Change Back Hierarchy View

Thank you so much for the solution.  I have no idea how it was changed to flat view but regardless your solution worked perfectly!

You're most welcome, @kelper62.

We're glad to know that my colleague was able to provide the right solution to your concern.

Please know that assisting and providing the right resolution for our valued customers is our top priority. If you have any questions about your QuickBooks, you can always drop by and post your concerns. We'll make sure to address that as soon as we can.

Also, I added this article to your reference when checking the latest updates about the product: The QuickBooks Blog.

We're always around to help. Have a good one!

Of course, always blame the user when something does not work right in QuickBooks. You cannot tell that they changed their list to Flat View. What you can tell by the screenshot is that the list IS in Flat View. Likely, this list reverted to flat view because I have experienced this happening to me repeatedly and without my ever changing the list view. I personally do not like flat view at all. If that option did not exist I would not miss it or ever have a reason to view anything in Flat View.

I happened to come across this thread because once again, QuickBooks reverting to Flat View is a daily occurrence and annoyance. My Customer List has been reverting to flat view all on its own since about the 2022 release. Apparently, Flat View is a hidden default within QuickBooks that constantly overrides hierarchical view. Since it began happening, I have been able to get Hierarchical View to stick for a little while with some tinkering, but after every update I would need to go through this process again because without fail my list will revert to Flat View. A view that is highly inconvenient for a contractor that has customers with multiple jobs under their main account. To have it stick I would have to go through the process of changing the customer list back to Hierarchical View, resort the list, then I would double check that my other lists (Item List and Chart of Accounts) were still in Hierarchical View. Then I would go to preferences, save the current desktop, close QuickBooks then reopen it. Until recently, my Item List and Chart of Accounts would stay in Hierarchical View, however since an update or two ago my Item List also reverts to Flat View, but my Chart of Accounts remains in Hierarchical View.

I have used QuickBooks for years without any issue with my Customer List reverting to Flat View. This is either a bug created during an earlier release, and it has not been repaired or the developers in their infinite wisdom have decided for me how I should view my Customer List. If you give the user a choice to view a list certain way, it should be something that sticks and does not require your users to create workarounds to get it to work and only a brief period at that.

Hello there, Rebengel. Let me chime in and share some insights regarding Hierarchy and Flat view. 

I see that you're having trouble changing the view from a Hierarchical to a Flat view in your Customer Center, and it's reverting without any action from your end. Normally, you would need to navigate to your Customer Center, choose a customer, and then right-click to change the view. Afterward, save the changes, then keep the previously saved desktop within your Desktop View under Preferences. However, the fact that it keeps reverting without any changes from your end is indeed unusual. 

In this case, I recommend reaching out to our desktop representative for assistance. They have the necessary tools and expertise to identify why this issue keeps occurring in your company file. By contacting them, you'll be able to know the root cause of this concern, and they can help you find the right solution.

Here's how: 

1. Go to Help.
2. Select QuickBooks Desktop Help/Contact Us.
3. Select Contact Us.
4. Type your issue in the space provided, then select Continue.
5. Sign in to your Intuit account.
6. Select Continue and then Continue with my account. If you don't already have an account, make sure to Create a new account.
7. We'll email you a single-use code. Enter your code and select Continue. If you have more than one account, select the account that you want to use, and then Continue.
8. Select to chat with us or Have us call you. 

Make sure to contact them within business hours to ensure a quick response.

Additionally, you can use the article below to learn how to use the Add/Edit Multiple List Entries window to add and edit multiple customers, vendors, services, inventory items, and non-inventory items: Add and edit multiple customers, vendors, and items. 

Keep me posted if you have other questions about managing your customer list and its view in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT). I'll be around to address your concerns. 

IrizA, I do have to give you credit for actually reading my reply and addressing it directly. Most of the time I just see a previously posted "solution" posted verbatim again as if done by bots. I have not found contacting QuickBooks to be at all useful. I usually have to find the solutions on my own. It would be nice if Intuit were truly concerned with their customer's experience, but I have not found this to be so. Contacting customer service usually results in more time (hours in my experience) and trouble than it is worth. And it is not so strange that QB is reverting back to Flat View. If you simply google it (see screenshot of the first 4 items that pop up going back to 2020) there are a number of pages that pop up with solutions to try. For that matter you may look it up with in the QB support community and you will find others that experience this as well. Never once has customer support helped me fix an issue with QB. I have always found the solution either for myself or by some article written by nice people who share their knowledge on how they fixed the problem with others online.

I have found that community support just offers rote answers (most likely bots), without digging into the real issues that people need help with. It doesn't do any good to submit tickets or offer suggestions to QB. I have yet to meet a developer that believes the issue is with the software that they develop. The go-to is always to blame the user and to just shrug most everything off as the ignorance of the customer. Nothing is ever done until they hear from the masses, then, and only then, do they look into their programming, find the bug then fix it. That is if they feel like it. I guess when you are a company as big as Intuit you no longer really need to care about the end user experience.

I'm a disgruntled Intuit user, trapped by integration with everything under the sun. If it wasn't for the integration that allows for automation and web connection, I would go back to Sage in a heartbeat.

How about someone say "Hey, this sounds like a real issue. I'll save you time and forward this on to development"? After all, we aren't using QB for funsies, we've got real work to do.

I too, have had the same experience as you - with hierarchial view changing on it's own as well as other things that Intuit NEVER helps me fix.  I have been using QBooks since it was born out of Quicken long ago and have been progressively and increasingly disappointed in the level of support that I get from anyone at Intuit.

I traveled all the way to Phoenix to take a class simply to actually talk to a real person, paid the extra money to become a QBooks "preferred" customer (or whatever they call it) and this has not even helped.  When I make suggestions, they don't even have the decency to respond to my suggestions!

Thank you for speaking up!  Going to go fix my hierarchial view - AGAIN!!

Hi,

I too have been having this problem.  It appears to be quite common based on my Google searches.  I KNOW how to switch back and forth between flat and hierarchical views....it's just that it always reverts back to the flat view.  Usually the next time I open QuickBooks....