Invoice as PDF - File name

Welcome to the Community, @hellojoea. Thanks for sharing your experience about how the invoice file name appears when you opt to download and save it on your computer. 

I understand that it isn't convenient for you to rename it every time. However, that's the best option to do at the moment. I will take note of your suggestion and will share this with our engineers. I'm sure they will take a look at our suggested plan carefully and may consider this in the next future updates. 

In the meantime, I'm encouraging you to visit our QuickBooks blog site for more information about the current event and new product enhancements. 

Just in case you want to get paid quicker with your invoice, I'm adding this help article as your reference: Let your customers pay invoices online.

Let me know if you have additional questions, @hellojoea. I'm always around here to help. 

I save files as PDF often from QB and the solution is relatively simple, at least in my experience.

When you save as pdf you should be prompted for a location and, of course, the suggested name is i the location box.  Can't you overwrite the name when you save it? You certainly can determine the location to be different than what QB suggests as a default.

If that fails, the other option is to Print to PDF, which allows you to choose your own name as well as location.  All you need is an installed PDF Printer. If you do not have one already might I suggest BullZip  - I use it all the time with never an issue. You can choose to open the pdf when it is created and from (usually Adobe) pdf viewer you can direct print a hard copy

We also save our documents as PDFs and this default behavior is inconvenient. QB desktop saves documents as "Invoice XX" or "Purchase Order XX". So I don't know why QBO wouldn't do it the same way. It would be great if we could customize it by pulling data from the document, such as "Invoice XX - Customer - Customer PO.pdf" or "Purchase Order XX - Vendor - Date.pdf", etc. But at the very least it should behave the way desktop does. 

Hey, @David - Inventory Mgr. 

I see that this could be beneficial for your business and an inconvenience since this option isn't available. However, I'll send feedback to our Product Developers so they can consider this in one of the upcoming releases for QuickBooks Online. Our Product Development Team regularly reviews customer-submitted feedback. We're committed to developing an easy to use financial tools that can help you today and grow with you tomorrow. 

You can also visit our Blog to see what's coming in the new updates. 

If you have any other concerns, please let us know. I want to make sure all of your concerns are addressed. Wishing you continued success!

I agree with the original poster... I also export all my invoices as PDFs because of the unique way I need to package an invoice with other files before sending to client, and it's a hassle having to rename the files every time. It would be much easier and make more sense if the default file name when you Download/Save is the Invoice Number.

ONLY an engineer would think

"djQ6OTEzMDM0OTA0OTDNjQ1NjovdHJhbnNhYrrRpb25zL1RyYW5zYWN0aW9uOg 470.pdf"

is an appropriate file name.

Rather than, I don't know, name the invoice with the date_invoice-number_client-last-name or something logical like that, we're given a cryptic name that makes zero sense.

Who does this? Engineers.

Who creates the invoices? Small business people, many not tech savvy - where adding this additional step leads to one thing - a mess. The result? Inconsistent invoices sent in emails, stored as PDFs on computers etc.

Well, it's now December and this is still not fixed/addressed/clearly documented/improved.  I just spent 10 UNHELPFUL minutes on a support chat with an agent who told me that I needed to  "set the PDF reader properly".  Clearly this is not a solution to anything and a useless statement.  At minimum this has been a known problem since February and the chat agents should be able to identify it and not just pass the buck to MY IT guy.  Terribly disappointed.  

I'm also interested in a fix for this. It would be incredibly useful to have a default invoice prefix/suffix option to add a company name before or after "Invoice_xxxx". Renaming each invoice manually is waste of time in a software that's supposed to streamline workflows like this.

So, here it is May 25, 2021 and still no fix to something that is absolutely a desired and more efficient way to print invoices to PDF as a ton of small businesses do.  At the very least the invoice number should be able to be able to be programmed as the default file name, I mean we put a man on the moon decades ago - pulling programmed information from the document should not be close to rocket science. 

Let's be honest, Quickbooks is more interested in trying to force us to log into THEIR servers every 7 days so they can data mine our financials than to do something as simple as helping a small business out with a program we have already paid for by adding a feature that could save us tons of time and provide consistency.

Seems like another software company may have an opening as I would bolt away from this Nazi-tactic program in a heartbeat.

Respectfully,

Dissatisfied long time user!

Good evening,

I am looking for a platform that will listen to our needs and take action for this specific issue, unless Quickbooks is interested in setting this up?

Thank you.

Ken

The Community always has your back to take care of your needs, Ken SelectROW.

Each version of QuickBooks is designed to address your specific business needs. May I know the task you'd like to perform in the program? This way, we'll be able to help you decide which is best for you.

To learn the different QuickBooks products and versions, I'd suggest checking out this article: See Which Version is Right For You.

Additionally, we have a Help articles page that'll help you learn some tips and tricks in managing your QuickBooks account. This ensures you're able to complete your tasks. 

You can count on me if you have more questions about managing your QuickBooks account, Ken SelectROW. Take care and have a good one.

Thank you for your response. I am using the Quickbooks Online Enterprise edition, and there is no way to automate the invoice naming convention. I see there was some talk that this would be updated. Is that true or are we still contemplating this improvement?

