Let me first say that I think QuickBooks is a great accounting software for small businesses. It’s versatile and easy to use; you can’t ask for much more than that. The main complaint I have is that it’s TOO easy to use. I can’t tell you how many times I clean up QuickBooks files because people don’t understand the accounting that is happening behind the scenes. I’ll save that rant for another day…
My point today is this: QuickBooks invoices are customizable. Invoices go to your clients, so they should be branded just like any other client communication. I’m sure I’m not the only person in the world who can spot a traditional QuickBooks invoice. Each time I see one, I think, “oh, they’re a small business”. That’s great if you want to be seen as a small business, but a lot of business owners don’t.Â
Just because you use QuickBooks (and it will grow with you for quite some time), it doesn’t mean that everyone has to know it. A few weeks ago, I signed up for a new hosted sharepoint account. I received a standard QuickBooks invoice from the company. I have to say, it was very disconcerting. I know it sounds bad and I’m a small business too, but I want to believe that the company I’m hosting my secure documents with is a good sized company that’s going to be around. The fact that they sent a QuickBooks invoice shouldn’t make me question that, but it did.
So, PLEASE spend an hour and customize your invoice. They are highly customizable. I spent some time on mine today and it now matches my letterhead (standard time invoice & new customized versions below). It makes me feel good that it doesn’t look like every other invoice out there.
~Kelly
  
I have been trying to figure out how to customize a multiple page invoice. I would like to have a subtotal in the footer on the first page, carry the subtotal over to the second and following pages. Can I do that in QuickBooks.
Hi,
Kelly forwarded your comment to me. While multiple page invoicing can obviously be done in QuickBooks it is not necesarily a pretty thing. Subtotals are carried forward. You can make customized invoices outside of QuickBooks if you have the correct version of QuickBooks. I believe it is at least QB Premier that is necessary, but I will double check on that for you.
Another thought that I had for you, is the possibility of condensing your invoice by utilizing “Group” items. For example, if you are billing for new computer build, you don’t have to invoice every item, you simply bill for “New Dell Computer”. The group item will allow you to still pull items in inventory and will show on your screen, but your invoice will be much shorter.
Unfortunately, without knowing more about your resources it’s hard to help you anymore or give you a satisfactory workaround. Feel free to email me if you would like to see if there is a workaround for your needs.
Julia Hopkins
Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor®
dba Hopkins Bookkeeping
julia@hopkinsbookkeeping.com
I am not aware of an easy solution to have an automatic subtotal at the bottom of one page and the top of the next. I forwarded your comment on to a QuickBooks Pro in my network to see if she had any advice to offer.
I need a two page custom invoice in quickbooks. I’ve created a nice one but don’t know how to make a message that will span the second page.
I only need one line for entering amount due, then add a message with a hyperlink to pay online if preferred.
Then i add some text that comes from my time tracker per project, that has all the items i completed for them throughout the month.
I currently do this in Word, then have to double enter into QB.
Gotta be easier!
thanx
Joanie
Joanie,
I’m not sure that I understand what you’re trying to do. Maybe you could email your Word template to me, so I can see what you’re trying to replicate in QuickBooks. A copy of your current QuickBooks invoice would be helpful too.
kelly@CrackerJackAccounting.com
Certainly my biggest complaint about QBs – they have invoice creation s/w comparable to Windows 3.1 (i.e. horrid s/w dating back to the early 90’s). Even though this post suggests highly customizable… i am not sure you could EVER get to something that looks 1/2 way professional (can’t see posters screen shots here; sadly). At the very least, if it is capable of “real” invoices – and Intuit is too lazy to make decent s/w for this; perhaps they could at least provide a template library as a starting point.
Peter, I’ll agree that the the standard invoice templates leave a lot to be desired. However, I find them to be quite customizable with the layout designer. It takes some time to customize, but I’m able to reproduce the look of my letterhead. If you don’t want to spend the time customizing to your own liking, Intuit does offer some templates to download: http://community.intuit.com/library/forms.
~Kelly
Intuit’s template library (linked above this post) does not work with QuickBooks 2010.
I have to agree with peter’s Windows 3.1 analogy. I’ll keep QB for accounting but I’m probably going to look for a different invoicing software.