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Customise invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online

by Intuit•6• Updated 2 weeks ago

With QuickBooks Online, you can make personalised and professional-looking invoices, estimates, and sales receipts.

Your estimates or invoices will look different depending on whether you have the old or new estimate and invoice experience. Find out which experience you have.

With the new invoicing and estimates feature, you can make changes and add personal touches to your forms as you create them. All the tools you need to customise invoices and estimates are right there on the form.

Keep in mind that any customisations or logo updates you make on your invoices or estimates will apply to all existing and future invoices and estimates. Any edits to your company info will update your company info everywhere in QuickBooks.

  1. To customise invoices:
    1. Go to Sales, then select Invoices (Take me there).
    2. Select Create invoice to create a new invoice. Or, to edit an existing one, find the invoice from the list and select View/Edit from the dropdown ▼ under the Action column.
  2. To customise estimates:
    1. Go to Sales, then select Customers (Take me there).
    2. Select a customer, then select Estimate from the New transaction dropdown ▼ to create a new estimate. Or, to edit an existing one, find an estimate from the list and select View/Edit from the dropdown ▼ under the Action column.
  3. To update your company info, select Edit company on the form. Make changes as needed, and then select Save. 
  4. To edit your company logo, select the logo on the form. Then select an image from your computer, and select Open to update the logo. 
  5. To add or remove fields, change the colour scheme, or turn on payments on invoices, select Manage ⚙, if not selected already.
  6. Select the dropdown ▼ for each section to see customisation options. 
  7. Choose what info displays on your form by turning the switches on or off. The form preview updates as you make changes.
  8. Select Payment options or Discounts and Fees to customise payment options, or turn them off.
    Note: Payment processing is an add-on service.
  9. When you're finished customising, select Save.
Important: The "Standard" default template represents all your forms. If you make any edits to this template, QuickBooks will apply them to all your forms. 

If you want to customise a specific form, create a new template for that form first. After you apply customisations to the new template, make it the default template to reflect the changes.
  1. Go to Settings ⚙ and then select Custom form styles.
  2. Select New style.
  3. Select a sales form type you’d like to create a template for.

Let's start with the layout and the design. As you make changes, you'll see a preview of the changes in the template.

  1. Select the Design tab.
  2. Give your template a name.
  3. Select Change up the template to choose a layout. These layouts are fixed.
    Note: If you plan to use Stock Keeping Units (SKUs), create progress invoices, or if you wish to include your Electronic Funds Transfer details, use the Airy New template as your default design. By default, the Airy New template includes your EFT details in the invoice footer. If you wish to remove these, you’ll need to use another template.
  4. Select Make logo edits to adjust or hide your logo.
    • To change the logo, select the (+) plus icon on the image. Select one of your saved logos or add a new one. Note: You can save multiple logos but you can only use one at a time.
    • To adjust to logo size and placement, select the size and placement icons.
    • To hide the logo, select Hide logo.
  5. Select Try other colours to pick a colour scheme. You can enter the HEX code (the six-digit combination of numbers and letters for a colour) for a truly custom colour.
  6. Choose Select a different font to change the font and size.
  7. Select Edit print settings to adjust the margins. This is important if you send printed forms to your customers.
Important: This feature is only available in the Airy New Template. To check or change your template, just select change up the template.

You can now save time and money and skip manually printing and scanning your invoices by adding a stamp, signature, or QR Code directly to your invoice template. If you update the QR code on the template, it will affect all invoices.

Note: Because a single QR Code applies to all invoices, this feature is not available for countries that require government specified unique QR codes, like Saudi Arabia or United Arab Emirates.

Here’s how to add this feature to your invoice template:

  1. Select Add a stamp, signature, or QR Code (only applicable on invoices).
  2. Select the Add + box. 
  3. Upload the image and select Save. You can save multiple images, but you can only use one in the footer of your invoice. 

You can see how your final invoice will look by selecting Preview PDF.

