Item Report

This would not be the way to manage Invoices: "Throughout the month, I add line items with the date it was ordered."

You don't Invoice until you are Ready. To "enter what was ordered" that is Estimates or Sales Orders. Or, you simply Job Tracked the Purchase details. Example:

Let's pretend I sell furniture and you are setting up an Office. You order a table from me, so I create a Sales Order for the table and the expected delivery date is two months out. The next week, we make a SO for your decision of 6 chairs. The next week, you decide you also need a Coffee Bar.

Then, the next month, I Fulfill one or more of the SO and that is when I create the Invoice. You don't create it until you are ready to show this is the Sale. The prior steps are Order Management.

And now you have the Date reporting from the Customer Sales Order = the tool you would be using for that function that it is provided to do for you.

You need to be using Premier, not Pro, since it only has Estimates (which would report for you, and is not part of the Fulfillment function). And Install Premier as either Retail, or Wholesale/Manufacturing. And now you also have customer Backorder tracking, for if only 4 of the 6 chairs are in the first invoice, and the other 2 have a 2-week delay, in this example.

You can see the Fulfillment Worksheet in my attachment.

I appreciate your reply. I want to clarify the nature of my business. I am service company that provides a variety of services to the same customer/s multiple times a month. I  want the customer to see which day and what service was done. I don't want to create an invoice for each day of the month I did a service. That is overwhelming for the customer to receive multiple invoices in one month. Based on this information, what is your advice about how to enter these services, having in mind, thatI want to be able to see a report of how many times in a single day, I did a particular service to my customers.

What you describe is Not making an invoice, then Updating it. Let me help, please.

"I want to clarify the nature of my business. I am service company"

So am I. Use the Timesheet function to enter the Billable time and this carries over from the Timesheet entry as the Serviced Date on the invoice.

"I  want the customer to see which day and what service was done."

Yes, that is why you Track the Tasks in the Timesheet. Example: I work for you on 3 different dates, and Invoice you Mid-Month and End of Month. I want to select the tasks done 1st-15th for the Mid-Month charges. I keep adding timesheet entries via the weekly view or single activity view, as Billable and I use the Top of the Invoice = Add Time & Costs, to select only the date range I am charging you for, each invoice cycle.

The date of the Invoice is the date of the sale. You would avoid adding to an invoice that is already created; you are changing your Sales and Financial reports with every Edit to the existing invoice. That's why you don't make them until you are Ready to Sell.

" having in mind, thatI want to be able to see a report of how many times in a single day, I did a particular service to my customers."

That's why you use Timesheets. You can Run reports on that info. You can use different Services items, so you might have things that charge out at different Sales Prices. And for the client I have under Monthly contract fee, I have Not Billable time = under my contract, but I still enter it (as Not Billable) and Track it for their name. At the end of the year, I can evaluate if the Contract Fee is covering at least what I would have charged under an Hourly arrangement.

Please see my attachment.

Thanks for your advice. How do I get help in setting up timesheets. Example: I tried an entry in the single activity. It requires a name. The drop-down only lists vendors and Other Name. What am I supposed to enter? I have other questions as well. Where do I get help?

Thanks for your advice. In following your advice need help in setting up the time sheets and creating an invoice. Example: I tried an entry in the single activity. It requires a name. The drop-down only lists vendors and Other Name. What am I supposed to enter? I have other questions as well. Where do I get help?

Greetings alexSG,

Allow me to join the conversation to help you enter a single time activity in QuickBooks Desktop.

Under the Name drop-down, you would need to enter your name as Other Name if you are Sole Proprietorship or LLC. Then, assign the customer or job by selecting the correct one in the second drop-down. Here's an article to learn more about tracking job costs: Track job costs in QuickBooks Desktop.

As for your other questions, please post it here in the Community or add a comment below. I and the Established Community Backers here are always ready to help. Have a good one.

@PreciousB Please Learn from this input.

You put your name in Other Names, if you are not on payroll as an employee of a Corporation. You are not your own Vendor or Customer. That means for Sole Proprietorship and LLC, you are Other Name.

You can use the Help system and there are Video tutorials on the web. You are asking about Quickbooks Desktop Time tracking and Job Tracking and Billable Time.

I appreciate it qbteachmt.

I've already updated my answer above. If there's anything else I can do to help, please let me know. Thank you.

I tried the timesheet way. Frankly , I don't yet see how it works for me. I don't bill by time. Each item has a set price. My items also have descriptions. I used the single entry for 3 separate days and 3 separate items and made an entry in the notes and created an invoice.  The invoice created, does not have the description in the details, only my notes. I want the notes to be appended to the detail/description. My original way on creating an invoice and adding line by line items according to the dates of service, the description comes in and I add to it my notes. I also tried to run a report on the item sold per day and I get again the invoice date and not the entry date.

"Each item has a set price."

Then use Qty = 1 on the entries that you want to see Serviced Date and as Billable.

"My items also have descriptions."

Please see my attachment for How you control this.

"I used the single entry for 3 separate days and 3 separate items and made an entry in the notes and created an invoice.  The invoice created, does not have the description in the details"

Please see my attachment for how you Control this.

"only my notes. I want the notes to be appended to the detail/description."

That's something you  control; please see my attachment.

"My original way on creating an invoice and adding line by line items according to the dates of service, the description comes in and I add to it my notes. I also tried to run a report on the item sold per day and I get again the invoice date and not the entry date."

Which is also why your original method is Wrong. If you insist on doing all of this manually, do not start with an Invoice. That is a Dated Sale. Manually, what you asked is done using Timesheet. That is Task Tracking. You use Service Items, and that's what Timesheet are used for = tracking the Services, by customer or not, by individual task, as billable or not, and the Unit/Qty is up to you.

You use Pro: You can start with an Estimate and Manually load the info there, then invoice from the estimate for the Date of Sale.

You use Premier or Enterprise: You can start with a Sales Order and manually load the info there, then invoice from the SO.

Nothing provides for reporting on the Date you are putting manually into each line you enter into any transaction detail. But using the Timesheet entries for tracking tasks means you now have Time reporting. Example: Time by Job by Item. Look at the Reports menu > Jobs, Time & Mileage reports are right there.