Creating invoices from data in Airtable via Zapier

I appreciate the complete details you've shared, @UCTINC.

You can assign account numbers or IDs to your customers. It can be internal (lets you sort customers numerically) or external-facing (appears on customer invoices). I can guide you on how to do it.

• For internal only 
  1. Go to the Sales menu.
  2. Choose the Customers tab.
  3. Select a customer to open the customer page.
  4. Click the Edit button.
  5. From the Display name as field, enter the account number before the customer name. 
  6. Click Save.
• For customer-facing numbering
  1. Choose the Sales menu.
  2. Pick the Customers tab.
  3. Select a customer to open the customer page.
  4. Click Edit.
  5. Add the account number on the Use display name field. 
  6. Select Save.

Just a heads-up, this information is entered manually. Thus, you'd not be notified if a particular number has already been used.

Lastly, you can set up a custom field and name it as Customer ID or ID. Here's how:

1. Go to the Sales menu.
2. Select the Customer tab.
3. Open a customer profile.
4. Pick the Custom Field section.
5. Click the + Add custom field link. 
6. Enter the name of the field. 
7. Set its Data Type and Category. 
8. Mark the sales forms where it will be printed and displayed. 
9. Click the Save button. 

You can check these articles to learn more about how to maximize the use of the Custom Field in QuickBooks:

• Use custom fields in reports in QuickBooks Online Advanced
• Create and edit custom fields in QuickBooks Online Advanced
• Filter, search, and sort with custom fields

Keep me posted if you have other questions about managing your customer's information in QuickBooks. I'm just a few clicks away.

Hello, thanks for the reply and the thoughtful answer. While this is really helpful for display purposes, I am a little more curious as to how it integrates with 3rd party integrations services like Zapier.

As I mentioned in the post, Zapier requires some sort of customer Id. When I look at some of the options that Zapier gives, it appears as if the customers are sequentially numbered (1, 2, 3, etc.). I am figuring that there is some sort of behind the scenes numerical identification of each customer that is put into a QBO account. 

My next question is whether there is a way to access these unique Ids for the customers so that I can use these to integrate our other systems? 

I have tried exporting the customers table to a csv, looked at the detailed customer info, looked at other resources but have had no luck. Perhaps this number is something that Zapier assigns and I will need to get the number that way.

Thanks again for the help.

Hello there, UCTINC.

Yes, you can use the URLs that's come out of your customer profile to access their ID's. Once you click the customer name, you'll see the name ID on the URL page. 

If you want to edit your customer information within your QuickBooks account, feel free to use this article as a guide :

• Customer updates across your company file. 
• Learn how to add, edit, delete or merge customers. 

Comment below if you have additional questions. Take care and stays safe always. 

Great, thank you for these resources.

One final question. Can you confirm, for the customer ids found in the URL, that they are sequential. So, for example, if we add a new customer and our last customer had the id of 101, that the new customer would have an id of 102?

Trying to find a systematic way of assigning these ids within another one of our systems.

Thanks!

Hi there, UCTINC.

Yes, the IDs found on the URL is correctly sequential by created order. However, please note that the number is in Both Vendor and Customer orders. For example, you create a customer and the last digit is 102, when you create a new vendor the next number is 103. Then, if you create a new customer it will follow the sequence as 104.

You can refer to this article on how you can make any changes in your customer's profile: Add and manage customers in QuickBooks Online. This also provides steps on how to add a sub-customer or merge duplicate customers.

Please refer to this article to see information on how the Sales page gives you a great at-a-glance view of the status of sales transactions, open invoices, and paid invoices: View sales transactions.

Keep me posted if there's anything else you need. I'm always around whenever you have follow-up questions. Thank you and take care always!