This "feature" is awful. I worked in system analysis and design for years, and it's clear to me that a well-intentioned feature was implemented in a way that does not meet the workflow of a large set of your users.

I can understand having a "canned" set of items that you can choose from, but if you're already populated the details there should be the option after the fact to change the Product/Service without it wiping out the rest of the information on the line.

The system could then prompt you to see if you want to save that particular "Product/Service" to the set of canned items, or not.

In our case, most line items are unique and there's not really any value in saving a predefined set of them, which really makes this a double-whammy of useless and inconvenient.

In older versions if you went to an item on an invoice/estimate that had already been filled in and then changed the item the system would recognize that you already had a custom price and description and ask if you wanted to keep the custom information. Why was that changed??

Look no further, @DWolfe07.

As my colleagues discussed above, you have the option to change the product/service on the invoice item without deleting other information. However, if the item contains a different description/rate, it will update when you change the product. For your reference in managing your items in QuickBooks, please visit this article: Change product and service item types in QuickBooks Online. 

Also, I've added this great article to help you change the appearance and layout of your sales forms like invoices, estimates, and sales receipts, head to customize the sales form at this link for the detailed instructions. 

Feel free to post here again if you have questions about changing products/services in your invoices. I'm always here to help. Have a good one. 

BUG is a very offensive word for QB. They use "by design" or "feature" instead of "bug".

So whatever you may think is wrong with QB, it is not, and you are wrong, and QB is always working as expected.

Will re-mapping change the revenue accounting history for past transactions, (accounting history), or will the change be effective going forward only? 

It’s nice to see you in the Community, MDmeow.

Allow me to chime in and provide some insights about re-mapping of accounts for products and services.

When you change the income account for inventory items, it only affects new transactions. If you wish to update past transactions, create a new item with the correct income account and use it to replace the old item. Let me help and show you the steps.

Here’s how:

1. In your company, Go to the Sales menu on the left panel to select Products and Services.
2. Tap the New menu to open the Product/Service information window and then choose Inventory.
3. Fill in the fields with the correct information about the item.
4. Make sure to select the correct income account.
5. Press the Save and close button.

To update the invoice:

1. Go to the Sales menu and choose Invoices.
2. From the list, pick the transaction you’re working on.
3. On the Invoice page, choose the delete (trash can) icon at the end of the line of the old inventory item.
4. Add the newly created product.
5. Hit the Save button.

Do this for the past transactions you want to update. For service and non-inventory items, mark the Also update this account in historical transactions box. Doing so will update all transactions that uses the item.

Here’s an article that covers all the instructions on how to update the income account for products and services. It includes the steps on how to resolve when past transactions account is not updated: Change the account for a product/service item.

You can bookmark the following links for future references. These resources provide an overview of how to perform the following tasks.

• Change product and service item types
• Add product and service items

Stay in touch if you have other concerns or questions. I’ll be around to answer them for you. Wishing your business continued success.

This is the answer that I was looking for!

I wanted to follow up on this, as I don't think the other replies make it clear as to WHY changing the product and having the description deleted is counter productive for most of our needs.

We have a line item product selection for "estimate". I can write hundreds of line items with an estimate.  When I convert my template on an "estimate" over to a progress invoice, and need to change my product from "estimate" to a status e.g. "work performed", and all of my data instantly gets erased.  This makes my recurring templates completely useless, and I might as well not even bother with a recurring template for estimates with how QBO is currently set up.  A simple implementation of being able to choose preemptively on a checkbox whether I want other input retained, or not, would save me several minutes of data copying/pasting required otherwise.

We don't want our customers inconvenienced, Deadpressed. 

The option you've shared can be a beneficial feature for some businesses. I suggest sending feedback directly to our software engineers. We're taking notes of our customers' ideas and insights. Let me show you:

1. Click the Gear icon.
2. Select Feedback.

The more request it has, the more likely it'll be added in future updates.

You can visit our QuickBooks Blog so you'll stay current on all the QuickBooks news and features. 