I genuinely appreciate Quickbooks staff taking the time and money to implement this improvement as soon as possible.

Hi there, Ken SelectROW.

I know how inconvenient it is to change the invoice name in QuickBooks. Please know that we always take our customers' requests and ideas into consideration when prioritizing feature development.

That said, I recommend sending feedback to our Product Development Team to help improve your QuickBooks experience. When you're ready, here's how to do it:

1. Log in to your QBO account.
2. Go to the Gear icon at the top, then select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions.
4. Click Next to complete the process.

Additionally, I've added this article for a further overview of uploading documents in QuickBooks: Attachments in QuickBooks Online.

You can always find me here if you need more help in dealing with your other pending tasks. Assistance is just a post away.

I think this counts as feedback. The entire purpose of this question about automating invoice naming is to save time, not create a situation where we have to post multiple times over multiple calendar years to get a boilerplate response with no new information. The idea is to save time, not spend it submitting feedback. We're paying to use this service, not being paid to help develop it.

Ok so here is what I submitted under the gear icon:

I am using the Quickbooks Online Enterprise edition, and there is no way to automate the invoice naming convention. I see there was some talk that this would be updated. Is that true or are we still contemplating this improvement?

Here is the thread in case you are wondering about what certain users have been requesting since February of 2020.

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/payments/re-invoice-as-pdf-file-name/01/962793#M32...

I am considering moving to a smaller platform that will take my requests to heart.

Please provide a estimated date of implementation.

Thank you.

Ken

I hear you, and I can see how the benefit of being able to automate the invoice naming convention would aid you in running your business with QuickBooks Online (QBO), @Ken SelectROW. That's why I'm here to share further details about this.

For the time being, we're unable to provide the estimated date of implementation as to when a feature will be available in QBO. Once there are enough users interested, the option is definitely we could consider adding as a feature in the future.

We take customer suggestions as opportunities to improve the various features within our products. Therefore, I would encourage you to send suggestions or product recommendations. You can refer to the steps provided by my colleague above to complete the process.

I'm also adding these links that you can utilize for future reference. These can walk you through the steps on how to personalize your sales forms and record your invoice payment:

• Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online
• Record invoice payments in QuickBooks Online

On top of that, I'd also recommend visiting this page to keep you updated with the latest software improvements and enhancements with QBO: Customer Feedback for QuickBooks Online.

I'm all ears if you have other concerns about automating the invoice naming convention in QBO. You can drop a comment below, and I'll gladly help. Take care, and I wish you continued success, @Ken SelectROW.

It's almost a year since the last post regarding this issue and still no resolution.  Fix it.

Indeed !

Downloading an invoice as a PDF...is a core and basic feature for an invoicing Sass.

Changing a no-user-friendly PDF invoice naming convention like 2837.pdf for at least an hard coded convention like Invoice_invoice-number.pdf is really really easy.

Considering a basic effort-impact analysis, this request should have been fixed for a long time.

Thx

Hi there, @FiveG and @Olivier T.

I acknowledge your feedback and suggestions about managing invoices as a PDF. Please know that our product engineers are working continuously to improve the product's features. 

While this feature isn't available, I suggest submitting feedback directly to our product engineers. They may look into this suggestion further and consider adding the option in QuickBooks Online (QBO). To submit feedback, you can go to the Gear icon and select Feedback. Then, enter your suggestion and click Submit Feedback.

You can also visit our Customer Feedback page. This will help you track the status of your product request and get the latest updates from our developers. Updates such as how the recent enhancement made to QBO helps our business owners, like you.

Please touch base with me here for all of your QuickBooks needs. I'm always happy to help.

There really should be more customization for naming conventions. This should be happening in the invoice setup on a per client basis.  If you could set it up i.e.  - (customer code)_(your business code)_(invoice ######)_(invoice dates day, week, month, etc.), it would be a huge time saver.

Totally agree with all commenters here - definitely need this feature enhancement sooner than later.

I too would like to be able to save or print my invoices to PDF with the invoice number as the file name. I would like to do this from within the invoices window. And I'm reading through these comments from 2021 to present and see that there are no fixes yet. And I have tried to load this feedback on the "feedback" option via the gear icon and the program stalls. I'm sorry to say this, but this type of response to customer requests (no help / nothing gets fixed / excuses) unfortunately sums my whole experience since I was forced to move over to QB Online from desktop. 

I have found one way to do achieve the goal above but it is a very weird and roundabout way to get the result I need. There are about four other ways to print an invoice and none of them can be used to achieve the needed result. Is Intuit trying to drive users crazy?

Is there an estimated date to address this issue or not?

Welcome back to the Community, @ Ken SelectROW.

Changes in the program are released based on several factors, so we're unable to provide the turnaround time on when the new features are released in QuickBooks. This info is controlled and handled mainly by the Developers Team.

I suggest sending them feedback. They're responsible for adding new features in the future. 

1. Go to the Gear icon.
2. Select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions.
4. Tap Next to submit.

I have included some links that can guide you on how to personalize your sales forms and record invoice payments for future reference.

• Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online
• Record invoice payments in QuickBooks Online

Come back here anytime if you need help with other features in QBO or invoices. We're always available to assist you whenever you need me.