Why are the invoice emails that I send not formatted the way I have them customized in custom form style?

Hi, @accounting582. 

Thank you for reaching out to the Community. Let me share some information about sending invoices in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

There are a few reasons why the invoices you send manually are not formatted correctly in QuickBooks Online. I can give you some tips on how to rectify this.

First, make sure you are using the correct email template. When you go to send an invoice manually, make sure you are selecting the correct email template that corresponds to the custom form style you want to use. To do this, go to the "Sales" tab and click "All Sales." Then select the invoice you want to send and click the "Edit" button. In the "Customize" section at the bottom of the invoice, select the appropriate email template.

Here's a screenshot for visual reference:
 

Then, click the Print or Preview tab to view your email. This is to ensure that your form style is active and is selected correctly.

After verifying that the selected template is correct, you can Save and Send your invoice or Save and Close it if you want to send it later.

Once your customer pays their invoices, learn the steps on how to record them in QBO through this article: Record invoice payments in QuickBooks Online.

 Feel free to visit us again if you have further questions, @accounting582. We're always here to help you. Have a nice day!

Unfortunately, this did not solve the issue I am having. The email format is changing to a template we do not have. I am not understanding why it is changing. I have the correct template selected, but when I go to send the email it completely changes the email message. The actual invoice is fine, it is just the format of the email that I am having issues with. 

Hello there, @accounting582.

Know that this isn't the experience that we'd want you to have here in QuickBooks Online (QBO). I want to ensure this gets sorted out as soon as possible. I'd recommend contacting our Customer Care Team. This way, they can assign a representative to check your account in a secure environment to investigate and determine the root cause of this issue. I'll write down the steps below to get you going:

1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online company.
2. Select Help (?).
3. Select either tab to get started:

• Assistant: Get quick, personalized answers. Select a suggested option, or type a question or topic you need help with. If you decide you need further help, you can still Talk to a human.
• Search: Search the QuickBooks Online knowledge base directly, or select Contact Us and choose a way to connect with us:
  • Start a chat with a support expert.
  • Get a callback from the next available expert.

For more details, you can check this article: QuickBooks Online Support.

Additionally, here's an article to help you manage invoice payments inside QBO: Record invoice payments in QuickBooks Online.

@accounting582. Feel free to leave a comment below and let me know how it goes. I'll be here to provide further assistance if you ever need any. Stay safe, and have a nice day!

My office is having the same issue.  Our invoice email template recently changed on its own and is full of errors and gimicks like "hope to see you again soon" which are not any part of our template.

We have been on the phone with QB support for more than 6 hours over two days with the problem ongoing for over a week now.  We cannot send any invoices by email because they are embarassing and disrespectful for our industry.  This is a software issue although QB support keeps telling us to make a new template that we are doing something wrong.

QB needs to get software engineering on this problem for everyone it is not a user error!!!

Same issue here. The email template has a bunch of logos now for Intuit family of products, while our logo has been shoved into a bubble on the left that cuts off part of our logo. The layout is horrible and the branding/color scheme is way different from ours. We can't send out invoices this way.

Same issue here. This is quite urgent.

Hi @EMode.

I want to make sure you get immediate care. Since you have experienced the same, I recommend contacting our Care Support team. They have the tools to pull up your account and investigate this issue in a secure environment.

Here are the steps to get in touch with one of our representatives:

1. Click Help and then go to the Search tab.
2. Hit Contact Us.
3. Provide your concerns in the What can we help you with box.
4. Select Continue.
5. Choose Chat with us or Have us call you.

You can check our support hours in this article: QuickBooks Online Support.

Would you like to review more details about the new layout to customize your sales forms? I'll be adding this article for more information: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online.

Please let me know if you have other QuickBooks concerns. I'm still here to help you out more. Take care always.

This glitch is happening to me also. I contacted customer service last week. It seems like many customers are having this problem.  I also need to be able to customize my invoice emails.  The Quickbooks IT Team need to give us a timeline as to how long this fix is going to take. There is no communication and customer service cannot give a timeline. All I get is the engineers are "working on it".   Is there a way to get a timeline as to when this will be fixed?

