Can you use duplicate invoice numbers?

Welcome to the Community, Craig.

Let me share insights about invoices.

Yes, you can use the same number with your invoices. However, a prompt message will show up after you click Save.

Yet, having the same invoice might lead to discrepancies in your invoice report.

When you want to make eye-catching invoice forms, I'll drop an article for it: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online.

If a customer needs to pay on their invoices, you can receive and record the payments to track your account balance.

If you have any additional concerns besides invoices, please post them here in the community. Have a wonderful day!

Before the last update that’s what it did. Now it says that it’s a duplicate and says to pick another number. It won’t let me save the invoice until the number is changed. 

That’s what it did before the update. Now it tells you it’s a duplicate and won’t save until you change it. “This invoice number was already used. Try a different one to continue.”

Hey there, Craig. I've got some insights to help you get past the issue.

With the new invoice layout in QuickBooks Online, duplicate invoice numbers aren't allowed. However, you can switch back to the old invoice layout to continue creating invoices with the same numbers. Please note that this process is irreversible. Let me guide you how.

1. Go to +New. 
2. Under the Customers column, select Invoice.
3. In the upper right corner, click Old layout.
4. Choose Switch layout.
5. Once you're ready, hit Leave and submit.

Additionally, we recognize the importance of this functionality. To help improve your experience with QBO, I recommend sharing your valuable input with our product development team.

Here's how you can send us your feedback:

1. Click the Gear icon, then select Feedback.
2. Type in your comments and product suggestions.
3. Hit Next to submit.

Moreover, if you want to send reminders to customers about overdue invoices, you can visit this article for more guidance: Send invoice reminders automatically or manually in QuickBooks Online.

Please feel free to click the Reply button below if you need further assistance with your invoices. We've got your back.

That option doesn’t show up in my QuickBooks online. 

That option doesn’t show up in the right corner. 

Hello there, Craig.

Switching to different invoice styles in QBO is only available to selected users. If you don't have the option to switch to the old invoice layout, I recommend submitting feedback. Your feedback will help us improve your QBO experience and will be shared with our Product Development Team.

Here's how:

1. Select the Gear icon, then choose Feedback.
2. Enter your comments or product suggestions.
3. Hit Next to submit.

For future reference, you can read this article about customizing invoices in QuickBooks Online: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online.

Let me know if you have questions about managing invoices in QuickBooks Online. I'm always here to help. Have a great day.

@jeanbiverly_   RE: With the new invoice layout in QuickBooks Online, duplicate invoice numbers aren't allowed.

That seems stupid. There's no reason to have any such restriction.

What is Intuit up to these days? It seems your developers just keep trashing QuickBooks with things like this that 1) no one asked for, and 2) aren't helpful at all.

BigRedConsulting 

I seriously hope you're joking and trying to mess with someone like me that will point out the obvious.

In all actuality it is NOT stupid. QuickBooks has never allowed duplicate anything (you've always had to have at least a slight difference ie: Having a customer that is also a vendor still requires no duplication and to differentiate one from the other, for example ABC Co. - C (for customer), same ABC Co. - V (for vendor). Every time you attempt to create a duplicate QBs has always prompted with a message this (customer, vendor, acct, etc) already exists do you want to merge the two....in fact, this is how you merge having two of  the same customer/vendor. Bill Smith/William Smith, both have been created but are the same. In the instructions it provides the steps to pick one and edit it to read the same as the other, exactly - I want the example to be William, so I open Bill Smith and edit his name to William, when I click save, it prompts me this name exists and do I wish to merge the two at this time I'd say yes and all records for each become one. This is not a hard concept to understand why, however, in the situation of check numbers/invoice numbers NOT being stupid there is a very good reason. You ever been audited? An auditor is going to look for gaps in consecutive numbers, duplicate numbers, deleted numbers, etc. but good luck to you.

