then that same address copies over to all the previous invoices.
also, i really appreciate your detail explanation for the custom invoices.
Charles Russell | Aug 12, 2008 | Reply
Jesse, usually the bill to field comes from the customer record, so it would be filled in by whatever you have in the customer record itself (without a custom field being needed). How did you create this field, and how do you enter your data into it?
Jesse | Aug 13, 2008 | Reply
oh i see, well that makes sense that it would pull from the customer record. i dont need a bill to or ship to field really, but i just need a field where i can enter the property address that the specific invoice is pertaining to. i would rather it not be a column field but maybe i have to do it that way.
the point of this custom invoice is to enter our upcoming real estate commissions if the property closes. it seems that this will allow me pull a forecasted cash flow report. then once it clsoes we will go through the rcvd payment process.
so this invoice isnt being sent to anyone. its just for our own forecasting.
Roy | Aug 20, 2008 | Reply
I want to include the “account number” on my Statements. But i cannot find where to enter the info into the field “account number” Where is this field located in the customer info.
Charles Russell | Aug 20, 2008 | Reply
Roy, that field is in the “payment info” tab when you edit the customer.
Kirk Lundburg | Aug 26, 2008 | Reply
This clears up a lot for me. One more question, now that I have added an additional column to our template invoice, how do I get that column to show up on the statements?
thanks so much for your help.
Kirk
Charles Russell | Aug 26, 2008 | Reply
Thank you for your comment, Kirk. The short answer is “you can’t”. Statement templates are not very customizable.
The best I can offer is to lok at the “customer balance detail” report. You can add custom fields from the customer list there. You can export that to Excel to reformat.
Or you can write your own statements using the ODBC driver, or get someone to write a custom program for you.
Wendy Cowper | Sep 17, 2008 | Reply
Where do I get the ODBC driver?
I need to generate a statement that has only the invoice details on i.e no invoice total
Thanks
Charles Russell | Sep 17, 2008 | Reply
Wendy: If you are using QuickBooks Enterprise then you already have the ODBC driver, you just have to install/implement it. If you are using Pro or Premier you can purchase it at http://www.qodbc.com.
You can also request a quote to have our custom developers create a report for you - email your specifications to custom@ccrsoftware.com
Mary Ann MacLean | Sep 17, 2008 | Reply
We have a custom invoice template created in QB Accountant’s Edition 2007, with a custom field for an Advertising Code, labeled Adv. Code. Somehow, in the block beneath the field, the word “Orlando” (our city) was put in the block. We need to change that word, but I have been unable to find a way to get into that field. I can get into all the headers–no problems, but can’t get to that single word which appears on every invoice. The word we want to put there will be consistant on most invoices, but we also need to be able to change it when it is not applicable. Right now, we change the word “Orlando” alot. In all the fields that I can get into, I cannot find the word “Orlando”. Any suggestions?
Charles Russell | Sep 17, 2008 | Reply
Mary Ann, it’s hard to give you a direct answer without seeing the template. There are several things that can be going on. It’s not clear if this is the custom field itself, or something else. You can go to the Layout Designer and see if that is a separate data block of some sort, and delete it.
Or if this is the actual data field itself, and this is a custom field from the customer master list, then it could just be that the custom field in the order is picking up a default value from the customer record. Find an invoice that has this value showing up. Go to the customer record that this invoice is created for, look at the custom field in the customer record and see if there is a value there. If one is there, it will show as the default in that field when you create an invoice for that customer.
Mary Ann MacLean | Sep 17, 2008 | Reply
Charles, thanks for the quick response. It is NOT the custom field header. It’s a fill in the blank area below the field, and it is only meant to hold 1-2 words. It isn’t on just some of the invoices; it’s on EVERY invoice. Does that help?
Charles Russell | Sep 17, 2008 | Reply
Mary Ann, I didn’t mean he custom field header, I meant a custom field in the header of the invoice (as opposed to the detail of the invoice).
Did you look at this in the layout designer?
Mary Ann MacLean | Sep 17, 2008 | Reply
Charles–found the answer. Had to go in under Admin in Single User Mode; Select Edit/Preferences/Sales & Customers and the Company Preferences tab. The word “Orlando” was in the field beside the “Usual FOB” header. Just thought I’d let you know. Thanks for your assistance; I’m sure I’ll have more questions.
Charles Russell | Sep 17, 2008 | Reply
Mary Ann: glad you found it. There are a million ways that something like that can show up, it is really hard to figure it out in a comment blog like this. We do offer support services, for a fee, if you ever need help. We would be able to access your computer directly and could easily determine what is going on…
Steve Murray | Sep 18, 2008 | Reply
This article was a life saver. I created custom fields in a sales receipt to capture registrant names that were submitted with payment for event registrations. Thanks!
Joshua Miller | Sep 22, 2008 | Reply
Really impressed with how thorough the article is. Wish I would have read it when I started using quickbooks. Unfortunately we have been putting some invoice data into the ‘Other 1′ field that I now need access to. I read your comment above that the ‘other fields aren’t well supported’. Is there anyway to access that data at all other than double-clicking on each individual invoice? I would be happy with just a list of the data that is in that field. Thanks in advance for your help!
Charles Russell | Sep 23, 2008 | Reply
Thank you, Joshua. Unfortunately, I don’t see an easy way to transfer that information. There may be a way, I just can’t find it. If you have the 2008 version of QuickBooks you can purchase the ODBC driver and you may be able to do that transfer with Excel. There may be other tools you can purchase that could handle that, also. I could also write a custom program to do it for you, again depending on what year of QuickBooks you are using.
