Customer Name on Invoices

I'm happy to help you add the name without copying and pasting, tomacsh 

By the way, this is the same as the other QuickBooks versions. What you can do it is edit the address information of the customer, and add their name in the Bill To field. That way, their name will automatically show up in that section when you create them invoices.

Let me know if you have other questions about this.

I completely do not understand this explanation.  I just purchased desktop mac 2020. I imported 3000 customers from a spreadsheet.  The most basic of information (Customer's name) does not appear in the printed invoice. I have scoured layout manager, the internet and now your comment.  Why is this so complicated? 

I do appreciate that you've made sure that the spreadsheet has the correct information, Drabkin.

Let's ensure that you're creating a new invoice after you imported your list of customers since QuickBooks Desktop won't retroact. If the invoice you'll be printing is an existing one prior to importing the customer list, let's edit it first and toggle it to the correct customer. 

Good job that you tried editing the invoice template. Ensure that the Print and Screen option in the Customers tab of the layout designer is checked.

Let me show you how:

1. From the opening invoice, click the template from the menu and select Edit Current Template.
2. In the Invoice Fields window, click the Customers tab. 
3. Check the Print and Screen window on Customers Name option.
4. Once done, click Save from the File menu.

We can also review the customer's profile to ensure that the name is correctly entered in the CUSTOMER NAME field. 

If the same thing happens we can troubleshoot PDF and Print problems with QuickBooks Desktop. 

Feel free to leave a reply below if you need more help. You take care and have a great day!

agree. completely ridiculous 

So in-convenient! so ridiculous ! it is so no good! A lot of people asking for a solution, and STILL quickbooks cannot officially offer a simple solution to this matter. I have spent hours to find this solution. I have Desktop Enterprise 2021 edition. Customer Name date does NOT print on invoices! The contact phone data prints, but no contact name is printing! please help.

PS: It was working up until version 2017. Whatever happened, it happened after 2017 update.

Hello there, @HARVARDMBA.

Let me share some clarification about the invoices in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT.

The customer name will only display under the Bill To section when emailing or printing an invoice. Currently, the option to add another field for the name using the sales template (invoice) is unavailable.

I appreciate your input on this feature. We always update the features in QuickBooks Online, and this preference might be added in the future.

As we assess this, I suggest you visit our QuickBooks Blog to stay updated with all the changes that are being made.

For additional reference, you can use the following article to personalize invoices in QuickBooks: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Desktop.

Feel free to drop a comment below if you have other questions. I'm always here to help. Have a great day ahead.

There are 2 data. "Company Name" and "Customer Contact Name".  I think QB blog team is confusing here. These are two separate data fields as you may know.

For instance:

ABC Company is in company name field.

Mr. John Smart is the Contact name field. (this data does not print on invoices, even thought the contact name data field is enabled and added to invoice template.

PS: I am an QB Enterprise user since 2010. I know what I m doing. Where am I making a mistake? Please help.

Thank you for reaching back out to the QuickBooks Community, HARVARDMBA. I will be delighted to assist you here. A workaround to have that Contact name field can be done through some customization of the template. Here's how:

1. Go to List and select Template.
2. Choose the current template you are using and click the arrow under Templates to choose Edit Template.
3. Select Additional Customization at the bottom of the screen.
4. Locate the Other tab and add the Contact Name or Customer Name as seen below
5. Be sure to add a checkmark under Screen and Print.
6. Click OK twice to save the changes between screens.

Now you will be able to type the name of the contact on the invoices before printing them. You can refer to the article to learn how to customize form templates. If you need any help or clarification, please don't hesitate to let me know. My team and I will be here to assist you. I hope you have a lovely day.

To SashaMC:  I'm new to QuickBooks and trying to add a Customer Name to invoices too.  I followed your instructions but only got a field title "Customer Name" to appear; the actual person's name is missing.  What did you mean by, "Now you will be able to type the name of the contact on the invoices before printing them."?  Should I type each person's name individually on each invoice, or did you mean the data should be pulled from the Customer Information and added automatically?

I don't see how this can work to add an individual's name when the Customer Name field does not appear in the Add Data Field dialog box (available while editing layout).  Isn't that the problem - that the data field simply isn't there?

(Temporary workaround: I found that entering the customer's name in the Account # field within the customer info center does work because it's one of the items in the Add Data Field list. Fax # sort of worked, but it truncated a long name.)

I'm still evaluating a trial of the desktop version.  When will the QB development team implement a fix for this glaring problem?

To SashaMC: I'm new to QuickBooks and trying to add a Customer Name to invoices too. I followed your instructions but only got a field title "Customer Name" to appear; the actual person's name is missing. What did you mean by, "Now you will be able to type the name of the contact on the invoices before printing them."? Should I type each person's name individually on each invoice, or did you mean the data should be pulled from the Customer Information and added automatically?

I don't see how this can work to add an individual's name when the Customer Name field does not appear in the Add Data Field dialog box (available while editing layout). Isn't that the problem - that the data field simply isn't there?

(Temporary workaround: I found that entering the customer's name in the Account # field within the customer info center does work because it's one of the items in the Add Data Field list. Fax # sort of worked, but it truncated a long name.)

I'm still evaluating a trial of the desktop version. When will the QB development team implement a fix for this glaring problem?

