Quickbooks Desktop invoicing and DBA name

It's a pleasure to have you here today, @. I'm here to help sort this out and ensure your DBA name shows printing and emailing invoices in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

To address the legal business name that appears when printing invoices. Yes, you can create or modify a template, remove the legal business name field, and replace it with a new field where you can enter the DBA name. By doing so, your preference details will appear when printing out the transaction in the program. Also, please know that the invoice and email template are independent. Thus, you'll want to edit the current email template to match it with your transactions. These are the steps:
 

1. Access your QuickBooks Desktop company.
2. Go to the Edit menu and select Preferences.
3. Click Send Forms and then go to Company Preferences.
4. Select the Add Template button.
5. Enter the name of the template and start modifying the entire email template.
6. Click the box beside Default to start using your own template.
7. Once done, click the Save button.

For visual reference, please see the image below.

After this process, your modified invoice template should match with your email template. For more details, please see this page: Create custom email templates in QuickBooks Desktop.

To ensure I can give you an accurate answer to your other question, I'd like to clarify if you've linked QuickBooks Desktop with QuickBooks Online Payments. Also, do you have a QuickBooks Online company using the legal business name? The system depends on your company's settings. In the meantime, you can include the DBA name in the memo or message field.

Additionally, here's an article to help you manage invoice payments in QBO: Record an invoice payment.

Please use the comment section below so I can respond promptly and provide the details you need to address QuickBooks inquiries or assist you in managing invoices. Stay safe, and have a good one.

Kurt_M,  thank you for the response!

I added an email template as you suggested.  While the template does allow me to successfully change the subject line and the text of the email, unfortunately when the email is sent, the legal business name still appears as a banner across the top of the email text.  Please see blurred highlighted area on the the enclosed screenshot.  I didn't find anywhere in the template to change or omit this header text.

I have linked QuickBooks Desktop with QuickBooks Online Payments. I do not have an online QB company. As I mentioned, when I setup Online Payments, I used the DBA name. 

I appreciate you following the instructions from my colleague and for providing the screenshot, jhuber. You can modify the header text in QuickBooks Desktop through the Company Tab. Let me guide you through the process.

First, let's locate the customer payment you've processed. Follow these steps:

Here's how:

1. Navigate to the Customers Tab.
2. Click on Customer Center.
3. Find the customer payment that you've processed and double-click on it.
4. Go to the Email tab.
5. Select Customize template.
6. Check the box next to Company Name under Company & Transaction Information.
7. Click OK.

After customizing the template, you can edit the header text using the Company Tab.

Here's how:

1. Click on the Company tab next to Customers.
2. Select the pencil icon to edit.
3. Click on Contact Information.
4. Under Contact Information, you can edit the Company Name by clicking the box to modify it.
5. Click OK after making your changes.

Additionally, if your emails aren’t reflecting the new template, refer to this article for guidance: Fix custom email templates in QuickBooks Desktop.

If you face any challenges with the template or have further questions, please don't hesitate to hit Reply and contact us. I'm here to assist you at any time.

Dandie_A, thank you for the reply!

The solution you provided does work for the emails.  However, changing Company>My Company>Contact Information>Company Name also changes the Company Name in most other places in QuickBooks, for example, on all reports, which is not desired.

I guess I can change Company>My Company>Contact Information>Company Name to the DBA before I send invoices, and then change it back, since most all other reports and such should show the Legal Business Name.  Are there any negative side effects to doing this?

It seems that QBD's support for DBA names is quite limited.  In my state, companies can have multiple DBA names, and often different services/products are marketed under different DBAs.  In the future it would be helpful if the invoicing and receipt functions could better support DBA names.

Thank you for the update, jhuber. I’d like to provide some clarification regarding the use of different names when processing sales transactions in QuickBooks Desktop.

You are correct that you can modify the name in the company settings prior to emailing invoices to ensure that the sales transactions reflect the appropriate DBA (Doing Business As) name.

However, please note that if you change the company name, it will affect all reports since any name modifications apply to the entire company file. This means you'll need to adjust the name when generating reports to maintain consistency across your financial documents.

If you wish to support multiple DBA names within a single company file, you can submit a feature request to our product engineers. Here’s how to do that:

1. Go to the Help menu, look for Send Feedback Online, and then choose Product Suggestion.
2. Choose the type of feedback in the drop-down list for Type of Feedback and Product Area fields.
3.  Enter a brief description of your request.
4. Click the Send Feedback button.

Let me also share these articles about using custom templates in case you might need them:

• Fix common issues when you use and customize templates
• Restore missing customized templates, logos and information from a restored backup

Please remember that the QuickBooks Team and the entire forum are always available to assist you. Whether you need help sending invoices or with any other bookkeeping tasks, we're here to help.