Andre Baruch | Oct 2, 2008 | Reply
Thanks Charles. I’m running Quickbooks Premier 2008/09. Is it possible to customise the bill interface to pull up the custom fields created in the item lists as described above? I need to have item information (unique to each occurrence) on supplier bills that I generate. (This information is to record the date and time of each occurrence of the item).
Thanks in anticipation
Charles Russell | Oct 3, 2008 | Reply
Andre, the Australian version of QuickBooks is different than the US version, and I’m not very familiar with it so I can’t say anything with certainty. However, in the US version you cannot change that portion of the program. You can only change the printed forms (invoices, sales orders and so forth) and some reports.
T.R. Brysh | Oct 15, 2008 | Reply
I run a trucking company and i need 3 address fields and qb only gives 2. I need a “Bill To” field, a “shipped from” field and a “shipped to” field. I can’t seem to figure out how to do this. i appreciate any help. my version is 2007
Charles Russell | Oct 15, 2008 | Reply
T.R., there isn’t a way to add a third address, specifically. You can only have the two address fields. However, you can use custom fields to add four or five separate fields in the customer list, and then use the additional selections/layout designer to stack them up on the form so they look like an address…
Chris | Oct 16, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for a great article. I’m trying to add a DUNS # to our statements. I’ve already got it setup as a custom field and am using it on collection letters. It appears that we are able to add custom field to invoices, but not other form such as statements?
Also, how about emails (e.g. add the DUNS# to the subject of the email? Thanks! (FYI I’m currently on ver 2006, but willing to upgrade).
Charles Russell | Oct 16, 2008 | Reply
Chris, statements in QuickBooks are not very flexible. You have very limited options. Custom fields cannot be added to the statement template.
Emails are also somewhat limited. You cannot change the email subject or text to add custom field information. You can add FIXED information to the subject line - info that you want on EVERY email, but not info from the invoice itself.
Charles Russell | Oct 16, 2008 | Reply
Another approach on statements is to use the Customer Balance Detail report as your statement (you can export it to Excel to modify), it has most of the info (no aging summary) and you can add the custom fields…
Paula | Oct 21, 2008 | Reply
Hello,
I have been able to get the custom field on the invoice however I want it to show up when I double click on a list item. I need the custom field “Price list” to show up on the same screen as the Type, Purchase Info, Sales Info, and Inventory info. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Charles Russell | Oct 21, 2008 | Reply
Paula, if I understand you correctly, you can’t do that in QuickBooks. If you are talking about having it show in the Edit Item window when you double click on it in the list, you can’t change that, it only shows when you click the “custom fields” button. If you are talking about somewhere else then please clarify - but odds are you can’t.
You can get the custom field to show as a column in the item list by right clicking on the headers of the list and selecting “customize columns”, though.
Tehjay Fox | Oct 25, 2008 | Reply
Great Information Here.
My question: Is there any way of adding a Previous Balance (the amount of any outstanding invoices) to an invoice. I can get the Total Account balance but I wanted to show three things. 1) Current Invoice total 2) Total of other invoices 3) Total Account balance. I prefer not to send statements to customers with unpaid invoices (as it would be most of them).
Charles Russell | Oct 26, 2008 | Reply
Tehjay, you can get 1 & 3, but not 2. You can have the total of the current invoice, and the total balance of all open invoices, but not the total of OTHER invoices.
Barry | Oct 31, 2008 | Reply
Thank you for the article. I have added custom fields to a number of suppliers, specifically their bank account details for payment. I then created a custom transaction listing to list payments to suppliers and ticked the custom fields for inclusion in this listing. While the field names appear at the top, none of the data values appear. I’m not referring to any template so shouldn’t the data values automatically list? I’m using Quickbooks 2008 Pro
Charlie | Oct 31, 2008 | Reply
Barry, did you create a NEW invoice after you modified the template? The fields won’t be populated if you take an existing invoice and modify the template - they are populated when you add the customer to the invoice…
Barry | Nov 1, 2008 | Reply
Yes, I posted transactions to simulate payments to the suppliers in question after creating the custom fields. I then generated the required transaction listing but still no joy. I have noted that the inclusion of the same information in a STANDARD field (e.g. phone field or fax field etc) automatically appears as I would expect and without a problem. For whatever reason, QB is not picking up the custom fields data. I think I will just include the required info in standard fields even though it is less than ideal. Thank you for your response.
Barry | Nov 1, 2008 | Reply
Charlie, also fyi, when I export the full supplier list to Excel, neither the custom fields nor the custom data is exported but all other fields and data are.
Mary the Bookkeeper | Nov 1, 2008 | Reply
I have another unique situation with a new client. They are a hunt club and raise their own birds. They offer 5 birds with an annual membership. So……with a membership fee of $150 each year clients get 5 pheasants. Then they keep track of the birds they kill and take off of the reserve. A pheasant is $23 and that is the 5 birds they pay for each year. But there are other birds they can kill, such as chukars. These smaller birds are a lessor charge.
Is there a way that I can keep this “bird bank” record in quickbooks? Clients can add to the bird bank also. It accumulates fees already paid and then deducts from the “bank” as withdrawals are made.
Do you have any suggestions?
