Add existing invoice to a project

Jtvail · ‎February 13, 2022

I contacted support yesterday about this and we both followed the steps in help, which said to open the invoice and change the customer to the project. The issue is when this is done it erases all the info on the invoice (it will keep the attachments, but everything else is gone).

This is how we normally do this process:

Send out an estimate, send out 25% deposit invoice, client pays normally through QB Cash and we apply payment to the invoice. Then we create the project and here is our issue. We can't seem to get the invoice to move or be associated with the project.

It says in the help in can be done, but support and I couldn't figure it out. I've tried different browsers and computers just in case that may have been the issue. Support tried to have me add a project selection box to the invoice, but we couldn't get that to work either. Any help would be greatly appreciated, we would really like to use this feature, it's the reason we upgraded our QuickBooks Online to the advanced version.

Jovychris_A · ‎February 13, 2022

Hi @Jtvail.

Let me join you in adding an existing invoice to a project. I know this has been disappointing since it doesn't seem to work on your end. No worries, I'm here to sort it out.

I appreciate you sharing your time with us here in the Community. I also replicated your challenges by adding an existing invoice and entering a 25% deposit. I received the payment manually and paid the balance.

I've also tried to create a new customer invoice with a 25% deposit and match it with a customer's online banking payment from the Transactions/Banking menu.

For both transactions, I replaced the customer name with a project. This leaves the payment transactions as unapplied to the specific account where it was deposited. I came to rematch it to a project invoice. I was able to see items and information normally in the invoice after I changed it to a project. This came out seamless on my end. You can check my screenshots for visual reference below:

I see that you already contacted support, tried different browsers to isolate this issue, and followed the steps from the Add an existing invoices to QuickBooks Online Projects article. In this case, I'd recommend contacting our Care Support team to report the issue in this feature.

They have the tools to pull up your account and create a ticket to escalate this to our Product Development team so they can fix this right away. You'll be receiving updates about your report. Here's how to talk to one of our agents for assistance:

Click the Gear icon on the top right.
Go to the Search tab and then hit Contact Us.
Enter your concern or report.
Hit Continue.
Choose to Message/Chat an agent.

On the other hand, you can still have the Project feature using the QuickBooks Online Plus version. If this is the main reason you applied to QuickBooks Online Advanced, you can downgrade your plan to QuickBooks Online Plus anytime.

Please know that it's my priority to help you. If you have additional questions or concerns about the Projects feature, just drop a message. Anytime I can assist. Have a nice day ahead.

Jtvail · ‎February 13, 2022

Here are step by step screen shots of my issue. I can't even get to the payment part, so that's not an issue yet.

Screenshot #1: Shows Invoice

Screenshot #2: Shows selection of project (must use mouse to select, typing in the box will erase the invoice)

Screenshot #3: Pop-up asking if I want to save attachments (answer doesn't matter to this issue, it will save the attachments for the invoice though)

Screenshot #4: Same invoice with the project selected, all invoice data is gone.... This is the issue I would like to know how to fix or work around.

Please let me know how to add an existing invoice to a new project. Thank you

Giovann_G · ‎February 13, 2022

I know a way to fix this, Jtvail.

When you add a transaction to an existing project, any links to the invoice will be removed. To correct this, assign the estimate to an existing project before converting it to an invoice. I'll show you how.

Open the original estimate.
Click More at the bottom of the estimate, then select Copy.
Assign it to the project.
Once done, you can convert it to an invoice.

To avoid this from happening again, you'll need to add the transaction first to the project moving forward.

I've added this article for your reference: Add existing invoices to QuickBooks Online Projects.

Feel free to visit this resource for future reference on recording invoice payments in QuickBooks Online: Record invoice payments in QuickBooks Online.

Don't hesitate to add any details below if you need further assistance with the project feature. I'm always here to help you.