If there's anything else that you need, don't hesitate to let us know. We'll reply as soon as we can. Take care!

we have already brought it to intuits attention.

we have been complaining , actually outright calling you guys about this, and intuits response is 'as designed'

Maybe you could mention it to your design team... I think you go click the little gear icon... or maybe you mention it next time you are in the same room and someone asks... is there anything about QB that really grinds people....

or not...you choice.

Hi

this has been an active topic for years. Intuit has truncated it so it doesnt seem as such. i have posted multiple times and dont see any of my posts

you work for intuit.  Intuit HAS been notified.Intuit chooses to ignore us.

its very passive agressive to tell a group of people who have been yelling at a wall to go yell at a different wall.

how bout we mail you a strongly worded letter as well?

Non sarcastic suggestion -

*bring this up in a meeting tomorrow, mention  this thread.

* See if there is any interest at all in fixing this

* report back

I think you would agree that my suggestion would demonstrate you taking ownership and not just making silly demands on our time.

If you read closely, what we are really complaining about, in this thread,  is that QB is wasting our time... thats the root of this.

i just wasted 5 minutes typing this response. Because this 'feature' bites me every week.

ugh

thanks

greg

Did you think about your audience before posting this ?

If you did, what was your conclusion about how your audience (the people who pay your salary)   might feel about taking those extra steps?

I would simply love to hear your answer

QB says this feature works "as designed".  Actually, there is no use case to delete the description etc.  It is obviously just a bug.  It is inane to claim that it's a feature to "keep the invoice updated".

QB staff keeps saying that "we're here for you". Actually, you're not, and that response is condescending.  This particular bug has been present for years, probably since QBO launched.

We are discussing QuickBooks Online.

This is most definitely a BUG. Get a huge invoice adding up to the exact PO amount with a customer that likes all specific hardware items and prices listed - and then find out you accidentally entered them as 'services'. So you have to delete all of them and re-enter them rather than just have the option to change them to 'hardware.' No customer should be forced to use the inventory management system built into QBO rather than just have the convenience of editing the invoice where it makes sense. Seriously.. do things like this ever get fixed in Quickbooks Online? It really feels like the majority of development effort is to add more ads and clicks and submenus between where I am and where I want to go.

We are now reaching the end of 2021 and this issue still does not appear to have been addressed.  It wastes soooo much time every month, when it really needn't.  Please fix it.

Still in denial eh. Please fix this bug it's a horrible nuisance.

Why isn't there a way to select which Product/Service you want to designate at the same time that I'm tracking time entries and writing detailed activity reports in the "Description" section of the invoice? If that was an option, then I wouldn't be sooooo annoyed that changing a Product/Service WITHIN an invoice also deletes my daily activity descriptions and hours and creates an unnecessary amount of work. 

It seems like such a simple fix with TWO OPTIONS for Quickbooks to choose from - allow customers to select the product and service when making a time entry, and/or allow customers to change the product/service on the invoice without affecting any other lines. Oh - a THIRD FIX would be to allow customers the option to REMOVE the product/service column from invoices entirely.

Telling customers to take screenshots and re-input information that was already completed is a huge waste of time and could lead to expensive mistakes. That is NOT a solution!

Great Job, Angela!  I knew there was a setting for this but just could not find it.  Thank you!

I also noticed that by changing this setting, it also keeps the amount intact. 

Amen....I am still on the trial  for QB Online and this and about a dozen other issues have me ready to ditch it and go back to Desktop.

So far I am not impressed with Online.

@rebengel, you are a genius!

Saved me days of work! Thank you!!!

I run into this issue periodically, and each time I check to see if Intuit has "fixed" this issue...  Looks like NOT...

It is such a pain to manually update the line with the old information.  Why won't you fix this Intuit?  

I'll add, Instead we get a new, difficult to navigate, interface for chart of accounts, that replaces an interface that was working just fine. So Intuit gives us what we don't want... And won't give us what we have been asking for over 5 years...  

And now we are well into 2022...  Still not fixed.

Fix the BUG please - I have 1000s of sales receipts to change.

Give your customers the option to keep your fantastically 'as designed' (by an idiot) feature or allow us to retain the information when assigning to a new product because some other person (idiot) in my company has assigned the wrong product.