Charlie | Nov 1, 2008 | Reply
Barry, I suspect you are using a non-US version of the product - possibly the UK edition? I work with the US editions, and they differ from the non-US editions in many ways. If you are using the UK edition, consider moving to (if you aren’t already) the 2008 version. That is closer to the US edition and has a better chance of performing properly.
Charlie | Nov 1, 2008 | Reply
Mary, that is a bit “off topic” for this discussion. Not being a CPA or accountant I don’t know what makes sense financially. One thought that comes to mind is that you create an inventory item for each bird type for each member and assign it the quantity (probably at no cost????) and then invoice the client, which would reduce the quantity????
dkriese | Nov 2, 2008 | Reply
I have successfully created a custom sales receipt form for my client. All the fields on the additional customization side have the ability to be renamed and appear on the receipt form, and most appear correctly data entry screen. however on the reports, modify reports, only te original field name appears, not the newly renamed fields.
This confuses me, why give the ability to rename these fields, have it appear correctly on the form, but not appear correctly on the data entry screen and reports? Is there yet another method to make sure that these fields are named?, I have made sure to only change/modify those fields that hold text data (not any accounting data) i.e. I changed (original) Due Date to Start Date, (original) FOB to a Time Stamp I enter manually. These appear as the original names on the reports. I am using Premiere Professional 2008 w/o payroll.
Charlie | Nov 2, 2008 | Reply
dkriese: What you did was to change the “label” for the fields in that template. You are only changing what shows on the screen for the template itself. The field isn’t being renamed, so the reports will still show the original names.
The only fields that you could rename would be the custom fields, and you would rename them in the place that you define them. Item custom fields would be renamed in the place where you define those fields, off of the “edit item” window, for example.
Ivan | Nov 18, 2008 | Reply
Hi
I am using Quickbooks Premier 2008/09 with multicurrency. We have multiple lines of items in each sales order, and likewise in purchase orders. Is there an easy way to identify in a report which line item in a PO belongs to a particular line in a SO?
Ivan
Charlie | Nov 18, 2008 | Reply
Ivan, you must be using the Australian version, and this blog primarily is concerned with the US version. And your question is off the topic discussed here. However, it can be complicated. Which PO report are you looking at? Most of the “purchasing” reports are based on RECEIPTS, not PURCHASE ORDERS, and you can’t carry custom fields into receipts. You may be able to get the info you want via the ODBC driver or programming SDK, but that would be complicated.
Shawn Wallick | Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
Charlie, First of all I would like to thank you for the time you spend helping us here on the blog. I have two questions. 1. Can you create a 2-page Estimate in the layout designer? 2. Can you create custom fields that will show up in all estimates regardless of customer? I am using 2009 pro and appreciate your help.
Charlie | Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
Shawn:
1) The form designer in QuickBooks lets you lay out a single page format, and all pages in the order will use the same format. If I understand what you are looking for, you can’t do that in QB itself. You can get a third party add-on product that will do this, several are available. My company produces CCRQInvoice (http://qbblog.ccrsoftware.com/) which can do this, although you aren’t specific about what you want. Contact me via the email address in the “about this blog” page and we can discuss the details (the web page for the product doesn’t discuss this issue in detail).
2) That depends on what you want to do. Custom Fields are tied to the customer and item records. But if you want some static text on each form, go to the layout designer. Click the “add” button and add a text field.
IMG | Dec 16, 2008 | Reply
I’m trying to add to the bill the fields I add to the item, but seems there isn’t any way to do it. Overall after 3 months working with QB and POS, their programs are the worst I’ve see…moving to a custom solution
CONSUELO | Jan 7, 2009 | Reply
Can I have this custome field print on the statement. I am truing to get the description of the transaction printed and I have not been able to figure it out. You instructions, however, for the invoice were great for my invoice template, Thank you.
Charlie | Jan 7, 2009 | Reply
Consuelo: As you have found, custom fields cannot be added to statements. There isn’t a way in QuickBooks to get around this, really. You can export information, or try to work with the Customer Balance Detail report (that report lets you add some information, but doesn’t have the aging).
Vinod Patil | Jan 9, 2009 | Reply
Hi Charlie,
Is there any way to retrieve the XSD of the object to which custom fields are added?
Thanks,
Vinod
Anh | Jan 9, 2009 | Reply
Hi charlie,
I want to export the custom fields into an excel document along with the rest of the customer data. How would I do this?
Thanks!
Anh
Charlie | Jan 9, 2009 | Reply
Vinod: It isn’t as simple as getting an XML schema - you have to use the programming SDK to import or export information with the QuickBooks database. Look at the Intuit Developer Network page for information on the SDK, which includes documentation. http://developer.intuit.com/
Anh: For some reason Intuit didn’t add the custom fields with the customer list Excel export (they include them in the item list Excel export). Your best bet is to get the ODBC driver (www.qodbc.com), which Excel can use to limited degree, or one of several export/access tools from the Intuit Marketplace.
Brittany | Jan 14, 2009 | Reply
Charles-
So from what I understand in this article, it is NOT possible to really make the “other” column fully functional? You cannot customize it to change a rate, and to essentially have a function? You have to get extra software to do this?
