Invoice line items - combine all charges into one line (desktop edition)

That worked well, thank you!

I am concerned about our item list getting very large and cluttered and the groupings we are needing to use will likely not be repeated. Once this group is created, can it be edited and reused for another transaction, or would that impact the previous transactions it had been used in? Meaning, will we need to set up a new item each time we need to group items on an invoice? Thanks!

Hello, DeeCh. 

Thanks for dropping by the Community space. In QuickBooks program contains an "Add/Edit Multiple List Entries" option that allows users to change multiple entries within an account in a single window, helping eliminate the potential for entry errors and speeding up the editing process. You can edit customers, inventory, non-inventory parts and service items lists that you have already entered into your QuickBooks data. 

To edit the group, follow the instructions in this article: Add and edit multiple customers, vendors, and items. 

Don't hesitate to comment below if you have other questions with QuickBooks Desktop. Take care and stay safe.

@DeeChRE: Once this group is created, can it be edited and reused for another transaction, or would that impact the previous transactions it had been used in? 

Yes, it can be edited as often as needed.

However, you don't really even need to do that if the group changes every time. Instead, set you can set up an empty group (or one that has only one or a few items that are usually included), use it on an invoice or other type of sales transaction, and then insert as many rows as needed within the group and add items right on the transaction.

The situation I have is we have labor costs and material costs that we want broken out when invoiced but we want the customer to see just the total.  This would change with each job.  Ideas?

The scenario I have is we have labor costs and material costs that we want to delineate when we invoice but we want the customer to see the total cost.  Ideas?

I'll ensure that your customer can only see the total cost when receiving the invoice, @gwnova. Help has arrived. 

Hopefully, you're having a great day today. I'm happy to provide methods on how to split two items in the invoice in your QuickBooks Desktop.

Let's create a specific template for this transaction so your customer will only see the total. Follow the steps below: 

1. Go to the List menu, then choose Template. 
2. Press Ctrl + N and click Additional Customization on the button part. 
3. Select Footer and check only the Total box. 
4. Check the Only show Total on the last page box in the Print section. 
5. Click OK. 

For more details, see this link:  Use and customize form templates.

After that, you'll need to create a group item. Ensure that the Print items in group box is unchecked. This way, the customer will only see the total in the sales form. 

1. Go to the List menu, then choose Item list. 
2. Press Ctrl + N and pick Group as a transaction type.
3. Enter a Group Name in the field. 
4. Add the labor and material cost under the Item section. 
5. Make sure the Print items in group is not selected.
6. Click OK.

For more information, check out this article: Add and edit multiple customers, vendors, and items.

Once done, let's create a sample invoice to see how it looks like. Let me show you how: 

1. Go to the Customers menu and select Create invoice. 
2. Pick the customer name in the field. 
3. Choose the invoice template you previously created in the drop-down.
4. Select the group item in the field and complete the needed details. 
5. Click the Print button, then Preview to see how the form looks like. 

Additionally, visit these articles below to help you manage your customer invoices, payments, statements, sales forms, and other related matters: 

• Sales and customers
• Email sales forms, invoices, and statements in QuickBooks Desktop

If you need help with other processes, please feel free to mention my name in the comment section below. I'm always here to work with you again. Keep safe, gwnova.

Is there a way to do this same exact grouping of line items on an invoice, but on Quickbooks Online?

We use an empty group to hide hundreds of inventory items we use on one job as well.  It is messy, and cannot be undone, or added later.  I also means if we want a printed copy of the inventory items on an invoice for ourselves we have to take a screenshot.  I cannot imagine other contractors don't have this problem and that Quick Books doesn't have a option to "not print" or "hide" inventory items from and invoice.  This is our single biggest problem in QB, especially when we want our techs to be able to use IFSM to create invoices in the field - they cannot edit the group in that platform.

In any case, when we use the empty group option, we cannot figure out how to include billable items.  They show up outside of the empty group even if we have our cursor inside of the group.  I have tried adding them, then copying and pasting each line into the empty group, but then those items are not hidden on the invoice.  The best I can do is use the "Print billable items as one group" feature, but then I end up with 2 line items on the invoice - one for the empty group that I created, and one for the billable items.  It looks silly.

We can't be the only contractors that want to hide hundreds of inventory parts we use on a job.