My custom invoice template no longer works with progress invoicing from an estimate. I imported a new template. It didn't fix the issue. How can I resolve this?

Hello Sally! I'm as just a QuickBooks Online user can advise you to try Business Importer app. They have templates for each entity, including invoices. Everything you need, just fill columns with your data in their template for Excel and their app will import all info from template into QBO. Hope, it will help you.

I appreciate your advice, Anton. However, the issue I'm having isn't with uploading a custom template. The problem is that when I try to create an invoice from an estimate, my custom template doesn't load properly - all my customizations are removed (font, layout, logo). I've been using my custom template for about two years problem-free until about 5 weeks ago. It seems like either QBs pushed an update that broke something or the issue is specific to my account. My custom invoice template works when I create a brand new invoice that isn't connected to an estimate. 

Hi @MonroeGR,

Currently, we have an on-going issue where users like you are unable to convert an estimate using a customized invoice template.

Rest assured our engineers are all hands in working on finding a permanent resolution for this issue.

In the meantime, you can convert your estimate using your standard invoice template. Or you can create the invoice separately from your estimate using your customized invoice template.

However, I'd still recommend contacting our Customer Care Support. Here's how:

1. Go to Help.
2. Select Contact us.
3. Enter Create Invoice from Estimate in the How can we help? field.
4. Click Continue.
5. Choose Start a chat or Get our phone number.

This way, you'll be added to the list of affected users and be updated via email once updates are available. In addition, I've included our detailed guide in contacting our support.

We appreciate your patience with us as we fix this issue.

Hi I have open a thread and have been receiving your standard answer that your engineers are working on it since 6 weeks ago. This is causing too much time cost and affecting our operations dramatically. Please take this matter seriously if quickbooks value their software. Kindly note that we will be raising this to your higher executive management to resolve it ASAP. Thx

Thank you for your reply. I've been doing the workaround you suggested since the issue started - I create a progress invoice against the estimate so I can track what's been invoiced against the estimate, then I create a copy of the invoice so that I can apply our custom template and I send that invoice to the client as a pdf, then I delete the copied invoice.  It's fine for a temporary workaround but is not ideal in the long run since I do a lot of progress billing. 

My accounting firm contacted their dedicated support rep and informed them of the issue (they said they were aware of it). After several weeks of the problem being unresolved, I also contacted customer support through the QBs chat feature but the rep I chatted with said it wasn't a known issue. Hopefully the update that is scheduled next week will resolve the issue.

Hello there, @MonroeGR.

Please allow me to join the thread and share additional information about the ongoing issue with progress invoicing.

Yes, our engineering team is currently working for an immediate fix of the issue. If you're already added to the list of affected users, you'll automatically receive an email notification with the latest updates.

In addition, as soon as there's an update from our engineering team, an update will be posted as well. To stay updated with the QuickBooks news and updates, you may visit our QuickBooks blog.

For more information about progress invoicing, you may check these articles:

• Turn on and use progress invoicing
• New Progress Invoicing for QuickBooks Online

On the other hand, you may read our Help articles for future reference: Help articles for QBO.

Please know that I'll be always here to help you if you have any other QuickBooks or progress invoicing concerns, just add a post/comment below. Have a good one!

I hope the quickbooks team telling us their engineers are working on it etc is not misleading us. I’ve waited 43 days for a resolution with no updates at all. They said they are due to respond and give an update on 16 April 2019. Let’s see if they are really working. 

Hi @Anonymous 

The custom invoice still isn't working for me today and you mentioned there would be an update on 4/16. I'm curious if the update happened or if it was delayed. 

Thanks,

Sally

Hi @MonroeGR,

Allow me to join in this thread and provide some details about the ongoing issue about your custom invoices.

Our engineers are still working on providing a permanent resolution for this issue. We want to get you back to business with a fix as soon as possible. But they're expected to give us an update about the solution by the end of the week.

Also, when an update is available, you'll immediately be notified by email. And I'll also get back to this thread once we hear back from our engineers.

We appreciate your patience with us regarding this ongoing issue. Please know that I'll be here if you have any other concerns.

3 weeks later it is still not working yet.

What am I supposed to tell my clients?

Hello, @bazinm.

I'm here to help provide a little more information about the issue.

As of now, we haven't received an update from our engineering team about the issue. For now, I recommend contacting our Support Team to check and investigate this further securely.

For the support's contact information, you may check it here: Contact the QuickBooks Online Customer Support team. In addition, you may also try creating an invoice separately, not from the estimate.

Feel free to add a comment below if you have any other QuickBooks or invoice template questions, I'll be glad to help you. Have a good day!

Any resolution to this issue yet? We too are also experiencing the issue with custom invoices.

Sounds like you need to hire more proficient engineers.  How long does it take a group of developers to isolate a bug in a software feature that once was perfectly functional?  The only information we ever get from Quickbooks in regards to this issue is a generic message telling us to "rest assured" that engineers are tackling the problem.

