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jeffbean
May 6, 2021
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How tell which invoices are drafts and which have been sent?

  • May 6, 2021
  • 1 reply
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In QBO, draft (i.e., unsent) invoices regularly appear among sent/open invoices. In the lists, they look exactly the same.

 

There is no way to know, from looking at the various lists of invoices, which are drafts and which have been sent to the client (customer). To determine whether invoices are drafts or have been sent, we must click View/Edit to view each invoice, then scroll down to the Activities list to see if we have already sent it.

 

It would seem that something like the Status column could be helpful, but it isn't. Draft invoices appear as Open, along with sent/unpaid invoices. There's no distinction.

 

This is a real problem. Not only is it really hard in our workflow to determine which invoices are drafts and need finalizing, requiring extra time and causing confusion and errors. But worse than that, QBO is counting the amounts on the draft invoices as if they have been invoiced already. All the metrics QBO provides based on open invoices ("unpaid"), on both the Invoices > Overview screen and the Dashboard, are simply incorrect. It's another instance where QBO is reporting information to me about my business that is flat-out dead wrong and unreliable.

 

Am I missing something? Is there a way to mark invoices as drafts (or at least as "unsent")? To fix the Invoice screens so they show separately from sent invoices?

    Best answer by jeffbean

    @MichelleBh thank you for the instructions regarding feedback.

     

    FYI: the Feedback Forum you suggested I monitor has been shut down. You might want to avoid sending other customers to it in the future.

     

    Here's the feedback I sent in the app:

     

    The current way QBO treats draft/unsent invoices provides wrong information. Draft invoices look too much like sent invoices on the Invoices lists. And they are wrongly reported in metrics as being "due."

     

    In all lists where invoices are shown, they should be displayed positively as a draft (i.e., unsent) by explicitly being labeled "Draft" as the primary value in the Status field. (Both on the Invoices tab/screen and the Customer Transaction List.) Draft/unsent invoices should never show as "due" in the Status field because, by definition, an invoice can never be due as long as it remains unsent.

     

    For the same reason, amounts on draft/unsent invoices should never be included in metrics regarding due or unpaid amounts (e.g, on Invoices tab/screen or dashboard).


    Update: I have stumbled across a solution. Apparently, all along, I should have been using QBO's Estimates function. We don't give clients estimates per se, like a contractor might, in part because they look and act a heckuva lot like invoices. But they're not on the Inovices screen and not gooping up the invoice metrics in the dashboard. I should be able to create an invoice from these estimates later. We'll see how that goes.

     

    This is the kind of information I would expect from support representatives of a cloud-based SaaS provider. But not what we get from QBO representatives.

    1 reply

    katherinejoyceO
    katherinejoyceO
    May 6, 2021

    Thanks for taking your time in sharing detailed information about your concern. @jeffbean. 

     

    We do have a way to view your list of Invoices and their status within the program. You can go to the Sales menu, then select the Invoice tab. This is where you can click in the Status column and see if the Invoice has been sent, viewed, paid, and deposited. 

     

    You can also see if your customer has received the email and paid you. I find this article about sending online Invoices might be helpful too.

     

    For future reference, check out this article in case you'll need some easy steps in customizing invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QBO. 

     

    Feel free to drop a line below if you have any other questions. Take care.

    J
    jeffbeanAuthor
    May 6, 2021

    @katherinejoyceOThank you for your response.

     

    I asked how invoices can be seen as drafts in the interface. You've suggested I can view the Status column in the Invoices tab.

     

    In the Status column, the first line of information showing for any draft or unsent invoice is the Due date. That is nonsensical for an unsent invoice because it can *never* be due as long as it remains unsent. With this as the primary information displayed as its status, a draft invoice looks exactly like a sent invoice.

     

    You've suggested I can look at the second line of information in the Status column: sent, viewed, paid or deposited. To be honest, I had been ignoring those because they are often wrong (e.g., currently an invoice that has been viewed by the client literally dozens of times is showing simply as "Sent").

     

    Now I see that any draft/unsent invoice should have no information displayed at all on that second line. That's not intuitive -- to infer information from a lack of information provided -- but I'll try to remember that's what QBO does and try to work with it.

     

    But your trick only works on the Invoicing > Invoices screen. It doesn't work on the Invoicing > Clients > Transaction List screen. For some reason, on this screen, QBO chooses to provide a completely different set of values in the Status field column. (Why QBO is displaying different and inconsistent information for the same data on different screens, I can't begin to fathom.) An invoice showing as "Sent" on the Invoice list will show as "Open" in the Transaction List. And a draft (unsent) invoice will show as "Open" as well, looking exactly the same as an invoice that has been sent.

     

    I've tried some workarounds to get draft invoices to somehow show as drafts in the Invoices screen. I've tried leaving the Due Date empty, but then QBO forcibly enters today's date. I've tried leaving the Client empty, but QBO won't let me. I've tried using "TestClient" as a placeholder, but then I have to remember who the real client is. I've tried leaving the Amount at $0, but then QBO bizarrely shows the invoice status as "deposited!"

     

    Please let this serve as feedback for revision: for QBO in all lists where invoices are shown, that it be displayed positively that an invoice is a draft (i.e., unsent) by explicitly labeling it as "Draft" as the primary value in the Status field.

      MichelleBh
      MichelleBh
      May 7, 2021

       I can direct you to a page where you would see our release notes, @jeffbean.

       

      I appreciate all the workarounds you've tried about invoice status. Also, I understand that having this feature available in the system would make your QuickBooks experience better. 

       

      I'd recommend sending feedback to our Product Development Team. We value your suggestions. This way, it helps our engineers determine what features to be added in QBO future enhancements. 

       

      Here's how: 

       

      1.   Go to the Gear icon at the top.
      2.   Select Feedback.
      3.   Enter your comments or product suggestions.
      4.   Click Next.

       

      I'd also added these articles that might help you in handling your customer transactions, information, reports, and other related topics: 

       

       

      I'm willing to listen if you have other concerns about the features in QuickBooks Online. You can click the Reply button and I'll be there to help you out. Keep safe. 

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