How to Set Up Sales Form Content in QuickBooks Online

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to set up sales form content and preferences that will flow to invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online. First, we’ll cover how to specify which fields and options are available within QuickBooks when creating a sales form. Then, we’ll discuss how to customize a sales form to show only the fields you choose.

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This lesson is part of Fit Small Business’s Free QuickBooks Tutorials. This lesson can be completed by either watching the video below or reading through the detailed instructions with screenshots at your own pace. The video was recorded with an older version of QuickBooks Online. While the basic process of setting up sales form content and preferences has remained the same, some of the menus have minor changes. The step-by-step instructions and screenshots have been prepared with the most recent version of QuickBooks.

Setting the Company Sales Form Preferences in QuickBooks Online

The first step in customizing the content to appear on your sales forms―invoices, estimates, and sales receipts―is to determine which fields should be available within QuickBooks when you create a sales form. The sales form preferences are set in the company’s account and settings. Click on the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and then select Account and settings in the first column.

Now, click Sales in the left menu bar to view the sales options.

This lesson will cover the options under Sales form content, Late fees, and Progress Invoicing. The options under Customize (not shown) are covered in How to Customize Invoices in QuickBooks Online and should be completed prior to this lesson as we will build on the sales forms you start in that lesson. Options in the other sections will be covered in later lessons.

1. Sales Form Content

The sales form content options allow you to determine which fields will be available within QuickBooks when you generate a customer sales form. Whether these fields are displayed on the customer’s copy of a sales form is determined when you design your custom sales form template, which we will discuss later in this lesson.

Click on Sales form content to open additional details for each option.

Fields can be turned on and off by clicking on the checkbox next to the name of the field. I encourage you to give some thought to each of these before moving on as it will make your invoices easier and more effective.

• Preferred invoice terms: Your invoice terms determine the due date of your invoice. For instance, “Net 30” means that payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date. Invoice terms can also be used to provide a discount for customers that pay quickly. For instance, “1% 10 Net 30” means that customers paying within 10 days receive a 1 percent discount, and all invoices are due within 30 days.

• Preferred delivery method: You can choose a default to either email or print the invoice. The delivery method is assigned customer-by-customer, so the default chosen here will be assigned to newly created customers. The method can be changed for a particular customer by editing the customer information.
• Shipping: If shipping is turned on, fields for shipping address, carrier, shipping date, and tracking number will be available to add to sales form templates.
• Custom Fields: Sales forms can include up to three custom fields. For instance, in my sample invoice, I’ve created custom fields for a purchase order number and sales representative. If you want the field to appear on the customer’s sales forms, then you must check the box under Public. Otherwise, the field will only appear in QuickBooks for your internal use.
• Custom transaction numbers: Custom transaction numbers allow you to change the invoice, estimate, or sales receipt number assigned automatically by QuickBooks. This might be helpful if you want to match QuickBooks transaction numbers to numbers from a separate workflow system so transactions can be traced across systems easily.
• Service date: Including a service date allows you to show the customer the exact date a service was performed, which will often be different than the invoice date. You can include multiple service dates on a single invoice. This is an important option for service-based businesses so that repeat customers can track which service call is being billed.
• Discount: If you offer customers payment terms with a discount for early payments, such as “1% 10 Net 30,” then it’s best to include a discount field on the sales form so that customers know the exact amount of the discount.
• Deposit: The deposit field allows you to subtract a customer’s deposit, or prepayment, from the amount due on the sales form. This is an important field to include on sales forms if you have customers that prepay for services or materials.
• Tips: The tips field provides your customers with the ability to add a gratuity to your invoice. I recommend only including this field if you are in an industry where customers traditionally are expected to tip. Otherwise, customers could be irritated by being requested to tip your employees.

When you’re finished selecting the fields to appear when creating sales forms within QuickBooks, click on the green Save button at the bottom of the Sales form content options. Next, we’ll set your company’s option for assessing late fees.

2. Late Fees

If you wish to add late fees automatically to invoices that are overdue, click in the Late fees section and place a check mark next to Default charge applied to overdue invoices to display the options available for late fees.