The ability to issue customized invoices which REMAIN LINKED to original estimates is a foundational component of business sales operations and is an integral feature for which we pay Quickbooks.  If this feature continues to remain unavailable for such an extended period of time, Quickbooks should make good with their currently subscribed members and offer a monthly discount.  There IS NOT a fully satisfactory workaround to this issue and it's been months since it was originally reported.  

Come on Quickbooks!

Just to clarify, regarding the workaround...

Convert existing estimate to an invoice using progress invoicing.

Create a copy of that invoice.

Successfully apply custom template to copied invoice and send to client.

Delete the copied invoice.

Now the estimate will track partial custom payments as if it was a standard progress invoicing setup?

I appreciate you joining this conversation, @cetanorak.

As for the workaround, yes! The estimate will track the partial custom payments.

As for the ongoing issue, our Product Engineers are still working to fix the issue as soon as possible. I highly suggest contacting our Phone Support team if you haven't yet so they can add you to our notification list.

Check out this article for the detailed steps on how to reach them: Contact the QuickBooks Online Customer Support team.

Thanks for your understanding and patience while we look into this. Please let me know should you need anything else. I'll be here to help. Take care.

Hi @FritzF

The steps that @cetanorak listed work for me because I keep the invoice that I created from the estimate and I delete the copy after I use the copied invoice to apply my template and create a pdf version that I send to the client. So I still have the invoice created from the estimate that shows partial payments. 

But as @cetanorak says, it's very surprising that your engineers haven't yet been able to isolate the bug in software that was fully functional. I work in a web development company, and it's rare for us to not resolve a bug within hours.  Software is a different beast but there should be a resolution within days/weeks unless your engineers aren't actually working on the problem.  

Months ago I submitted the issue to customer support, and my accountant has also submitted the issue via his direct support contact, so at this point it's just a matter of waiting until Quickbooks resolves the issue. 

Hello there, @Anonymous.

Our engineers are still all hands on deck currently working for a resolution about this issue. However, to check for the current updates, you can reach out with our Support Team.

In addition, you can also visit our QuickBooks blog to stay updated with the latest QuickBooks news and updates.

Stay posted if you have any other QuickBooks or invoices questions, I'll be always here to help you. Have a great day ahead!

Hello there, HavenZone.

I appreciate you taking the time to reach us out and for sharing your experience with us. 

While the investigation about the Custom Invoice Templates that is no longer working with the progress invoicing is still open, we'll be sure to update you through this thread once we receive progress of the investigation.

In the meantime, you can check out this website to be updated of the status of the current investigation: http://status.quickbooks.intuit.com/.

I'm still here if you have other concerns though, and you're more than welcome to leave a reply for anything you need.

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@MonroeGR wrote:
I've been using this custom invoice for a couple years with no problems. This issue started at the end of February, 2019. I reached out to customer support but received no solution.

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It may have started in February 2019 for some users but for other users, this software glitch started long before that. It means this import feature has not worked fully for a long time I heard.

Even if started at the end of February 2019 (that was over 90 days ago), they would have fixed this by now if they really wanted to. Calling them to get the status is a complete waste of time. 

If you google it, there was reported issues back in Dec 2018.  Ours started in January-ish 2019.  I've spent well over 8 hours on the phone with support and was told outright false information such as this feature will now only be available to Advance users and they were shutting it down in waves across the US?  What the???

I requested a full credit for March services which was granted, so I highly suggest requesting this if you haven't done so already.  Although, it was only for one month and this has clearly been nearly half a year now.  I also joined Advanced for the temporary discounted rate only to get "Priority Circle" for this issue specifically, so I don't have to wait for ever to get someone who has NO idea what they are doing. 

QB does not email you or keep you updated at all.  When you call in with your previous case #, they won't have record of it, even when you show them the email confirming it.  The (2) hours you spent explaining, sharing your screen and taking screen shots will be asked of you again.  It has been nearly 6 months to fix a massive issue for a major business function.  

In addition to this issue, you may find custom saved reports may not function as usual and you'll have to recreate them as a fix. 

Also the "/" does not work anymore if you use it for dates or other info. in a custom field - it won't carry over and instead creates a bunch of gibberish.  So you'll need to change all that on EVERY CUSTOMER if you did this for items on the customer record that carry over to invoicing/estimates.

For a while there, the Custom 1 and Custom 2 box would rearrange when carrying over to the invoice if both fields were used, so I had to create a "temporary" 2nd invoice where these fields were mapped backwards when I used both boxes.  That seems to have been resolved now for me at least.  

That's it for now.  QBO worked flawlessly for us for 2 years and now it is full of headaches.  We are definitely on the verge of switching platforms and have spent SOOO much time on this.