How can i change the product/service on the invoice without clearing the description and rate and amount?

It's a pleasure to have you in the Community today, @aseiberlich. I've got you covered, and let's work this out so you can get through this and change the product or service item on the invoice in your QuickBooks Online (QBO) account without clearing the information in each field.

Before we start, please be aware that the feature you're trying to access in QBO is unavailable. The product or service item's description, rate, and amount depend on how its created. To change the product or service without affecting the information in each field in your invoice. You'll need to set up a different product or service item using the same information you have in your previously added items. To begin, here's how:

1. Go to Get paid & pay or Sales, then select Products and services.
2. Click New, and then select Non-inventory or Service.
3. Enter a Name for the product or service and a SKU, if you track them.
4. From the Category ▼ dropdown, select the category that best describes your product or service. Learn more about item categories.
5. If you sell the item, confirm the checkbox is selected for I sell this product/service to my customers.
6. In the Description on sales forms field, enter a description. This is what your customers will see on their sales form.
7. Enter an amount in the Sales price/rate field. Note: If you charge a variable rate for services, you can leave the Sales price/rate field blank. Then add the price when you fill out the invoice or sales receipt.
8. Select the Income account ▼ dropdown and the account you want to use to track the sale. Tip: You can use an income account QuickBooks already set up for you, or select + Add new to create a new income account. Learn more about adding accounts to your chart of accounts.
9. In the Sales tax section, sales tax is applied by default based on location. For more specific options, or to make the product or service nontaxable, select Edit sales tax. Then do one of the following, depending on the product or service:

• If the product or service is tax-exempt, select Nontaxable. Then select Done.
• If the item has a special tax rate, use the Search field or Browse all to find and select a more specific product or service type. Then select Done.   

       10. When you're done, select Save and Close.
 

See this information for more information: Add product and service items to QuickBooks Online.

In addition, I've got you this article to help you manage invoice payments in QBO: Record invoice payments in QuickBooks Online.

You can also check this page to learn more about tracking your inventory in QBO: Set up and track your inventory in QuickBooks Online.

@aseiberlich, if you need further assistance with this, feel free to click the REPLY button below and mention my name. You can also post here again if you have any additional QuickBooks-related concerns. It'll be my pleasure to help you out again. Take care, and have a good one.

Is there way to do this in the desktop version.  Mine used to keep the description and price and then I accidently clicked the wrong option on a pop up and now when I change the item the rest of the input information goes blank.

Glad to have you here in the Community, @jend2323.

I can see that you've mistakenly selected the Never option when the Keep custom item description and price pop-up. But don't worry, I'm here to help modify the preferences to keep the description and price when changing the item on the invoice. Here's how:

1. Open your QuickBooks Desktop company file.
2. Go to the Edit menu, then select Preferences.
3. Click General from the left menu.
4. In the My Preferences tab, go to the Keep custom item information when changing items in transactions section. Then, select Always. If you want to show the pop-up every time you change the item, you can select Ask.
5. Click OK to save the settings.

You may also want to run and customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop. This will help you focus on the details that matter the most to you, especially your sales and purchase transactions.

Our Community forum is always open to help you again if you need more assistance about this. Have a good one!

Please develop the function of changing product without changing line amount on the invoice, it will save tons of time for customers. every month I have a hundreds line to manually change the product, then I also need to manually key in the amount, gosh............, that feature is killing me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I understand that time is precious, @maggie987. I'll share some insights about changing the product or service item on the invoice in QuickBooks Online.

While the option to not remove the information on each line item when changing products and services is unavailable in QuickBooks Online, I suggest submitting feedback to our product engineers. This helps them make the software better and enhance your QBO experience. Here's how you can do it:

1. Click on the Gear icon.
2. And then select Feedback.
3. Type in your suggestions. 
4. Then click on Next to send feedback.

You can also keep track of any feature request updates by visiting our webpage: Customer Feedback for QuickBooks Online.

If you're good, see this additional link I'm adding: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online. You'll find this helpful when personalizing invoices in QBO.

You already know where to find me if you have other questions concerning invoices or QuickBooks particularly. Keep safe always.

I followed your instructions but it didn't work! Tried "Ask" and "Always" when changing Item in an invoice but it keeps removing the Description as soon as I hit enter. Please advise

Hello, LiliAF.

I appreciate you in taking the time to do the steps given by my colleague. I'd like to clear some things up about the "Keep custom item information.." option, and address your concern about keeping the description. 

The "Keep custom item information..." option will work if you edited the item's description on the invoice form. QuickBooks will prompt you (depending on the option you selected) if you want to keep this edit when changing the item. 

The option won't work if you want to keep the description (without editing) from the original item and use it on the other one.

So, if you want to keep the description from Item 1 when switching to Item 2, consider copy-pasting the information. 

Need to check your cash flow, financials, and other figures? We have a guide to help you utilize the Reports feature in QuickBooks Desktop: Understand reports.  

Let me know if you have more questions about managing your items in a sales form. Also, feel free to add if you need help with something else like reports or expenses. Always here to help. 

This is one of those stupid (yes, I said it!) decisions that companies make with little thought to the end user and then double down by refusing to listen to their customers when the "feature" is problematic.

At least give users the *option* to clear the field - however, I'd say in most cases that a user changes this field because a service got booked to the wrong account.  The description and rate would remain the same - I just need to book this under a different product/service so that the accounting works for my reporting.

Please raise this as a potential item in an upcoming sprint for them to implement or repurpose this feature.

I agree, this is one of those things that is driving me absolutely insane...I am just trying to change an account to the correct one.  All of my sales receipts/invoices are imported from PayPal and I do not know how the incorrect account keeps ending up on them, but it's ridiculous that every time I change an account category, the amount gets cleared.  

Can we expect this option to be added to QBO anytime soon?

Keep custom item information when changing items in transactions

Hello there, SAnewbieFence

I appreciate your interest in this feature and I understand that it would be helpful for your invoicing needs in QuickBooks Online.

I see that you're referring to a certain invoicing feature in QuickBooks Desktop. While I don't have a specific timeframe for when this feature might be added to QuickBooks Online, I recommend submitting your feedback directly to our Product Development team. They consider customer feedback when making updates and improvements to QuickBooks Online in the future. 

To submit your feedback:

1. Log in to your QuickBooks Online account.
2. Go to the Gear icon, then Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions.
4. Then click on Next to submit.

You can also track feature requests by visiting our website: QuickBooks Online Feature Requests.

For more related topics and articles, you can also check out our View All Help page.

If you have any further questions or need assistance with invoices or any other aspect of QuickBooks Online, please feel free to ask. We're here to help!