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Best answer November 28, 2018
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Thank you for the information, @pradervr, and congratulations on making the move from paper only to QuickBooks. I'll be sure to keep that in mind going forward. What I recommend doing from here is entering your customers, so when you select them on the invoice, it will automatically populate the "bill to" field with their information from the Customer Center. Here's how:
Entering Customers:
- Go to Customers across the top.
- Click Customer Center.
- From there, select the New Customer & Job drop-down in the upper left-hand corner, and click New Customer.
- Enter in all of the information you'd like to see for this customer in QuickBooks.
- Click OK once you're finished.
Note: you will see this customer's name appear on the list to the left of the Customer Center.
Because you're new to QuickBooks, I imagine you will need to enter vendors at some point. You can follow these same steps for entering vendors under the Vendor tab across the top. Also, since you mentioned adding the field to the custom invoice by going into the template, I want to give you some information on custom fields and customizing forms.
There are many ways that you can benefit from custom fields in QuickBooks, such as:
- Custom fields give you the flexibility to add specific information to your customer, vendor, and employee list.
- It helps you add and track additional data about Items.
- The customized information can be included in your forms and reports.
For more information on custom fields, see: Use QuickBooks Desktop custom fields. As for customizing the forms themselves, as I'm sure you noticed, there are a multitude of customization options for you to choose which will help your forms to really stand out. Here are some basics about customizing form templates:
Basic customization:
The basic customization window serves as a good starting point for customizing your templates. There are two ways to access it:
- From QuickBooks Lists menu, select Templates and double-click the template you want to customize.
- In the transaction form, go to the Formatting tab and select Manage Templates.
Bellow is a breakdown of the basic customization screen:
1.) Manage Templates: When you select this button, you’ll get to the screen where you can view the list of templates for a specific form. Here you can Copy, Delete or Download Templates. If you need to rename your template so you can easily distinguish and use it, you can also do that task on this window.
2.) Add your logo: Select the box Use logo if you want your company logo to appear on your invoices and other forms. If you have not previously used a logo, a window opens where you can select a logo. If you have been using a logo and want to change it, choose the Select Logo button to select the image you want to use.
3.) Change fonts and colors: This section allows you to personalize fonts and colors for certain details (Company Name, Labels, Data, etc.) used in the form.
4.) In the Company & Transaction Information area, you can select the contact information you want to appear on the invoice. You can also change any of this information by clicking Update Information. When you add information, you need to select Layout Designer to move the information where you want is displayed.
5.) Additional Customization: Select this button to get to the screen where you can remove/add information on the header, columns, and footer of the form as they appear on your screen and the printed copy. Select the Screen checkbox if you want to see the field on your computer screen while filling out the form in QuickBooks and select the Print checkbox if you want the field to appear on the printed form. Note that you can assign a unique title for each header, column or footer. You can also set printing options (Print orientation, etc…) by going to the Print tab.
6.) Layout Designer: You need to go to the Layout designer especially if you opt to add or remove header/columns from the template. The layout designer allows you to move and resize items and information on your template.
7.)Print Preview: The right side of the screen gives you a quick preview of the template and the changes you have made thus far. When you choose the Print Preview button, you’ll see how your form will look like once printed.
For more information and tips on how to customize templates, see: Use and customize form templates. And, to ensure you have everything you need for getting familiar with the Desktop version, take a look at this link here. This will take you to a resource center which outlines important topics form installing, to after you install, and if you run into issues early on.
By entering your customers into QuickBooks this way, you are ensuring that the "bill to" field will populate and print properly. Should you have additional questions about this, or anything else QuickBooks, feel free to reach back out to me. I'm always here to help.
Welcome back to the Community, @pradervr. I have a few clarifying questions to ask you before I get started. The "bill to" field you added; was it created as an additional field for the line items or a separate box entirely? This could explain why no data is printing, even though you've entered information to the field. Also, by default, there is a "bill to" box which will automatically populate from the customer's profile.
However, this could be due to data damage, or maybe a malfunction with the program itself. Either way, I've got you covered regardless of the situation. If it is related to data damage, you have a couple of tools at your disposal: The rebuild and verify data utilities. In the event you haven't had to use these before, they are automated diagnostic utilities that comb through, repair, and notify you of data damage within the file. They're simple to use, too. Here's how:
Run the Rebuild Data utility:
- Go to File, then select Utilities > Rebuild Data.
- On the QuickBooks Information window, select OK. Follow the prompts to save a backup.
- Select OK when you see Rebuild has completed.
Run the Verify Data utility:
- Go to File, then select Utilities > Verify Data.
- If you see QuickBooks detected no problem with your data, select OK. You may continue using your company file.
- Should the Verify find an issue with your data, you will be prompted to Rebuild Now or View Errors. Select Close, then perform the steps below.
- Find QBWin.log or QuickBooks.log files.
- Check the log file.
- Scroll all the way to the bottom for the most recent Verify information
- Find the line that contains the LVL_ERROR, then check Top data damage errors in QuickBooks Desktop.
For your reference, here is an article that can help you further with troubleshooting potential data corruption: Resolve data damage on your company file.
After performing these steps, try printing your invoices once more. If data damage was causing the issue, it should be resolved now. If by chance your "bill to" box is still not printing with data, there may be something wrong with the program. When troubleshooting the software itself, you have a couple of options available. What I recommend to try first is running the PDF Repair tool. This is a program supplied by Intuit that, when used, can fix issues with printing. Here's where to find it and how to run it:
Download and Run the QuickBooks PDF Repair tool:
- Download and run the QuickBooks PDF Repair Tool.
- Once the tool completes, try printing your invoice again.