We appreciate your time reaching out to us about this, nicole40.

I checked the status of the investigation and it's still open. At the moment, there's no given timeline as to when it will be resolved. Rest assured that we will send you a notification via email as soon as this is sored out.

In the meantime, you can manually edit the message o r the body if the email right before sending the invoice. 

The Community is always here if you need anything else. 

Thank you for the reply. However, there is no way to customize the email of the invoice.  That is the problem. The invoice email is totally different and NOT customizable. This glitch needs to be fixed ASAP.  I have included a PDF of the problem.

1.  The WRONG Invoice email. This is what is currently being sent. Not able to customize anything.

2.  The CORRECT Invoice email. This is the invoice that I have set in Quickbooks. This should be the email going out with the invoice.

I need to be able to customize invoices. Thank you.
[removed attachment]

Hi there, @nicole40.

Upon checking the attached PDF file in your response, It looks like this has something to do with your company setting's Online delivery section. That said, for you to get your preferred invoice email, you'll have to switch from HTML OR PLAIN TEXT to an Online invoice. I'll gladly walk you through the process to get you going. To begin, here's how:

1. Access your QuickBooks Online company.
2. On the top-right corner, click the Gear icon and then select Account and settings.
3. Go to Sales, and then click Online delivery.
4. In the Additional email option for invoices section, click the dropdown arrow and then select Online invoice.
5. Once done, click the Save and then Done.

For visual reference, see the screenshot that I've attached.

In addition, here's an article to help you manage invoice payments inside QBO: Record invoice payments in QuickBooks Online.

@nicole40, please let me know how it goes. I'm determined to help you get through this situation. Take care, and have a good one!

Same issue here! I believe it has something to do when there was an update on email from QB. They had a message to keep emails secured and to make sure that you update and as soon as that was done, we started to experience the same issue with the format of templates sent to email. It doesn't matter if the invoice is ok in QB, it is when the sales order acknowledgement, and invoices are sent to the email that it changes the whole templates.  It looks horrible and not professional at all.  I will not be sending the email to my customers that generates from QB to my email.  It is a lot more work now, because, now I have to print the invoice from QB, scan it and send it to the customer, which was easier done previous to this glitch. All I do is forward it to the customer after scanning it.  I contacted QB and was on the phone for at least 2 hours, and they couldn't figure it out either. Please get this glitch fixed so that we can professionally do our work and on top of it, so much money spent on this software and so many glitches along with no experts as to Know how to fix any issues coming from the customer service level.  They just read a script to try to fix the issue, but cannot resolve it and keep you on hold forever trying to contact other people to help them, without any success.  I had other issues where no one have been able to help.  It is very frustrating when a company relies on a software that doesn't work correctly.  Please get this issue fixed!!  

It is infuriating to me that QBO changed the formatted email for sending invoices without user consent. I spent no less than 5 hours of billable time yesterday trying to figure this out. I used the online chat for accountants and screen shared. The support person could not figure out what the issue was and kept trying to show me how to modify the email language, which I'm perfectly capable of. They never could understand that the issue was the default email template (preformatted by QBO) that was the issue. The email wasn't even worded correctly and was embarrassing to send to customers leaving no other option than to manually send an invoice link. I am grateful for the response above regarding the online delivery options. However, the response is incorrect stating that online invoice should be selected. This is the option with the embarrassing format. If you select HTML, then an acceptable format is used. Although it is not the prior format, which was fine. It is bad enough that this happens, but then unacceptable that support takes the accountant in circles when trying to resolve. 

I so agree with everyone.  My problem started two days ago; I cannot image having this problem since May and here it is July and QBO has not fix it yet.  I was chatting with them yesterday and sharing my screen for 4 hours and nothing they did would work. They walk me through the same steps as they did with all of you. They need to train their customer service to know how to run the program inside and out instead of taking you through a script and no results in fixing the problem. And yes, they keep you on hold to get in touch with someone that can help them and end results, no success. You are still in the same boat as you were when you got in touch with them. All of us cares about our businesses and wants to look and sound professional. With the change that QBO has done, I do not like the start of it saying Hi to the customer and the comment “Here’s your invoice from (my company)” and at the end “Hope to see you again”. This change that QBO has done looks like they are trying to do some advertisement for them self on our dime. This is very frustrating and we do not have time to deal with a company that cannot fix their errors and work with their customers that pays a lot to them to use the program. This gal just might be finding some other program.

