Why do some invoice status's not change from sent to viewed even though the customer has opened the email?

Hi trishhardie,

This is a great question and I can go over the email settings to help you sort this out. 

In QuickBooks Online, there are multiple choices for online delivery formatting for the email sent to your customers: show short summary in email, show full details in email, PDF attached, and Online invoice or Plain text. For tracking when your customers open emails, you'll need the Online invoice option selected. Here's how it's set up.

1. Select the Gear icon at the top right of your account.
2. Choose Account and Settings.
3. Click the Sales tab on the left.
4. Scroll to and open the Online Delivery section.
5. Choose Online invoice option from the Additional email options for invoices drop-down menu.
6. Click Save.
7. Choose Done to exit settings.

If you had sent invoices by email to your customers before configuring this setting, those invoice statuses won't change. All invoices sent after setting it up will show the tracker.

Another thing to consider is whether you've updated the invoice after sending it to the customer. If so, the system resets the status to unopened until the customer views it again. If the customer viewed the original invoice, that's great. Encourage them to return to the email or check their inbox if you resent the email.

In the event all of your invoices were sent with this setting configured, but you're still not seeing the tracker update, double check with your customers that they have indeed opened the email. Otherwise, I encourage you to reach out to our support team so we can troubleshoot. Here are the different ways you can get in touch.

Phone: 1-833-317-2226 from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET or Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET

Social Media: Facebook and Twitter from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET

Chat: click (?)Help in the upper right > click Contact Us > explain your situation > click Let's Talk > choose Start a Chat

Enjoy the rest of your day!

  I'm having this same problem. The online invoices was set long ago. I sent the invoices in a batch. They all showed sent right after I sent them. Usually they get viewed right away. But there was a delay. Now after Two days only half show viewed. I know others have been viewed But they aren't changing. Any help would be great.

Hey there, @Jdill35555.

There’s already an open ticket about this issue (INV-35703). Our engineers are working on getting this feature functioning back to normal.

To keep you in the loop for the resolution status, please sign up to the list of affected users. Here in the Community, we're unable to share account details for safety and security purposes.

For this reason, I recommend contacting our QBO Care Team. They can add your company to the notification list to receive email updates.

You can reach them through here:

1. In your QBO company, go to the Help menu to select the Contact Us link.
2. Enter contact support in the field box, and then click on the Let's Talk button.
3. In the contact us window, choose how you want to reach our support: Get a callback or Start a chat.

For some tips on how the Invoicing feature help can save time and money, view the full information through here: QuickBooks Small Business Centre.

I appreciate your patience while we’re looking into this. If there’s anything else I can help you with, post a comment below. I’ll jump right back in to assist further.

Hello,

You mentioned that when the invoice is updated after the original version is sent that it's considered "unopened", does or can this update trigger a follow up email to the customer notifying them that their invoice has been updated? I'm thinking that if we append the shipping information such as the tracking # after the initial invoice was sent.  Thanks

Hello Zodiac Rep,

Great question. If you need to change any details on the invoice and want to make sure your customer sees the transaction again, I recommend sending a Reminder so they're notified. You can also simply send it to them again rather than choosing the reminder option specifically. In both cases, these are manual steps and you can customize the email message to say what changes you've made. This article goes over both options: How to email or print an invoice

Let me know if you have more questions about that!