How To Set Up Sales Form Content in QuickBooks Online

The sales form content options allow you to specify 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 tutorial.

Click anywhere on the Sales form content to open additional details.

Sales form content preferences in QuickBooks Online

Fields can be turned on and off by clicking on the checkbox next to the name of the field.

• Preferred invoice terms: Select your preferred invoice terms, such as Net 10 or Net 30.
• Preferred delivery method: You can choose either email or print as the default delivery method for your invoices. 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, then fields for shipping address, carrier, shipping date, and tracking number will be available to add to sales form templates.
• Custom Fields: You can create up to three custom fields on invoices, estimates, sales receipts, credit memos, and refund receipts.
• 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 that transactions can be traced easily across systems.
• 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. We recommend only including this field if you are in an industry where customers traditionally are expected to tip. Otherwise, customers could be irritated with a request to tip your employees.

When you’re finished selecting the fields to make available for creating sales forms, 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.

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

Late fee options in QuickBooks Online

These options determine the company-wide default for adding late fees to invoices. You can adjust the late fee options for particular customers within the customer information screen.

• Type: Late fees can either 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 your specified invoice terms. 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 automatically be assessed when you reprint or resend an invoice that is overdue.

Construction companies often send multiple invoices for a single job as the work is completed. This is known as progress invoicing, and 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. Then, click Save.

Activate progress billing in QuickBooks Online

You have now specified which fields are available internally when you create a sales form within QuickBooks Online. Next, we’ll discuss how to set up reminder emails to be sent to customers to alert them of overdue payments.

QuickBooks Online will send reminder emails automatically to customers with overdue invoices. To set your automatic reminders options, click anywhere on the Reminders section. Click on Default email message for invoice reminders to reveal additional options.

Invoice reminder preferences in QuickBooks Online

You can set the following options:

• Create email template: You can create a template for your reminder emails, including the subject line, greeting, and text of the message. Unfortunately, you cannot create a separate email template for each reminder. In the above example, customers will receive the same email both one day prior and five days after the due date.
• Send a copy: Check the box to have a copy of every reminder email to be sent to the QuickBooks Online administrator.
• Activate reminders: Flip the switch to green to activate automatic invoice reminders.
• Specify reminders: QuickBooks allows up to three reminder emails. Click on the drop-down arrow for each reminder to specify the day to send the reminder and to create a custom email message for that reminder.

Hit the green Save button at the bottom of the section when you are satisfied with your reminder settings and email. Click on the reminder section to create your customized email reminder, as shown in the image below.

Customized email reminder in QuickBooks Online

Click anywhere on the Online delivery section to reveal the last few company sales form options.

Select online delivery options in QuickBooks Online

Select whether you want a summary or the full detail of the sales form included in the body of the email. You can also attach a PDF copy of the sales form. I recommend including only a summary in the email and then attaching a PDF that customers can view to see details.

The final option applies only to invoices and allows you to format the emailed invoice as an Online invoice, HTML, or Plain text. I recommend keeping this option set to Online 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.

Select the information to appear in the header of your invoice in QuickBooks Online

Place a checkmark 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 this particular invoice template 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 “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 revise it 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 the 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” means you offer 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.

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. You can customize the columns that will appear in the invoice table. Place a green checkmark 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 checkmark. The columns can be further customized 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.

Set the options and fields for the Table section of an invoice in QuickBooks Online

Click on the box next to Show on invoice under the heading Account summary to include a miniature statement on the customer’s invoice. We 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.

Provide an account summary in customized invoices in QuickBooks Online

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:

Provide additional activity detail for your invoice in QuickBooks Online

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.

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

Select the information to display in the footer of your QuickBooks Online invoice

Place a checkmark 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 that 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 that they 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 invoices.
• Add footer text: Footer text is often 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. Alternatively, you might want one invoice template for business customers and another for individuals.