I think I have found a work around to help us until QBO fix their error.  Go to: Settings : Account and Settings: Sales: scroll down to "Online delivery" click on edit: under “Additional email options for invoices” - change the Online to HTML or Plain text.  I have sent myself a test invoice to my personal email, it does not have all that new stuff that QBO has added.  When I click on to "View the invoice" in the email it took me to a different tab and I was able to pay online as well and print the invoice.  Now for the real test I will have to wait and see what is going to happen to the invoices I have schedule to go out every month. I am hoping it will be the same as what I have set up.

If you do make the changes under the “Online delivery” I have found something else.  If you are creating a new invoice for a customer that already has an account with you and you go to their account DO NOT click on the green button to your right mid-way up “New transaction”, if you do this for some reason it will not have a link for them to pay online in their email.  Go to your left where you see “+ New” and create your new invoice for your customer there. I have found it will send them a link to pay the invoice in their email.   It is a green button call “View invoice” in their email.

Are you all referring the client facing body of the email that the client receives?  I've had QB for years and am now trying to use it more with invoicing clients and eliminating other platforms I currently use.  I did a test and customized my estimate, but the client facing body of the email looks different than the attached document.  I just want to confirm this is what you are talking about and not something different.

Yes, that is what we're referencing, the client facing email. It's the portion of the email that the user has no control over. I didn't have this issue until a couple of days ago either. It does feel manipulative and insulting that 1. they think the format of the email is acceptable and 2. they don't address the issue or respond to our complaints. 

Thank you for the clarification.  I just started using QB in this capacity so didn't know something had changed and agree this needs to be addressed.

Agreed.  I'm definitely feeling gaslighted since no moderators are even acknowledging the portion of client emails that can no longer be edited, modified, or *my choice* REMOVED.

The only way I can have a payment link is if I select "online" for the email delivery. That gives me the option for ACH or cc payment. But then I have to go in and select HTML before emailing or it sends the horrible email template intuit is using now. This is really inexcusable on intuit's part. 

Hey Ms. LauraG,
I am not sure why you only have a payment link if you select "online" for the email delivery. I have mine set at HTML and when I did sent a test to my personal email, it sent it in the HTML and it had my contents in the email the way I wanted it worded. It has a green area with the words "View invoice". I click on it and it took me to a different tab where I can pay the invoice and print it as well. I will attach a screen shot of what it does for me. I hope this helps you. And I hope this helps me and it works when August 1 gets here and all my invoices go out automatically. See attached two screen shots of what it showing up in my personal emial when I do a test run.

So we are experiencing the same issue for the last several days.  When we send invoices, the email is not formatted correctly with the email template that we chose.  It adds Intuit Turbotax, Credit Karma, Quickbooks, & MailChimp icons at the top and bottom.  It includes a "Hope to See You Again" message and a "Do you have an Issue" message at the bottom of the email.  We found out today that if we turn off all the payment credit card options in the invoice, the email will format correctly.  Unfortunately, it doesn't have any of the payment links.  If we turn these options back on, then the email will format incorrectly.  I've tried this with both the Online Invoice setting enabled and also set it as HTML.  We use Intuit Quickbooks as our credit card processor.  For us, this appears to be an issue with the payment links altering the email and pulling in its own template.  It's a bug that needs to be fixed by Quickbooks.

I found a solution.  Reminder, I use QB Enterprise 21.0 Rel 14P  First in order to fix it, you Must switch QB to Single use to be able to make the changes or have your administrator help you with it......  once you are at the single use; click on top toolbar and where it says "edit", click, then find "preferences" click and find "send forms" at that point where you see "my preferences" change it to outlook and hit ok.  Then go back to multi use and you should be able to send your templates to the email (outlook) and it will be the correct one.  I hope it works for those looking for an answer.  This was the only way I was able to fix the issue I had with QB emailing templates that were not working correctly.  Good luck!!