Charlie | Jan 14, 2009 | Reply
Brittany: The “other” column, as well as any custom columns, are simple text fields that you can enter a value into. QuickBooks does not have a way to use them in calculations. Depending on what you are looking for, I would suggest that you look at our “CCRQInvoice” product, which performs a variety of calculations with custom fields (but not the “other” fields, which have limited usefulness). http://www.ccrsoftware.com/CCRQInvoice/InvoiceQ.htm
Lucinda | Jan 16, 2009 | Reply
Our company manufactures electric ATV’s and for warrentee purposes we will need to have serial numbers on each vehicle. My question(s) is, so there is a way to add a custom field but is there any way to pull that information from a report and pull that information up. Kind of like doing a search by item number. Or is there any way to create another field like the item number field. Thanks
Charlie | Jan 16, 2009 | Reply
Lucinda: Custom fields will only be simple text entry fields, 30 characters in length. You cannot make them a lookup or any sort of formatted kind of field. You can either try to use one of the other fields for a different purpose (such as taking the sales rep list and using it for this instead), go to a third party product that has this capability, or have a custom program written for you that interfaces with QuickBooks.
notsohappy | Jan 19, 2009 | Reply
Minor warning, I once added a custom field in US Premier 2006 Contractor, and it broke something. The only thing really effected, was, when I would export an entire transaction data journal to excel, it would crash when it got to a custom field, and so I could never get a full pure exported journal. I would have to isolate the dates before and after I’d used that custom field. Sorry, don’t recall much else about it, other than I finally started a new company file.
Charlie | Jan 19, 2009 | Reply
I work with custom fields extensively and have not run into that specific problem myself, nor have I had any of my clients run into it. Without seeing your database I can’t really say much about what happened, but I would guess that the database had a broken link or other problem in the file that needed to be cleaned up, rather than just the custom field itself causing a problem. That is speculation on my part, of course, without having your data in hand…
Mary Carter | Feb 3, 2009 | Reply
Our company has just started using QB Premier 2009 after using QB Basic for years and then Pro for a year. We went to Premier in order to use the Sales Order to Invoice option and Inventory tracking of assemblies. We have created Custom Fileds on our Items that correspond to Customer part numbers. When we create the Sales Order the Customer numbers come up correctly and when we create the Invoice from the Sales order they appear as well. However, when the Invoice is saved prior to printing, the Custom Field column loses it’s data. Can you tell us what we should do to prevent this from happening?
Charlie | Feb 3, 2009 | Reply
Mary, I’m not sure what to say. I’ve not seen this kind of behaviour, and I can’t come up with a way to duplicate it. There are lots of preference settings, perhaps there is something that I’m not seeing. Without access to your company file there isn’t more that I can do.
One thing to look into - create a test company from scratch, recreate your custom fields and templates, see if it happens in the test company…
Becky | Feb 4, 2009 | Reply
I am having trouble with job costing as far as the estimate to the sales order to purchase order. In order to get job costing I have to data entry 2* to get job costing reprots accurate. I do have customized templates for each estimate sales order and purchase order. Do they need to be the same as far as how the program works?
Charlie | Feb 5, 2009 | Reply
Becky, as far as job costing, that isn’t something we are addressing here. I’m not clear as to what you are asking about on sales and purchase orders - are you referring to “custom fields” in the two forms?
Bobby | Feb 10, 2009 | Reply
Great web site and blog. Really informative. Our company sends field service technicians to customer sites to do testing and repair work. I am trying to find a way to generate “work orders” for the technicians. I am not aware of any work order feature in QB. My thinking is that the sales order feature provides a suitable solution but I am missing an ability to add a memo field for special work instructions (ususally 50 to 100 characters) to the form. Is there some feature in QB Premier Multicurrency 2009 that will allow me to incorporate a “memo” field or am I out of luck and need to look at third party options?
Charlie | Feb 10, 2009 | Reply
Bobby: Thank you for the compliment. “Work orders” means different things to different people, so I can’t say if the program will provide you with what you need. You don’t mention what edition/year of QB you are using…
The 2009 product won’t add what you are looking for - but what you CAN do is to just type in your text in the “description” column of the sales order - don’t enter an item, quantity or rate. This turns it into a “comment” line essentially, in the body of the order. This works for Windows vesions, might not be too good for Mac versions. You can enter up to 4095 characters in a description field - and you can add as many descriptin fields as you wish.
David Ravanshenas | Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
I need a custom field to enter the plan type that my customers are on. I need that to export to excel so that i can calculate overages on their plan. When i export customer information to excel it does not include the custom fields for some reason. Any suggestions?
Charlie | Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
David, the short answer is that the Excel export doesn’t include the custom fields, and I don’t now why they didn’t decide to include it. Take a look at the IIF export (I haven’t checked to see if it includes the custom fields) or use a third party export tool.
Paul Meola | Feb 14, 2009 | Reply
I am a new QB user. We need to add a second “ship to” address to our Vendor records similar to what is already set up for Customer records. What is the best way to accomplish this?
Charlie | Feb 15, 2009 | Reply
Paul - you normally wouldn’t be “shipping to” a vendor, but I don’t know what kind of business you have. In any case, you don’t have any really good options in QuickBooks itself for a second address for a vendor, if you want that to show on a PO
Diane | Feb 17, 2009 | Reply
I have an invoice in quickbooks and i want to know in the customization, Other 1, where does that info come from? The time sheet? I can’t figure that out.
Charlie | Feb 17, 2009 | Reply
Diane: You will find “other 1″ and “other 2″ in the “columns” tab in the “additional customization” section of the template editor (and “other” in the “header” tab). These don’t come from anywhere - you can add them to your template by checking them to show on the screen. Then you can type information in to those fields when you use that template, and it will be stored in the invoice.