Welcome to the Community space, @DwhoaTreas.

Allow me to share some information, so you can add a customer's name to your invoices. To get started, the steps shared by my colleague SashaMC are where you can add a new column in the invoice.

However, if you're trying to add a customer's name to invoices, you can go to the Customer Centre and enter the details from there. You can also click the Add New button from the invoice page. Let me show you how:

1. Go to the Customers menu at the top.
2. Pick Customer Center on the drop-down
3. Click the New Customer&Job drop-down then choose New Customer.
4. Fill in the necessary details.
5. Hit OK.

Once you create an invoice, just click the dropdown arrow and choose the customer's name from there. For more details on how to create an invoice in QBDT, you can check out this article: Create an invoice in QuickBooks Desktop.

 Also, encourage you to send feedback as well. This helps us know how this option makes your QuickBooks experience smoother.

1. Click the Help menu bar.
2. Scroll down to Send Feedback Online.
3. Select Product Suggestion.
4. Choose Product Suggestion for the Type of Feedback.
5. Product Area is optional.
6. Enter your suggestion.
7. Click Send Feedback.

You can also check out the Firm of the Future site to learn more about product enhancements and tips to efficiently manage your business.

I'm adding these articles that can guide you in setting up your QuickBooks account and will answer your How do I question. Just click the links for more information:

• Get started with QuickBooks Desktop
• A resource hub for QuickBooks Desktop

Please leave a comment below if you need further assistance in adding customer jobs or any other questions with QuickBooks. I'll be around for you. Have a good one!

Here's an interesting bug for your development team.

Create a new customer. Type in a first and last name. Tab out of the Last Name field.  The name appears under Address Details in the Invoice/Bill To field.  Click the edit pencil button, and you'll see the customer's name appears at the top of the Address field.  That's not right.  That field should be for a street address or PO Box, not a human's name.
This bug could explain how the larger problem of customer names not printing on invoices got released to Intuit's customers.  Please fix the bug and the test that should have caught it.

Thanks for letting us know about the add field behavior, @DwhoaTreas.

I'll share some information about adding the customer's name to the invoice. While this option is unavailable, you'll want to follow the steps provided by my colleague @SashaMC as a workaround.

With the steps above, you're able to see the "Customer Name" field in the header portion and then enter your customer name on the invoice. This is how it looks like.

About the new customer (address field), I'll be sending a product feedback to our Development Team on your behalf.

I'm also attaching this link here in case you need help with other tasks in QBDT. Just browse for topics that suit your concern.

Let me know if you still have questions or concerns with customer or invoices. I'll be around for you. Take care and have a lovely day ahead.

@ShiellaGraceA ,

Now I see. I was editing the Invoice template in the final print format. I didn't realize that @SashaMC's instructions involved adding fields to the Screen side of an Invoice. (I'm still learning.) It's cool that you can pass data through a field that way, although I think I'll stick with using the Account # since I can enter it once for each customer and reuse it until the software gets patched. Thanks for the helpful info with screenshots and thanks for sending the bug report to Dev.
You have a lovely day too.

OMG...I am trying to setup QB for a new company and I cannot believe this is not available.  No customer Name, Number or Company Name can be added to the invoice without manually typing it into each invoice or adding it the the ship to fields. This information is fundamental to an invoice and does not always belong in the address.  Right now this makes the product unusable for my purposes.  Not only do I need this information, I also need to add other customer fields to the invoice/quote so the customer can verify them.  I have implemented and designed accounting software for decades.  I am flabbergasted at this situation.

Thanks for taking the time to reach out, @NathanDQ.

Thanks for giving that detailed information about your thoughts and suggestions to make QuickBooks Desktop better. I can see how this would be beneficial for customer information to auto-populate within QuickBooks forms, and I'm here to make sure our Development team receives this valuable feedback. 

 At times, we roll out updates based on our customers' suggestions. Rest assured, we're taking note of your ideas to improve your QuickBooks experience.   

As always, I'm just a post away if you have any other thoughts or concerns you may have. Have a fantastic weekend.

Any word on when this critical feature will be added?  It is mission critical that accounting invoices show the customer name on the invoice!  Seems like you just need to add the option of adding the customer field to the printed invoice.  Not sure why this is not already a part of the invoice?

This is not a "work around" for 3500 customers already input or uploaded.

This answer is insulting and a non-answer.

So, how is this going Jessica?

Should be pretty simple for them after so many requests. I'm sure this isn't the only place that people have complained about it. They just don't know the practical uses of this software so they don't understand and evidently don't care.

They give instructions for single customer entries. But it sounds like most of us are doing multiple entries from spreadsheets. 

If I could switch to something else, I would. They'll probably add it to a level of service that our organization can't afford-like Quickbooks online. Don't get any ideas QB! (I switched to QBO, had a horrible onboarding and the customer service is about like what you all have experienced here and SO EXPENSIVE. I'm back with desktop but I am gritting my teeth through this process.)

I have complained and offered suggestions in the past but it falls on deaf ears.

How about some screen captures?  That explanation matches up to nothing on the Desktop version.

You can create a new spreadsheet and copy the address cell but add the client name referencing the client name cell, then remap that new cell as address field.