These options determine the companywide default for adding late fees to invoices. You can adjust the late fee options for particularly customers within the customer information screen.

• Type: Late fees can be a flat amount, a percentage of the unpaid balance, or a one-time, flat fee followed by a percentage.
• Grace period: Unless you specify a grace period, the late fee will apply based on the invoice terms you have specified. If you set the invoice term to “Due upon receipt,” be sure to specify a grace period so that a late fee isn’t assessed on every invoice.
• Apply sales tax: Some states may require that you apply sales tax to late fees if the late fee is assessed on a taxable item. You may need to check with a local tax professional to determine the sales tax requirements for your location.

When you are done setting your late fee options, click the green Save button at the bottom of the late fee section. A late fee should now be assessed automatically when you reprint or resend an invoice that is overdue.

3. Progress Invoicing

Construction companies often send multiple invoices for a single job as the work is completed. This is known as progress invoicing. QuickBooks Online makes progress invoicing easy by allowing you to create an invoice for only a portion of an estimate. The unbilled estimate can be converted to an invoice later when more work has been completed. Check the box next to Create multiple partial invoices from a single estimate if you want to activate this feature, and then click Save.

You now know how to specify which fields are available internally when you create a sales form within QuickBooks Online. Next, we’ll discuss how to choose which of those fields will appear on your customized invoices, estimates, and sales receipts.

Choose the Content for Your Custom QuickBooks Online Invoice

You designed a customized invoice in the prior lesson How to Customize Invoices in QuickBooks Online. We’ll now discuss how to select which sales content fields to include on your customized invoice. To view your available sales form templates, navigate to the sales tab of the Account and settings screen, and click the green Customize look and feel button in the top right corner.

The Custom form styles screen should display the custom invoice you created in the prior lesson. Click Edit to the right of the customized form you wish to choose. If you prefer, you can create a new invoice template by clicking on New style in the upper right corner and then select Invoice.

The screen to create a customized invoice contains three tabs, Design, Content, and Emails. The Design tab allows you to customize the style, logo, color, and font of your invoice and was covered in the prior lesson, How to Customize Invoices in QuickBooks Online. The Emails tab will be discussed in a later lesson, How to Set Up Messages in QuickBooks Online. The remainder of this lesson focuses on the options available in the Content tab.

When you click on the Content tab, you’ll be given a grayed-out preview of your invoice split into three sections. To edit the information displayed in each section, click the pencil icon in the upper right corner.

Let’s review the information that is available in each of the three sections of your QuickBooks invoice.

1. Select the Information to Appear in the Header Section of Your Invoice

Click on the pencil icon in the upper right corner of the header section to view the information that can be shown in this section.

Place a check mark next to any fields you would like to appear in the header of your invoice. The blue fields can be expanded by clicking on the “+” in front of the words. Any changes you make to the default information pulled from your company setup, such as providing a different phone number, will only affect your invoice and not other areas of QuickBooks Online. All changes are reflected in the preview of the invoice on the right half of the screen.

Most of the fields are straightforward, but here are a few that need a little explanation:

• Form names: You can specify a custom name to appear at the top of your form instead of the name “Invoice.” This is helpful if your industry traditionally has a different name for bills sent to customers. Don’t use this field to change the purpose of the form. For instance, don’t change this field to “Estimate” because when the form is generated, QuickBooks will record the form as an invoice automatically.
• Form numbers: Check this box to print the invoice number on the form, which I highly recommend. Many customers, especially businesses, appreciate the invoice number to keep track of multiple outstanding invoices.
• Use custom transaction numbers: This box allows you to input a custom transaction number not generated by QuickBooks at the time you generate an invoice. This is helpful if you are using a workflow system outside of QuickBooks and would like to be able to trace a QuickBooks invoice to a transaction in the other system.
• Billing address: The billing address is required to be displayed on the QuickBooks invoice and is pulled from the customer information screen.
• Shipping: By checking Shipping, the shipping address, ship date, carrier, and tracking number will all be included on the invoice. If only certain invoices require this information, I recommend customizing two invoice templates. You can choose which template to apply when generating a customer invoice.
• Terms: The terms set in the customer information screen will display on your invoice. This is an absolute must if you are offering terms with a discount. For instance, “2% 10 Net 30,” which offers a 2% discount if paid within 10 days and all payments are due in 30 days. If there is no discount offered, then showing the payment terms is unnecessary if the due date is shown.
• Due date: The due date is not needed if the payment terms are shown, but you can choose to show both if you prefer. If your customers are individuals rather than businesses, you might want to include the due date since they may not be familiar with payment terms.
• Custom fields: You can choose to display three custom fields on your invoice.

