Customized Estimate Template

Welcome, ksimpson.

Glad to see you here in the QuickBooks Community. Let me help you get across this challenge so you can use your own estimate template to QuickBooks Online.

Since your estimate template is already in a Microsoft Office Word file format, make sure to mark the text that you want QuickBooks to map data with opening and closing angle brackets. Never mark the data that don’t change (company name, address, and contact information).
QuickBooks support the following font styles:

• Arial Unicode MS.
• Courier, Courier Bold, Courier Oblique, Courier Bold-Oblique.
• Helvetica, Helvetica Bold, Helvetica Oblique, Helvetica Bold-Oblique
• Times Roman, Times-Bold, Times-Italic, Times Bold-Italic
• Symbol
• Zapf Dingbats

Also, be sure to use Microsoft Word tables to contain the contents and create the table layouts with simple rows and columns. Merge/split cells and tables placed inside of tables can cause unexpected problems.
Avoid these following elements as they can cause issues with the import:

• Audio
• ClipArt, Word Art.
• Animated GIFS.
• Embedded files.
• Adding or updating hidden links or merging fields.
• Files over 2MB.
• Non .docx file types or older MS Word documents renamed as .docx files.

To correctly import your own estimate template, please follow these steps:
1.    Click the Gear icon, and select Custom Form Styles.
2.    Choose the New Style drop-down and select Import Style.
3.    Under the Select a form type, choose Estimate.
4.    Download a sample estimate for your reference, and then click the Browse button to upload your own file.
5.    Select Next to upload your document.

Now, you need to map marked areas in your document to QuickBooks data fields.  Review each field to make sure the mapped fields from your template correspond to the correct fields in QuickBooks Online. Check if the numbering and mapping of fields are done correctly.

Once everything is linked correctly, select Next to see a preview of your invoice. Choose Customize and select the saved customer template.

And that’s it! Your custom form is ready to use. Please let me know if you have other questions. I'd be glad to help you further.

Hello, 

Thanks for providing help on this topic, although I keep getting stuck. When I go to import the new style for an estimate, it doesn't let me choose that its a estimate template. Do you know how this might be resolved? I've had no trouble uploading our custom invoice, just having a problem with a custom estimate. 

many thanks, 

Heather

did the remove the option for Estimate?

I can only customize invoices, not esitmate.

Because it does nto give me the option to select estimate .

Welcome to the Community space, tayzor.

I'm here to share what I know about importing your own custom form style.

Right now, you're only able to import custom form styles for invoices. Importing a template for estimate is unavailable in QuickBooks Online. As a workaround, you can customize the fields of the template by following these steps:

1. Click the Gear icon.

2. Select Custom Form Styles.

3. Choose your template and click Edit.

4. Go to the Content tab.

5. Click the pencil icons to edit.

6. Click Done.

I also encourage you to send feedback directly to our product engineers by clicking the Gear icon and selecting the Feedback option. This will help us identify what product feature/option works best for your business.

Let us know if you have more questions about QuickBooks Online. I'll be around to help you out.

I am also noticing that QBO has removed the ability for me to re-upload a previous estimate form I had entered in in June of this year. Somehow in the past few months this feature of QBO has been removed. My current estimate template that is uploaded now has a previous address (we are moving locations). Does anyone know when this problem will be rectified? 

Hi there, @SaraG.

I'm here to share some information about uploading or importing Estimates in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

As what @AlcaeusF mentioned, at this time QBO only supports custom imports of invoices. Though estimates may have been available at some point, they are no longer.

I can see how this feature would be helpful for you and your business and I encourage you to submit feedback. These requests and suggestions are forwarded to the Product Development Team for consideration in future updates.

This can be done directly through your account by clicking the Gear icon in the top right corner, then select Feedback or by going to the following link: https://feedback.qbo.intuit.com/. I'm going to submit feedback from my side as well.

That's it! Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or I can be of additional assistance. I'll be here to help.

Thank you FritzF for clarifying that. I also called the ProAdvisor line as that was quite alarming news. The folks on the line were not as aware as you are about this. If QBO would allow us to further modify the templates provided to our standard this would not be such a problem.

Sadly, we will have to switch to another system if this is not going to be corrected soon. Since this is a definite dealbreaker, I do greatly appreciate your clarification! It’s helpful to know what it is we will need to do! 

I am also affected by this.   This feature used to work for US Quickbooks online and no longer has the ability to import estimates only invoices.   I did disable and re-enable the feature in QuickBooks labs which it started working, but only for a week.  Now it no longer works again. 

It DOES WORK for my Canada Quickbooks account so it has to be a bug in QB side. 