I generally don’t recommend using them in most cases - they are a holdover from the “old days” before custom fields. They rarely are available to be used in reports that print info from invoices, while custom fields are often available to be added to reports.
Sherry | Feb 18, 2009 | Reply
On 08-06-08 Brian asked “…a method that would allow us to view our forms on-screen with appropriately-sized columns,…”. Charles responded with the suggestion to upgrade to the latest version as it allow this. We are using QB Premier v2009 General and I can’t find a place to do this. Can anyone please help.
Charlie | Feb 18, 2009 | Reply
Sherry: If you are using the Windows version (US edition) then you should be able to resize the width of the columns, on screen and in the printed form. On screen, hold the mouse pointer over the vertical line that separates the headings, IN the heading bar, and you should get a different cursor. Click and drag the bar to where you want. SOME PEOPLE find that if they make a change and then exit, when they come back the settings aren’t saved. It varies from user to user, I’m not sure why.
charles | Feb 19, 2009 | Reply
is custom fields also available in simple start 2009? i cnt seem to find it there.
Charlie | Feb 20, 2009 | Reply
I believe that you have to upgrde to Pro or higher to get custom fields.
Russ | Feb 20, 2009 | Reply
I am trying to figure out a way to print a form from QB that I need in conjunction with each invoice. It’s a affidavit. I need it to print things like a court name, index #, defendant, respondent, date, time, individual name from the job, etc. It’s a standard form that also has some legal language I need to put in it that would be standard on every one I print. Can I redesign a estimate for this? Or a invoice. Anyway to accomplish this directly from the software would reduce a huge amount of duplication of information. any ideas?
Lisa | Feb 24, 2009 | Reply
I followed your instructions for adding customized fields in the “additional info” section of the customer info. I added the two fields, filled out the info in each, inserted them into the sales order and purchase order templates we use, and created a new one. Problem is the info i typed in the fields does not appear on the purchase order or sales order. Am I missing a step, or does the type of template I’m using have something to do with the fact that the info does not appear? Thanks for your assistance.
Charlie | Feb 24, 2009 | Reply
Lisa, it’s hard to tell without seeing your system. These are field in the customer list or item list? Is this data you are adding in the order itself, or data you have in the list record that should appear?
Charlie | Feb 24, 2009 | Reply
Russ, there are limited places to store information in an estimate or invoice. You can add 7 custom fields in the header/footer, and you can use the “Other” field, and you may be able to use some other unused fields for other purposes (sales rep, for instance, if you don’t use them). Legal language - depends on how much there is. A little, you can add easily. A whole page, doesn’t work well unless you go to third party products or a custom solution.
Doctor | Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
Thank you for the information I got of this article.
and I have a concern about if I can automatically create a unique account number for my customers.
Any ideas will be highly appreciated.
Lisa | Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
They are fields in the customer list on the “additional info” tab. I’m not adding the data on the order itself, rather I have a template set up to merge the customer list info with the template. Thanks again.
Charlie | Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
Lisa, hard to pin things down without seeing the company file. Make sure that the record in the customer list has the data, make sure that you have added the field to the template (put it on the screen version at the very least), make sure that you are creating a new transaction with that template.
Charlie | Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
Doctor: If you are asking that QuickBooks automatically create the customer ID for your customer records - it doesn’t do that.
Lisa | Feb 26, 2009 | Reply
Thanks. New question: on my letter template, i have inserted a field called “estimate detail”. It takes the information in the table from my estimate and inserts it in my letter. The problem is that I want different columns to appear. It seems there are pre-set columns for the estimate detail field and i want to change these. Is this possible? Thanks again for your help.
Gary | Feb 26, 2009 | Reply
Is it possible to resize the receipt so that I can get 3 receipts per 8.5×11 sheet and populate each receipt with different data sets. i.e. 6 receipts for 6 customers would print on 2 sheets of paper with 3 receipts on each ??
Since we ONLY have one line item receipts it would save us on paper costs !!
Thanks
Charlie | Feb 26, 2009 | Reply
Gary, that is a bit off topic for this discussion. It is difficult to do that in QB - the best I’ve seen is to change your printer settings (in the printer options itself, in the driver) to print multiple copies per page. But that may only work well if you are printing multiple receipts at a time. You have to play with things on the printer driver side of the issue, I believe.
Charlie | Feb 26, 2009 | Reply
Lisa: Are you talking about the Microsoft Word export? I’ll be very honest here, I don’t usually work with that. I’m not sure if you can change that.
Jay | Mar 2, 2009 | Reply
QB 2009 Premier -
We are in the process of creating a new invoice format. Two questions - We are using a column for “Backorders” but will enter to it manually. We will not be using sales orders. These numerical entries are left oriented and we would like them right oriented to look like real numbers. Second question - I am using data boxes in my header. I can’t seem to enter a label in these boxes that has two separate lines, one above the other. Is this possible?
Thank you
Charlie | Mar 3, 2009 | Reply
Jay: You can right justify in the print form, not the screen form. Use the “layout designer”, right click on the column, select “properties”, and one of the properties is justification.
For data boxes - I don’t think you can put a line break in the value - why not two boxes, one for each line?
laurie | Mar 3, 2009 | Reply
QB Premiere - Manufacturing -
Sales Order and Invoice templates
Change column size with layout designer - looks ok in print preview - but when actually printed changes back. Have created new templates and always the same thing happens. How to keep the columns where I want them? Thanks
Lisa | Mar 3, 2009 | Reply
On our single entry time sheet, there is a box called “billable” which is defaulted with a check mark. I want it defaulted as unchecked. Where do i go to make this change?
