Why are Estimates showing full customer/sub-customer hierarchy above Billing Address when printing or saving a PDF?

Hello there, Jackson5. I want to share some insights regarding your concerns about the estimate form in QuickBooks Online.

When you edit an Estimate on-screen in QuickBooks, you will only see the name of the selected customer or sub-customer for simplicity. However, when you print or save the Estimate, the names of both the parent customer and the sub-customer are included to illustrate their relationship.

QBO aims to enhance clarity and context in official documents by revealing the complete customer structure, even if it isn't shown during the regular editing process.

In this case, the appearance of customer hierarchy information on the printed/PDF version of the Estimate is considered normal behavior. It is working as designed within QuickBooks Online, even though it may not be visible when editing the Estimate itself.

Please let me know if you have any other concerns, Jackson5.

No, this is incorrect. I have been printing these estimates for 9 years without showing the customer/sub-customer hierarchy. I have a printed estimate from 2 weeks ago in front of me right now that doesn't show it, but when I reprint that same estimate today it will show. It is clearly a new bug. It isn't even formatted correctly.

Why would I want to hand a customer an estimate that reveals the "complete customer structure" that I've specified for them in my own accounting software? That information has always been hidden, as it should be. For example... I have a property owner/landlord that is a customer and some of their tenants categorized as sub-customers. Why would I want the landlord's name to appear on an estimate if I'm working directly for the tenant? That would suggest that the landlord may be responsible for the cost of the estimate.

I just want to echo jackson5's comment - I've also been using this functionality in QBO for years and it wasn't adding the heirarchy last week, and it is adding it this week. I've add the same issue - it doesn't appear in the online form, but does appear when printing the PDF version (using the standard, rather than the modern template).

Whether it is a bug or an intential change, please reverse it. It makes my paperwork look unprofessional and adds rather than removes confusion for the client. 

Please remove the Project and Customer name from the printed Estimate. It does not belong there. In custom forms it even goes into "Ship to" address. This makes it unusable. That is crazy! You promised to fix it already on Friday. Nothing has happened yet. Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thx.

Hi there, Mjdonnay,

I completely understand how crucial it is to maintain the professionalism of your Estimates. Our engineers are actively working to enhance this feature, and we truly value your feedback in helping us improve.

To address your concern about excluding the customer hierarchy information from your estimate, I encourage you to share this request directly with our product engineering team. Your input is important and will certainly be considered for future updates.

Here’s how you can provide your feedback:

1. Click the Gear icon and select Feedback.
2. Provide a brief description of your suggestion for improving the product.
3. Click Next to submit your feedback.

Regarding Martin's request to remove the Project and Customer details from the Estimate, I understand how necessary it is to resolve this immediately. For this issue, I recommend reaching out to our QuickBooks Live Support team for further assistance. They have the tools and resources to address this concern effectively and provide you with the latest updates.

Here’s how:

1. In QBO, navigate to the Help (?) icon in the top-right corner.
2. Click on the Search tab, then select Contact Us.
3. Enter a brief description of your concern, then click Continue.
4. Choose either Chat or Callback options.

You can check our support hours and pick a convenient time to connect in this article: Get help with QuickBooks products and services.

We truly appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to resolve this for you. If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, don’t hesitate to let me know.

Having the same issue. Please resolve ASAP. Super unprofessional. Following conversation for results.

I have spent an entire year going through every single person, every single estimate, invoice, etc. I carefully typed each display name to reflect what my team needs to see internally, using specific terms and a client-numbering system to keep track of each property, the client’s last name, first name, and their assigned number.

All of a sudden, my internal, private display names are now showing on estimates. This is insanely unprofessional looking.

Why is this happening? Why are we not given the option to opt out? Why weren’t we warned? I have gone through over a thousand clients and carefully organized them… just to end up with their internal names blasted onto customer-facing estimates.

On top of that, it’s extremely repetitive. If I organize each client in this format:

Client # - Last name, First name – Address …the estimate form then automatically inserts the name and address again on the next lines. So the same information appears twice. It looks ridiculous.

The only workaround I’ve found is completely absurd:

1. Erase the display name

> QBO forces you to choose something, so you have to make it a random placeholder that is NOT the name or address (since those already appear below)

2. Uncheck that the client is a sub-client (if that’s how they’re listed)

3. Save the contact

4. Go back into the estimate

5. Download the estimate

6. Manually email the estimate as a PDF (outside of QBO)

7. Go back into QBO

8. Re-assign the contact as a sub-client

9. Re-enter the internal display name so my team can search for it.

At the very least, we should've been given a way to keep the display names internal only, An opt-out setting for customer-facing forms or a warning before pushing a change like this live.

...... This cannot be real. This has completely destroyed a full year of careful organization and internal workflow design.

I have spent an entire year going through every single person, every single estimate, invoice, etc. I carefully typed each display name to reflect what my team needs to see internally, using specific terms and a client-numbering system to keep track of each property, the client’s last name, first name, and their assigned number.

All of a sudden, my internal, private display names are now showing on estimates. This is insanely unprofessional looking.

Why is this happening? Why are we not given the option to opt out? Why weren’t we warned? I have gone through over a thousand clients and carefully organized them… just to end up with their internal names blasted onto customer-facing estimates.

On top of that, it’s extremely repetitive. If I organize each client in this format:

Client # - Last name, First name – Address …the estimate form then automatically inserts the name and address again on the next lines. So the same information appears twice. It looks ridiculous.

The only workaround I’ve found is completely absurd:

1. Erase the display name

> QBO forces you to choose something, so you have to make it a random placeholder that is NOT the name or address (since those already appear below)

2. Uncheck that the client is a sub-client (if that’s how they’re listed)

3. Save the contact

4. Go back into the estimate

5. Download the estimate

6. Manually email the estimate as a PDF (outside of QBO)

7. Go back into QBO

8. Re-assign the contact as a sub-client

9. Re-enter the internal display name so my team can search for it.

At the very least, we should've been given a way to keep the display names internal only, An opt-out setting for customer-facing forms or a warning before pushing a change like this live.

...... This cannot be real. This has completely destroyed a full year of careful organization and internal workflow design.