- If the error still occurs, please try rebooting your computer and then try again. If it still fails, try resetting your temp folder permissions
- Check the folder permissions to the TEMP folder:
- Press the Windows key + R to open the RUN command.
- Type %TEMP% and press Enter.
- Right-click an empty area of the temp folder, and choose Properties.
- Click the Security tab.
- Ensure all usernames and groups showing on the Security tab have Full Control.
- Once the permissions have been set to Full Control, try printing the invoice again within QuickBooks.
For your reference, here is an article with additional steps for troubleshooting this: Resolve Problems Printing. Also, if you're still having trouble with data not appearing when printing, you can try a clean uninstall and reinstall of the program. This process clears temporary files from your computer relating to Premier Desktop 2018, which could be causing info to not show or print properly. If you'd like to read more on this, follow this link here.
When you have the chance, please take a look at how this "bill to" field was entered into QuickBooks. If you give the steps I've recommended a try, please be sure to keep me informed of any developments that may arise. Should you have any questions about this or anything else QuickBooks, don't hesitate to seek me out here in the Community. I'll be here on standby, awaiting your response.
Thank you for the information, @pradervr, and congratulations on making the move from paper only to QuickBooks. I'll be sure to keep that in mind going forward. What I recommend doing from here is entering your customers, so when you select them on the invoice, it will automatically populate the "bill to" field with their information from the Customer Center. Here's how:
Entering Customers:
- Go to Customers across the top.
- Click Customer Center.
- From there, select the New Customer & Job drop-down in the upper left-hand corner, and click New Customer.
- Enter in all of the information you'd like to see for this customer in QuickBooks.
- Click OK once you're finished.
Note: you will see this customer's name appear on the list to the left of the Customer Center.
Because you're new to QuickBooks, I imagine you will need to enter vendors at some point. You can follow these same steps for entering vendors under the Vendor tab across the top. Also, since you mentioned adding the field to the custom invoice by going into the template, I want to give you some information on custom fields and customizing forms.
There are many ways that you can benefit from custom fields in QuickBooks, such as:
- Custom fields give you the flexibility to add specific information to your customer, vendor, and employee list.
- It helps you add and track additional data about Items.
- The customized information can be included in your forms and reports.
For more information on custom fields, see: Use QuickBooks Desktop custom fields. As for customizing the forms themselves, as I'm sure you noticed, there are a multitude of customization options for you to choose which will help your forms to really stand out. Here are some basics about customizing form templates:
Basic customization:
The basic customization window serves as a good starting point for customizing your templates. There are two ways to access it:
- From QuickBooks Lists menu, select Templates and double-click the template you want to customize.
- In the transaction form, go to the Formatting tab and select Manage Templates.
Bellow is a breakdown of the basic customization screen:
1.) Manage Templates: When you select this button, you’ll get to the screen where you can view the list of templates for a specific form. Here you can Copy, Delete or Download Templates. If you need to rename your template so you can easily distinguish and use it, you can also do that task on this window.
2.) Add your logo: Select the box Use logo if you want your company logo to appear on your invoices and other forms. If you have not previously used a logo, a window opens where you can select a logo. If you have been using a logo and want to change it, choose the Select Logo button to select the image you want to use.
3.) Change fonts and colors: This section allows you to personalize fonts and colors for certain details (Company Name, Labels, Data, etc.) used in the form.
4.) In the Company & Transaction Information area, you can select the contact information you want to appear on the invoice. You can also change any of this information by clicking Update Information. When you add information, you need to select Layout Designer to move the information where you want is displayed.
5.) Additional Customization: Select this button to get to the screen where you can remove/add information on the header, columns, and footer of the form as they appear on your screen and the printed copy. Select the Screen checkbox if you want to see the field on your computer screen while filling out the form in QuickBooks and select the Print checkbox if you want the field to appear on the printed form. Note that you can assign a unique title for each header, column or footer. You can also set printing options (Print orientation, etc…) by going to the Print tab.
6.) Layout Designer: You need to go to the Layout designer especially if you opt to add or remove header/columns from the template. The layout designer allows you to move and resize items and information on your template.
7.)Print Preview: The right side of the screen gives you a quick preview of the template and the changes you have made thus far. When you choose the Print Preview button, you’ll see how your form will look like once printed.
For more information and tips on how to customize templates, see: Use and customize form templates. And, to ensure you have everything you need for getting familiar with the Desktop version, take a look at this link here. This will take you to a resource center which outlines important topics form installing, to after you install, and if you run into issues early on.
By entering your customers into QuickBooks this way, you are ensuring that the "bill to" field will populate and print properly. Should you have additional questions about this, or anything else QuickBooks, feel free to reach back out to me. I'm always here to help.
I understand this wasn't an easy process for you, @Drabkin.
Thanks for choosing QuickBooks Desktop for Mac as your accounting software and business partner. To make it up to you here, I'll be providing some insights about the custom invoice template.
Currently, there's no option to auto-populate the customer's name in the Bill To and Ship To fields when creating an invoice template. However, we can manually edit them and then add the customer name. Here's how:
- Go to the Customers menu at the top.
- Choose the customer associated with the invoice.
- Hover directly to the Bill To and Ship To fields, and then add the customer name from there.
- Hit Save once done.
You can also batch print or email your invoices to make your task easy and efficient. I'll guide you with the steps:
- Go to the File menu.
- Select either Print forms or Email forms.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to proceed.
Feel free to explore Chapter 5 of this user guide for more tips on how to manage your invoices: QuickBooks for Mac User Guide.
I'm always around to help if you have more questions about managing your invoices or anything else related to QuickBooks. Take care and stay healthy.