Charlie | Mar 3, 2009 | Reply
Lisa - that is off the topic, but for a quick answer I don’t think that you can change that behavior - at least not that I’m aware of.
Juan | Mar 11, 2009 | Reply
We are using QB PRO 2008. In the Item List, we are trying to display the “Location” field. We added the column in the Item List. Also, we went into specific items and added the contents to the field (”Location”). However, when we go back to the Item List, the “Location” field column does not display any data. Are there any other steps required to display this custom field on the Item List?
Thanks in advance.
Charlie | Mar 11, 2009 | Reply
Juan: Is this a “custom field” that you added yourself in item list, in the “custom fields” section? Or, is this the “location” field that you can see in the item list itself, if you add columns to the item list display? If it is the field that you can see in the item list, not a “custom field” you added yourself - you can’t use that here. That is the “location” field that only applies to “fixed asset” items. It shouldn’t be allowed to be added to the item list display, because you can’t use it in regular items. It’s a bug in QB that lets you see that field in that place…
Samantha | Mar 22, 2009 | Reply
Hi,
I am using quickbooks pro 2008. I am faing a problem with the currency symbol being shown before the total amount. Earlier whenever i would prepare a quotation/invoice in the total just the total figure wiuld appear, but lately a dollar symbol occurs before the total figure. How do i remove the dollar symbol?
Samantha | Mar 23, 2009 | Reply
Hi Charlie,
I have solved the problem. Got it done after going through your articles. Now i have another problem that is preparing a delivery note and an partial invoice. Quickbooks pro does not have a feature of preparing a delivery note. so i have to do it manually. if we invoice for partial delivery the price gets divided and not the quantity. so how do i solve this issue?
Charlie | Mar 23, 2009 | Reply
Samantha: I was going to refer you to the “currency” article when I read your first comment - glad you found it.
Your latest question is off topic, having nothing to do with custom fields. I’m not sure what you mean by a “delivery note” - something like a packing slip? I generally don’t work with Pro, I highly recommend moving up to Premier if that is possible. Then you have more of the tools you need to run a business.
Steve McAlister | Mar 23, 2009 | Reply
I read the article “Custom Fields in Quickbooks” and attempted to add two custom fields to the Item List. I click “Custom Fields,” get the message that “Currently there are no custom fields defined for items. To define them, click on ‘Define Fields.’” I click OK and get a window where click the Define Fields button, and I add the two fields: “Domain Name” and “Website Expires Date.” I check the “use” box for both and click “OK” but when I look at the item again, the two fields I just added aren’t there. What am I doing wrong?
Charlie | Mar 23, 2009 | Reply
Steve: After setting up the custom fields, did you edit an item, and click the “custom fields” button again? You won’t see the fields in the item window itself, they always are found in the “custom fields” button…
Adriane | Mar 26, 2009 | Reply
Im using Quickbooks Premier 2009/Manuf edition. I am trying to edit a bill of materials/inventory assembly form. I can’t quite figure out how to edit this form. I added my custom field for Vendor Part #, but do not know how to add this custom field to print on a Bill of Materials?
Charlie | Mar 27, 2009 | Reply
Adriane: The reason you can’t figure out how to do that is because you CAN’T edit the BOM printout in QuickBooks. They don’t provide a way to change that listing. You have to do one of the following:
Export the data to an outside file and try to create your own BOM listing. Please note that this would be very complicated to do.
Purchase the ODBC driver (www.qodbc.com) and use an ODBC compliant reporting tool to create your report. Simpler than the first option, but STILL very complicated because of the way that Intuit organizes the database.
Go to a third party product that works with the BOM.
My company, CCRSoftware, produces a third party product that lets you modify the BOM layout. See information on this at CCRQBOM. However, please note that if you download a trial version, the publicly available release (at this time) won’t let you add the custom field to the report. That is a feature that will be available in the next release, due out in April. If you want to see more on this release you can go to my CCRSoftware product blog - or you can contact me directly and I can get you a preview version.
Samantha | Mar 30, 2009 | Reply
Charlie,
Delivery Note as in when we first prepare a quotation and once we deliver the goods we have to prepare a delivery note and than invoice the client based on delivery note as at times we deliver partially.
Shailen Kumar | Mar 30, 2009 | Reply
Hi every one,can some one please help me customizing the BIlls and WRITE CHEQUES in quick books pro,i have added custom field but the report is not able to display the information entered.
Charlie | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Shailen, I’m assuming you have a Canadian version? There are differences between the non-US versions and the US versions, and the differences are greater the older the year of QB you have. However, regardless of what you have, custom fields are often very limited outside of the invoice, estimate, sales receipt and sales order screens in QuickBooks.
Diana | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Hello Charlie.
I tought will be easy to modify the invoice template…. but had been very difficult for what I need. Basically is a Subtotal, after that 10% Discount we call Retainage and then the total. I saw a couple Templates with Discounts but are based on previous information, not on something I can get at that moment. And this three numbers should appear in the invoice like the total does. Could you please guide me where to find this kind of format? Or how make it by myself? Thanks!
Charlie | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Diana, if you mean that you want the discount to show in the report footer, you can’t do that with QuickBooks. You have to put it in the details section. In summary, you would add a subtotal “item” after all the detail lines, then a discount “item” after that to apply to the prior subtotal. But you have to add these two items to the bottom of every invoice when you create it.
