Thanks for your quick reply. If I'm understanding your response, there's a default Description that is stored with each Product/Service entry which can be used as a generic description of a product or service.
A few things that I’m wondering - why would the default values overwrite whatever is already in the description box? If I’ve typed something into the field already, wouldn’t it be assumed that I want to keep this text? Even if I’d forgotten that I’d already written the same thing as a default value, I’ve already written it, so why replace it? Also, if no default text exists, whatever is already in the description field is simply erased. Why would that be acceptable logic? Also, don’t most service businesses customize their invoices and line item descriptions and occasionally switch product/service classification in-process?
Also, as a rule, why wouldn't there be a way to bypass the default entries? If I so much as look at an invoice funny and try to exit, I get something like, 'Would you like to lose all of your changes?’ or, worse, ‘THERE’S A LINK TO THINGS ON THIS INVOICE THAT YOU’VE CHANGED, SAVE OR DELETE???!!!’ But if I change the Product/Service on a line that already has Description and Amount fields entered, they’re simply replaced with default text or blanks (if no defaults). Doesn’t feel thought out.
But the biggest usability flaw here, in my opinion, and what made me finally post about this, is when Product/Service is blank and Description and Amount is not. You might say, 'well, just make sure you don’t do it that way.’ Yes, I’ve trained myself to do that, actually. But there’s at least one case where it’s unavoidable - when using the ‘create invoice’ feature for a billable expense, which conveniently creates an invoice with this expense information in it. That sounds cool and helpful. When I do that, the line item that is automatically created for the expense has the description text and amount info that was entered on the Expense item. Nice. Except the Product/Services field is blank. That’s because there is no Product/Service field on the Expense form, I’m assuming. Ok. But, select a product or service from the dropdown and…well, you see where this is going.
So, if I am doing all of this right, and I’m the first to say that I’m not sure I’m doing anything right in the app most of the time, I'm struggling to understand the logic of Product/Service default text. I’d say I’ve wasted way more time on this post than it’s worth, but I’d guess I’m still way under the number of minutes I’ve lost copying and pasting Description and Amount texts that were disintegrated by overly helpful Product/Service entries.
My conclusion here is that the programming logic of this behavior should be made smarter wrt usability, especially, as is the case for automating expense invoices, when application features like ‘Create Invoice’ added to help the user. Am I wrong?
