Filter P/L or Sales Reports by Custom Fields does not seem to work as any reasonable person may expect

You can filter reports based on custom field data, but the data has to be entered on sales transactions, not just on the customer record.  This is similar to other fields, such as the Rep field on a customer, which only works as a filter for transactions where the rep is actually entered.

Thanks for reaching out to the Community, jeffrecinc.

Initially, you'll want to be aware that not all reports can show custom fields. Additionally, once you've added a custom name or item field to a report, you'll need to click your report's Refresh option to finish the customization.

If you're working with a report that's not supported by your custom fields feature, I can certainly understand how an ability to have that report function with the feature could be useful and have submitted a suggestion about it as of today.

You can also submit your own feature requests while using QuickBooks.

Here's how:
 

1. In the top menu bar, go to Help, Send Feedback Online, then Product Suggestion....
   
   
    
2. Choose a Type of Feedback and Product Area (optional) from your available drop-down menus.
   
   
    
3. Enter any suggestions/feedback in the Here is my suggestion: field.
   
   
    
4. If you'd like, include your name/email in the My name is: (optional) and My e-mail address is: (optional) fields.
   
   
    
5. Select Send Feedback.
   
   

Your feedback's definitely valuable to Intuit. It will be reviewed by our Product Development team and considered in future updates. You can stay up-to-date with the latest news about your product by reviewing Intuit's Product Updates webpage.

I've also included a detailed resource about working with custom fields which may come in handy moving forward: Create & use custom fields

Please don't hesitate to send a reply if there's any additional questions. Have an awesome day!

@ZackE  RE: Initially, you'll want to be aware that not all reports can show custom fields

The customer didn't ask about showing custom fields on reports. Did you even read their question?  It can help.

Wow...thanks for the clarification BigRed, that helps me understand the issue.

I'm trying to use these custom fields that get assigned at the job level in place of the built-in QB class parameter that gets assigned at the transaction level (which makes it unfeasible to use at scale).  What a shame that a Custom Property assigned to a Customer/Job can not be used to filter Customer/Jobs.  Takes some Intuit-ion to conclude this is the way to implement such a "feature" (sorry... bug).

Add this to the thousands of pieces of evidence that intuit people don't actually use the intuit products they are developing.

This did not address my question at all.  I have no idea what you are trying to show me.

@jeffrecinc 

RE: I'm trying to use these custom fields that get assigned at the job level in place of the built-in QB class parameter that gets assigned at the transaction level.

Yes, I get that!

However, there are actually several fields you can set on the customer list that you can use to filter reports. They're typically fields that only exist on the customer records, fields that don't exist on transactions.

One you may be able to overload is the Customer Type field.  It exists on both Customers and Jobs  and you can set up your own types as needed.  And, you can filter the P&L by this field.