Keith | Apr 11, 2009 | Reply
I charge my customers the shipping costs associated with shipping the ordered products to them. Is there a way to add a “shipping costs” line in the footer of an invoice? Thank you
Charlie | Apr 13, 2009 | Reply
Keith: Sorry, there isn’t a way of doing that (and having it show up automatically) in QuickBooks. You can add a custom field and manually enter the cost in the field, and have it show there, but if you want it in the total you would have to add the charge as a detail line, so it would show twice. I’m going to add the ability to handle this in an upcoming release of my CCRQInvoice add-on product, but that feature won’t be out until later this year, probably end of summer.
Samantha | Apr 14, 2009 | Reply
Hi Charlie,
Well we normally quote in euro but being based in UAE we would like to quote in Dirhams. Is there a possibility that we can save prices in euro in quickbooks and than convert it into dirhams as per the exhange rate available??????
Samantha | Apr 15, 2009 | Reply
Hi Charlie one more thing. When you invoice a client, i face difficulty in invoicing for partial delivery. Say Overall amount is 100000. you want to put payment terms as 25% advance payment, 25% on confirmation and 50 % on delivery. And now i want to invoice for only 25% that is 25000. how do i do it?
Charlie | Apr 15, 2009 | Reply
Samantha, both of these questions are off topic. I also don’t know what version/year/nationality of QuickBooks that you have. The US 2009 edition supports multiple currencies, but there may be problems getting it to work properly in your system in UAE (I’m not sure, as I’ve not tried the US version on a non-US computer). Some people in the Intuit Community forum are pointing out problems if your Windows system (assuming you have Windows and not a Mac) has it’s currency settings to something other than US settings. For invoicing, I would normally create an estimate for the full amount and invoice for the partial amount.
Samantha | Apr 16, 2009 | Reply
Hi Charlie,
I am using Quickbooks Pro 2008.
inventory software | Apr 25, 2009 | Reply
Enjoying reading your blog. Hard work always pays off.
Michael DeMatteis | Apr 29, 2009 | Reply
I have to create an invoice in Quickbooks Pro 2009 where we are paid a commission on products we source for our clients. I have to show the amount upon which the commission is based, the commission % and the amount of commission. I have been able to do all this however the problem is that the total of the invoice can only be the sum of the calculated commissions. If I place the amount upon which the commision is based into the AMOUNT column that amount is included in the total with the calculated commission but the percentage calculation in Quickbooks Pro only calculates from an amount the the AMOUNT column.
Is there a way to create an invoice that will calculate the commission but only total the commisions and not include the amount upon which the commission was based?
Charlie | Apr 30, 2009 | Reply
Michael, this probably isn’t an issue relating to custom fields, so it is a bit off topic. The total amount of the invoice has to be calculated in the “amount” column. You can address this in several ways - I’m not sure I understand exactly how you want things so this might not work for you.
Just a few thoughts, there may be other ways. If you want something more sophisticated you may have to go to a third party product. QB only calculates the amount in a line by rateXquantity, and the total at the bottom is the sum of the line amounts.
Tim | May 4, 2009 | Reply
Hello,
You seem very knowlegeable on custom fields. The problem I am having is that I created a “Cost” custom field for all items in quickbooks, then I went to the report “Sales detail by item” and nothing shows in the field. Will creating a column on the invoice as shown in your demonstation show the default value I entered in the quickbooks items and then show up on this report? I hope you can help me and save manally entereing cost on 1000 plus records each month. Thanks Much Tim
Charlie | May 4, 2009 | Reply
The Sales by Item Detail report is based on the transactions - invoices - so the information must be included in the transaction. When you see your custom fields listed there, the values are going to be taken from the invoices, not from the item list. So you need to add the custom field as a column in your invoice template.
When you create a new invoice, the value that is in the field in the item record will automatically populate into the column. And when you save that invoice, the value will show in the report.
The problem is, if you create a template, the values will only show in NEW invoices you create, it won’t go back and show in all of the existing invoices already in the company file.
Tim | May 4, 2009 | Reply
Thank you Charlie, I realize it will not work on past, but at least is will save me many hours in the future. Thank you again for your time.
Tim | May 4, 2009 | Reply
One more quick question if the cost is say 10 for an item and a one line quanity say 5 of said item will it show up as $50 in the sales by item detail or will it just say 10. Either way it is a work around which I can do a simple calculation once exported to exel. Thanks again, Tim
Charlie | May 4, 2009 | Reply
Tim, if you are entering a “cost” in a custom field, it isn’t going to be used in any financial calculations. When you sell the item, the “rate” or “price” column value will be used to calculate the amount that is posted to sales (quantity X rate = amount). The “average cost” value of the item, if it is an inventory item or assembly, will be used to post to COGS. Your custom field is ignored.
colin | May 5, 2009 | Reply
I added a custom field called agent in customer additional info. Each time I set up a customer I add the agent name. What I wanted to do was have an AR report by customer but sub totalled by each agent. I cannot seem to find a way to run the aged receivables by this field (or at least subtotal it)
Charlie | May 5, 2009 | Reply
Colin, you won’t be able to modify a report in QB that way. You may have to send the report to Excel to modify, or use the ODBC driver to extract your data and make your own report.
Terry | May 11, 2009 | Reply
I added a custom field to customer and populated it. I can get the field itself to show on the custom transaction detail report but the field is blank for each customer? Does it matter that the invoices were created before I added this custom field?
