Create invoice for a lead (non customer) in QBO

Question

I have QuickBooks Online that my accountant 'manages' - I pay him a fee for it, and he has access to it. Using QB for 18 years; QBO 7 years.

We want the ability to create an estimate for someone who is NOT a customer yet.

I cannot find a 'leads' section the support document talks about.

I cannot find a 'customer type' field under customers.

If I add in customer 'notes' section that they are a Lead, not a Customer, by typing that out, I have no way to display this note in the customer list.

I also would have no way to filter on a lead vs customer from the notes field while viewing a list of customers in QBO.

I am new to estimates. Seems that you can only add an estimate to an existing customer.

Unlike most CRM systems where you take a potential customer (lead) and qualify them and send an estimate out, and only once they buy from you they become a contact, QBO wants to create them as a customer. They aren't a customer. They haven't bought yet.

I have a feeling you're going to say that the features I want are in a more expensive offering. I do one estimate a month. I want to track them in QBO vs. "excel" or other tool. I want to easily convert an estimate to an invoice, which I believe I can do with the version I have, though I have not had the opportunity to do that yet because this is my first estimate I have sent to a prospect/lead.

If there is no way to add a lead in QBO, let me know. If there is no way to flag a customer as a customer type of 'lead', let me know. Once you let me know, please update your online documentation/forum posts that told me to change some settings that do not exist in QBO. Thanks.

Kurt_M · Answer

Welcome to the Community, Dave. We'll share details about how transactions work inside QuickBooks Online (QBO).

Yes, you're right. You can only create an estimate, invoice, or other transactions if you already added a customer to your company file. If there are no customers available inside the program, you won't be able to save and record the transactions because the Customer field is empty. Now, you can create a Customer Type to indicate which customer is a lead and which one is an official customer. We'll write down the steps below to get you going:

Go to Sales or Customers & leads, then select Customers.
From the Customers screen, select Customer types.
Select New customer type.
Enter a name for the customer type, then Save.

Once done, create a customer, and then in the Additional information section of the customer profile, click the Dropdown arrow below the Customer Type section and select the type. See this page for more details: Add and manage customers in QuickBooks Online.

About viewing and filtering a lead and customer notes field in the customer list inside QBO. We recommend sending a feature request to our engineers. This way, they can evaluate your suggestion and consider it for future program updates. Here's how:

Access your QuickBooks Online company.
On the top right-corner, click the Gear icon.
Select Feedback and then enter your comments or product suggestions.
Once ready, click Next to submit feedback.

Also, know that when running a customer report. You have the option to add a note section to reflect the notes you've added for a specific customer inside the report you generated. You can achieve this feat by customizing the customer report and manually adding the Notes field to your data. For more details, please see this page: Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.

Lastly, can you tell us the title of the article you tried to follow? This way, we can check it out and update it to show the latest steps on how to do it.

Moreover, you can check these handy articles to help you manage customer payments and keep your current report settings inside your company:

It's been a pleasure to have you here today, Dave. We look forward to having you here again if you need assistance managing customers and transactions inside QuickBooks. Stay safe, and have a good one.

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