Tyler Martin CPA | Displaying Balance Information on Invoices in QuickBooks

Have your customers ever asked you to show the total of what they owe on an individual invoice? That is, you send individual invoices throughout the month that show the amount due for a particular invoice, but your customers want to see not only the invoice total but the total for all outstanding invoices. If you are using QuickBooks Pro or QuickBooks Premier, you can display customer balance and job balance information on printed invoices.

To display balance information, you edit your invoice template, and, to edit an invoice template, you must work with a custom invoice rather than one of the predefined invoice templates provided by Intuit. If you are using one of the predefined invoice templates, you can easily duplicate it to create a copy that you can edit. In this article, weíll assume that you are working with a default invoice and start by showing you how to create a copy that you can edit.

If you try to edit one of the predefined templates, youíll find that you can change only the information that appears on the Company tab and on the Format tab of the Customize dialog box. If the predefined template is very close to the form you want, you can duplicate it; when QuickBooks duplicates a form, all tabs of the Customize dialog box are available, along with the Layout Designer, which you use to add balance information to the form.

When you duplicate a form, QuickBooks creates a second copy of the original, retaining the original name but placing the letters DUP at the beginning of the form name. Once you duplicate a form, you can edit it by, for example, adding or removing header and footer information, fields, and columns. You also can use the Layout Designer to move or resize elements or add text boxes, data fields, or images to the form. While editing the form, you can change its name to something more meaning and eliminate the DUP characters QuickBooks inserts in the form name.

1. Open the Lists menu and click Templates. The Templates window appears.

3. Click the Templates button and select Duplicate. QuickBooks displays the Select Template Type dialog box (see Figure 1).

5. Click OK. QuickBooks redisplays the Templates window, and the duplicated template appears with the characters DUP preceding its name (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. You can identify a copy of a template by the characters DUP at the beginning of its name.

Double-click the template to edit it. QuickBooks displays the Customize dialog box. First, change the name of the template by typing a new name in the Template Name box; you can eliminate the DUP characters.

To add balance information, you must work in the Layout Designer, so, click the Layout Designer button. QuickBooks opens the Layout Designer window. You might notice the original name of the duplicated template at the top of the window, because QuickBooks has not yet saved the new name you supplied.

To display balance information, you need to add a data field to the template. Click the Add button and then click Data Field form the menu that appears.

QuickBooks displays the Add Data Field dialog box (see Figure 3). Fields already on the form have check marks next to them. Scroll down in the list to find Customer Total Balance and click it. QuickBooks does not immediately place a check next to the field name; click OK to close the box.

QuickBooks displays the new field on the form; the hatch marks surrounding the field indicate that it is selected (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Hatch marks and handles identify the currently selected field. (click to enlarge)

While the field is selected, you can drag it to the location where you want it to appear when you print an invoice. Drag the hatch marks to move the field. Note also that QuickBooks actually added two fieldsóthe label for the Customer Total Balance field and the numeric field that displays the balance informationóand both fields are selected. When you drag, you will move both fields. Youíll see an outline of the field to indicate its current location, and the mouse pointer will appear to have a four-headed arrow attached to it (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. As you drag to move the field, you see an outline of the field that indicates its location. (click to enlarge)

Once you have the field where you want it to appear, you may want to change the font or style of the field. For example, in Figure 5, you can see that the font for the new field is much larger than the font of the fields above it. You may want the font to be larger or, you may want to make it smaller. To make the font smaller, click anywhere on the Layout Designer except the field to deselect both fields and then double-click the left fieldóthe one containing the field label. QuickBooks displays the Properties dialog box; on the Text tab, click Font to display the Example dialog box, where you can select a new font size (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. You can change the size of the font from the Example dialog box. (click to enlarge)

Tip: QuickBooks displays a border around the field by default; if you want to remove that border, click the Border tab of the Properties dialog box and remove the checks from the Top, Left, Right, and Bottom check boxes.

Click OK when you finish making changes to the fieldís properties. Click OK again to close the Layout Designer window. Click OK one more time to close the Customize dialog box.

Open the Create Invoices window by opening the Customers menu and clicking Create Invoices. From the Template list box, select your invoice (see Figure 7).

Fill out the invoice as you usually would; when you print the invoice, youíll see the customerís balance information on the form where you place it (see Figure 8).

Figure 8. The customer balance information appears when you print the invoice.

Using the techniques described in this article, you can customize invoices to make them work more effectively for your business. You may even want to add other fields to your invoices, if you choose, and modify their appearance.