Charlie | May 11, 2009 | Reply
Terry, the report is taking the information from the invoice, not the customer record. So you have to add the custom field to the invoice itself. When you create the invoice, the value will auto-fill from the customer record, and then it is saved in the invoice. You don’t mention that you added the custom field to the invoice template itself?
Terry | May 12, 2009 | Reply
I did add it to one invoice itself before my original post thinking that might be the problem. Even though the invoice is “old”, I can still add the field and resave the invoice and it should work?
Terry | May 12, 2009 | Reply
Got it to work. Even though I had put it onto the invoice, I did not have “all my ducks in a row”. Thank you so much for the help.
joel Brattin | May 25, 2009 | Reply
After you add a custom field how do you automatically update the field with data from the database?
I want to put a timestamp on the invoice.
It seems like it should be easy enough because I know you can print it on reports. So, I know the data is there…
Thanks,
Joel
Charlie | May 26, 2009 | Reply
Joel: If, for example, you create a custom field in the customer record, and then you add it to the invoice header: If you put some information in the field in the customer record for a particular customer, and then create a NEW invoice for that customer using the modified template, the information from the customer record will show in the invoice as the default value for that field.
They key issue is that it works when you create a new invoice. If you have an existing invoice, and then modify the template to add the field, it will not add the info into the custom field. It happens when you first create the invoice.
John Haslett | May 26, 2009 | Reply
Our small consulting company invoices clients by consultant and project. If we have consultants working on three projects for the same client in a particular month, we will issue three invoices to that client and I need to display details of the project as part of the header on each invoice (client task number, approver, internal codes etc.). Given the 30-char limit to custom fields, do I have any options other than to set up several custom fields to display this information, for example Detail1, Detail2, Detail3 etc.? Thanks in advance.
Charlie | May 27, 2009 | Reply
John, that is pretty much your only option, without going to a custom written order entry add-on.
Cara | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
I need guidance please. I created a custom field that does not print on an invoice which is just what I wanted. What I can’t figure out is how to rearrange the sequence of boxes in the invoice entry screen so my new field is at the end after the PO number, terms, ship, etc. entry boxes rather than at the beginning of them. Can it be done? Thanks for your help!
Charlie | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
Cara, you can’t control the order in which the boxes appear on the screen.
Tim | Jun 11, 2009 | Reply
Hello Charlie,
I have a question that is boggling me. We have a new website and need to bring in a custom field of data. However you cannont import custom fields through an IIF file.
So I had to go to plan B which was use the “Other1″ and “Other2″ fields - this imports perfect but guess what it does not show up on the Sales by item report or any others for that matter.
My question is do you know a way of making it show up or know of any 3rd party reporting software for quickbooks that can do this simple task that has become a nightmare?
Thanks Much, tim
Charlie | Jun 11, 2009 | Reply
Tim: The IIF format is an old one and isn’t being updated as QuickBooks advances, it doesn’t work with all the fields you find in QuickBooks, particularly newer ones. There is some support for custom fields in some portions of IIF, but I don’t work with that at all.
The “Other” fields are an old type of field that doesn’t get a lot of support - they should have gone away, replaced by custom fields, but they stuck around for compatibility. As you note, these fields aren’t always available where custom fields usually are.
If you are working with importing data, you should do one of three things:
Use the ODBC driver at http://www.qodbc.com, which will support custom and “other” fields.
Use the programming SDK from Intuit at the Intuit Developer Network (which is what I use), which supports custom and “other” fields (the ODBC driver is based on the SDK)
Use a third party web interface product, of which there are several, that you can find in the Intuit Marketplace. These will also be based on the SDK.
IIF should be avoided in any case, because it is unreliable and has the potential for crashing your database. It is an older format with very poor error checking. Intuit recommends that you don’t use it, and won’t support you if you have problems with it (or due to it).
Tim | Jun 11, 2009 | Reply
Hello Charlie,
After reading similar responses in your site, my problem is not unique. Can’t belive quickbooks hasn’t fixed this - seems easy to do.
However I need this to happen, can you write a program or adjust your CCR programming rather than spending money on Qreports which is far too involved for the 1 report I need per month. The reason I need it is because I need the cost to come in on the IIF file so I know what one company should charge the other. One company manufactures and other is sales.
Thanks a million, Tim
Charlie | Jun 11, 2009 | Reply
I don’t see QuickBooks “fixing” anything here, they don’t consider it broken. IIF is no longer supported - it is still there, but frozen, it is only there because many people use it and would complain if it goes away. The “other” fields are similar - they want you to use custom fields in their place. And, note, that they have a tool that lets you access custom fields, the SDK, which is what they expect people to use (or the ODBC driver). Note that with the ODBC driver you can use tools like Crystal Reports, Microsoft Access, or even Microsoft Excel to access the data. However, I’ll note that their implementation of custom fields is a bit odd from a database standpoint.
If you wish to talk about a custom solution please contact me in the address in the “About” section of this blog. Provide me with the details of what you want and I can generate a quote.
Kasia | Jul 3, 2009 | Reply
Hello Charlie,
How can I see custom fields in ‘Inventory information’ window, when I want edit item? Is it possible or i will only see it if i click on ‘custom fields’ button?
Thank you.
Charlie | Jul 3, 2009 | Reply
Kasia, you can only edit the values of the custom fields in the “edit item” window by clicking on the “custom fields” button. To do it any other way you have to use a tool that is outside of QB.