In all actuality it is NOT stupid. QuickBooks has never allowed duplicate anything (you've always had to have at least a slight difference ie: Having a customer that is also a vendor still requires no duplication and to differentiate one from the other, for example ABC Co. - C (for customer), same ABC Co. - V (for vendor). Every time you attempt to create a duplicate QBs has always prompted with a message this (customer, vendor, acct, etc) already exists do you want to merge the two....in fact, this is how you merge having two of  the same customer/vendor. Bill Smith/William Smith, both have been created but are the same. In the instructions it provides the steps to pick one and edit it to read the same as the other, exactly - I want the example to be William, so I open Bill Smith and edit his name to William, when I click save, it prompts me this name exists and do I wish to merge the two at this time I'd say yes and all records for each become one. This is not a hard concept to understand why, however, in the situation of check numbers/invoice numbers NOT being stupid there is a very good reason. You ever been audited? An auditor is going to look for gaps in consecutive numbers, duplicate numbers, deleted numbers, etc. but good luck to you.

RE: I seriously hope you're joking and trying to mess with someone like me that will point out the obvious.

I'm not joking at all.

RE: QuickBooks has never allowed duplicate anything...

That is true for most types of list records - names, items, accounts, and so on.

Oddly, it is not true for the memorized transaction list, where you can have as many transactions with the same name as you want.

It has never been true for document numbers like check numbers, invoice numbers, and so on. For good reasons. The most obvious reason is that, for preprinted stock like checks, actual check numbers can repeat  over time, and so they will need to be entered into QuickBooks that way.

RE: You ever been audited? An auditor is going to look for gaps in consecutive numbers, duplicate numbers, deleted numbers, etc. but good luck to you.

No I haven't. I don't think I'd ever be audited by someone looking at invoice numbers. I can't imagine the situation where that would happen. I use sales receipts to record sales, based on sales that happen in the real world, but the doc numbers don't mean anything. They aren't tied to anything from the actual sale, and they aren't printed or sent to customers, and I don't use the numbers for anything. They might as well not exist in my case. They're not useful or helpful at all.

This may also be the case of another poster here who said he likes to give all the invoices for a customer for a month the same number and then either print them all at once or print statements with the details. He also appears to not care one whit about invoice numbers for his case.

I did just do a little reading about it and it seems that - when comparing data in the accounting system to paper documents - an auditor will use doc numbers in an audit, but that they will also use other identifying data such as the name, date, and amount of the transactions.  That other information is probably sufficient in the case that there can be duplicate document numbers.

However, except for check numbers on printed check stock, QuickBooks is not designed to work with preprinted stock where the numbers are printed on the forms. I would say that it's far less compelling to use invoice document numbers in an audit when you're not comparing the accounting system's records to copies of preprinted invoice stock that includes preprinted sequential document numbers. In that case, you can expect to find every preprinted invoice in the files - none missing - and a matching copy in the accounting system.

But in QuickBooks case there is really no such expectation, because it generates the number it then prints on forms, and it lets you skip numbers if you want, and it has (to date) always let you duplicate them if desired. The fact that electronic invoices exist in QuickBooks with consecutive numbers - or not - proves nothing. There's no way to know of those invoices are real, for example. You'd have to compare them to invoices printed by QuickBooks and kept by the business, but even then that doesn't prove that those were the only invoices printed and sent to customers, or that the copy currently saved in QB and printed matches what was actually sent out.

HI there,

I have submitted feedback multiple times on this issue since the launch of the new template, because I was unable to send invoices when it launched due to the numbering issue (and other problems). I spent hours on several occasions talking with customer service about this. I was able to get switched back to the old template so that I could continue to use my invoice number system that I have had for 14 years with my clients, until the template switched it back again recently. My workaround was to just add a zero or two in front of the invoice number so it still is consecutive numbers to my client. Which worked until today, when I sent one invoice this way and immediately went to send another invoice to someone else and adding zeros did not work anymore. I got up to [removed] (when I only had one at 124 and another at 0124) and that did not work.

Half an hour on the phone, and customer service was not helpful at all. This is really inconvenient. I am going to have to re-do the numbering system for all of my clients because of this new feature from your company that I didn't ask for! With no way around it! 

Please let me know if I'm missing something.