Now that you’ve selected the information to appear in the header, let’s look at the information available for the middle section of the invoice.

2. Select the Information to Appear in the Table Section of Your Invoice

Click on the pencil icon in the upper right corner of the middle section of your invoice preview to display the fields and options available for your invoice table.

Click on the box next to Show on invoice under the heading Account summary to include a miniature statement on the customer’s invoice. I highly recommend including this summary statement on your invoice so that customers know the total amount they owe if they have more than one unpaid invoice.

Next, you can customize the columns that will appear in the invoice table. Place a green check mark next to any field you would like to appear on your invoice. The order of the columns can be changed by clicking and dragging on the series of nine dots to the left of the green check mark. The columns can be customized further by clicking Edit Labels and Widths.

The column widths can be adjusted with the blue sliders. QuickBooks keeps the table the same width automatically, so increasing the width of one column will decrease the width of another column automatically.

The default for the activity column of the invoice is to show only the name of the item being billed. This could be the name of the inventory item or service item. You can choose to show more activity detail by clicking on Show more activity options under the column options.

Providing detailed information to your customers can help them understand your charges better, but it can also make the invoice very long and confusing. I recommend taking some time to think about what your customers will prefer. Perhaps certain invoices will require more detail than others. This can be accommodated by making multiple invoice templates with and without detail. You can choose which invoice template to apply when you generate an invoice.

You can group activity by day, week, month, or item. If the invoice is for a service that was provided over a period of days or weeks, the invoice can be shortened greatly by grouping the activity by days or weeks.

3. Select the Information to Appear in the Footer Section of Your Invoice

Click on the pencil icon in the lowest section of the invoice preview to select the content to be included in the footer of your invoice.

Place a check mark next to any of the fields you would like to include in your footer.

• Discount: If you offer payment terms that include a discount for early payments, then include this field so customers know the exact amount of the discount.
• Deposit: If your customers often prepay a portion of their invoice, you should include the deposit field so customers can easily see the unpaid balance they owe.
• Estimate summary: If an invoice is generated from an estimate, you can provide a summary of that estimate in the emailed invoice.
• Message to customer on: You can enter a standard message to your customers that will appear on all invoices. You’ll also be able to enter personal messages to customers when you generate their invoice.
• Add footer text: Footer text often is used to add information about late fees or other contract terms the customer should know.

When you have selected all the content for your customized invoice, click the Preview PDF button in the bottom right corner of the screen. When you are satisfied with your invoice, close the PDF and click the green Done button in the lower right corner of the screen. This will return you to the custom form styles screen with a list of your customized forms.

You can create multiple customized invoice templates. For instance, you may want one invoice template for customers being billed for services and another for customers being sold merchandise. You also might want one invoice template for business customers and another for individuals.

Create Custom Estimates and Sales Receipts

In addition to invoices, sales forms include estimates and sales receipts. From the custom forms style screen, select New style and then either Estimate or Sales receipt.

After creating a new estimate or sales receipt template, you’ll find the familiar three tabs for Design, Content, and Emails. The process for creating custom estimates and sales receipts is nearly identical to customizing invoices. As with invoices, you can create as many custom templates for estimates and sales receipts as you desire.

Wrap Up

You can now create custom invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online through a two-step process. First, set the companywide options to indicate which sales form fields you wish to be available internally when you bill a customer. Then, create custom templates to choose the available fields you wish to include on the customer sales forms.

The next lesson in our QuickBooks Online training course is How to Setup the Product and Service Options in QuickBooks Online. This lesson will cover a few of the options that are available for billing services to customers as well as tracking inventory.