  • To adjust to the size and placement, select the size and placement icons. The height and width of the image can not be changed. 
  • To hide the stamp, signature or QR code select Hide.

There are several options for customising the details of your form. We won't cover them all, but here’s how to get started and a few tips for each section of the form:

  1. Select the Content tab.
  2. Select the header, table, or footer on the sample form to start editing that section. You’ll edit each section separately. 
  3. Select the ticks next to the fields you want to display on your form. Then select a different section (header, table, or footer) on the sample form to customise it.
  4. Whenever you're ready to save your changes, select Done.

Note: How you customise your default template, will determine how your other sales forms look.

Learn more about some customisation options for the header, table, and footer:

Select the header section to customise what displays. Here's some things to keep in mind as you customise the header:

  • When you select a checkbox, a preview displays on the sample form. 
  • Your company info automatically appears in sales form headers. Use the check boxes to add or remove what your customers see. You can also update the text fields to edit what displays.
  • Check the Form numbers checkbox to have QuickBooks add invoice or estimate numbers to your form. 
  • You can add custom fields to your form. Tip: If you have made any previous edits to your template, make sure to save your invoice before creating custom fields.

Here's how to create a custom field:

  • In the header section, select Manage custom fields.
  • In Custom fields, select Add field.
  • Enter the name of the field, and select All Sales forms.
  • Turn on Print on form so it appears in your form's header.
  • Select Save.
    Note: You can add up to three custom fields for sales forms.

Select the table section to customise it. Here’s some things to keep in mind as you customise the table:

  • When you select a checkbox, a preview displays on the sample form. 
  • You can choose how you want to display your description, quantities, and rates:
    • To display separate columns for item descriptions, quantities, and rates select the Description, Quantity, and Rate checkboxes.
    • Or keep things in a single column by selecting the Product/Service checkbox and then the Include description here checkbox. 
    • Or select the Description checkbox and then Include Quantity and Rate. 
  • To reorder the columns, drag each item's grid icon to a new place on the list. 
  • To change the column name or size. Then select Edit labels and widths.
    • Change the column names by editing the text fields.
    • Adjust the width by moving the sliders.

Select the footer section to customise what displays on your footer. Here are things to keep in mind as you customise the footer:

  • When you select a checkbox, a preview displays on the sample form. 
  • Select the Discount checkbox if you offer a discount and want it to display on the form.
  • You can customise a message to your customer and add text to the footer of the form. Just fill out the message and footer fields. Then choose the font size and/or placement with the dropdown ▼ fields.

Make things personal by changing the message customers see when they get their estimate, invoice, or sales receipt. If you want to use QuickBooks default messaging, you can skip this.

  1. Select the Emails tab. 
  2. Choose if you want to display details or a summary by selecting Full details or Summarised details. 
  3. If you’d like to attach a PDF with a full pricing breakdown, select the PDF Attached checkbox. 
  4. Change the subject line, greeting, and message body by entering your customised text.
    Note: QuickBooks doesn't show shortened URLs when you send emails to customers. You can customise your invoice reminder emails by selecting the reminder email dropdown.
  5. Select Done.

QuickBooks uses your default template each time you make a new invoice, sales receipt, or estimate. You can select a different template for specific transactions directly from the form:

  1. Create or open an existing invoice, sales receipt, or estimate.
  2. Select Customise at the bottom of the transaction. Note: In the case of an existing invoice, you may have to edit the invoice to see the Customise option.
  3. Select a custom template from the list.

QuickBooks uses the first custom template you create as your default for invoices, sales receipts, and estimates. To set another custom templates as the default:

  1. Go to Settings ⚙ and then select Custom form styles.
  2. Find your template.
  3. Select the ▼ in the Action column.
  4. Select Make default. You'll see (default) displayed by the default template name.

To manage your custom templates:

  1. Select Settings ⚙ and then Custom form styles.
  2. Find your custom or standard template.
  3. Select Edit in the Action column.
  4. Make any edits. Then select Done.
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