I have reported this several times to QB feedback, but no response yet.  

Hello Heather,  

Im currently working on an estimate also that has a large area to write in being a construction company some estimates have lots of information. Did you get yours working? Also have you ever ran out of room what happens? is there then a 2nd page added?   I attached a sample to get your thoughts on if this would work?

Thanks

Hello Heather,  

Im currently working on an estimate also that has a large area to write in being a construction company some estimates have lots of information. Did you get yours working? Also have you ever ran out of room what happens? is there then a 2nd page added?   I attached a sample to get your thoughts on if this would work? 

Thanks

Do you have a different Quickbooks Online than I do? I do not have a tab to import estimate form.

I cannot get my custom fields to show up in my estimate, even when my customized template is the default, other fields that aren't even on my estimate appear instead.

So much for a personalized touch

Hi there, kirsty25.

If you haven't yet, please use an incognito/private browsing. Then, go back to QuickBooks and check if the template is working. To switch to incognito:

• For Chrome, press Ctrl+Shift+N.
• For Firefox press Ctrl+Shift+P.
• For Safari, hold down Command+Shift+N.

Alternatively, you can use any of these compatible browsers just to check if this caused by a browser issue:

• Mozilla
• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Safari

I would also recommend contacting our phone support in case you're still getting the same result. They can take a closer look at your template and check what's causing the issue. Here's how: 

1. Look for the Help menu in the upper-right hand corner of QBO and click on it.
2. Indicate that you're getting an error when running payroll, then click Let's talk. 
3. Select Get a callback to reach out to one of our phone agents or Start Messaging for chat support.

Visit us again if you have other questions.

This won't work on the tablet (Android). It works fine using my laptop but the custom template doesn't show up when using the tablet. Any idea's?

Thanks for joining the thread, @US Door guys.

Custom templates are accessible when logging into QuickBooks in a browser using a tablet. The option is currently unavailable on the app.

If you're using the web browser, I recommend performing the steps shared by my colleague JenoP to fix the issue. Sometimes cache stored up in the system can cause the program to misbehave.

However, if you've already done that and continue to get the same result, I recommend contacting our Customer Care Team for further assistance. They have tools capable of pulling up your account details in a secure environment and send a request ticket to have this reviewed. 

Here's how to reach our phone agents:

1. Go to the Help menu.
2. Click Contact us.
3. Enter a brief description of your concern.
4. Hit Let's talk.
5. Scroll down and click either Start messaging or Get a callback.

Our support team is open from Monday-Friday 6 AM to 6 PM and Saturday 6 AM to 3 PM PST. 

Please let me know how everything goes and if there's anything else you need. I'm more than happy to help. Have a great day!

Hi there! what would be the reason why all is mapped out properly but nothing shows on the PDF preview? 

Thank you very much

Thanks for joining the thread @gsb06,

This issue only occurs if there are problems with the table/field of mapping. You can try to remove all the mappings, then add it again one by one. To isolate the cause of the problem.

You can refer this link to learn more about importing your customized template: Import custom form styles for invoices or estimates.

Also, if you need other references for invoices and estimates in the future, please feel free to access our site: QuickBooks Online Help Article.

Fill me in if you need more help by leaving a comment below. I'll be around in the Community to help. Take care and have a great day!

Thank you for joining in the thread, @gsb06.

Yes, you're correct. The mapping of an item is only used to match the template in QuickBooks, thus you can't enter all the 25 items. You'll have to manually add these items when creating your sales form.

If you need anything else or have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I'll be around to help. Have a good one.

how can i use the custom form while using the mobile app to make an estimate. 

Hi there, @fahad.

The QuickBooks Mobile app allows several features on your mobile device that the Online version offers as well. However, the mobile app doesn't have all the features the online version does. You can compare the mobile app features here.

As for using the custom form styles in the mobile app, that feature isn't available according to the chart listed in the article above. I know this feature would be helpful to you and other users, so I'm going to submit feedback to our Development Team personally. This will allow them to consider adding the option to edit custom forms in the QuickBooks app. However, if you need to customize invoice templates in the app without going online, you can do so by following these steps:

1. Navigate to the Settings menu and choose Sales Forms.
2. Select the Customize Invoice template.
3. Follow the onscreen steps to change your company's default logo, color, and footer message.

You can check out this article for more info: Customize invoices on the QuickBooks Online mobile app.

I'm only a post away should you have any other questions. Enjoy the rest of your day!

I saw your response and it is exactly what i need. However , When choosing "New Style" i do not get option to import , I immediately get the options of Invoice , Estimate and Sales Receipt. Where can I get the option to import a template ?