1. Template.
First, take a look at Template field right above Date field.
Several templates are built into the system by default, and you can see it from the drop down menu:
Intuit Product Invoice,
Intuit Packing Slip,
Intuit Professional Invoice,
Intuit Service Invoice,
Intuit Progress Invoice template, and a few more depending on your preferences and QuickBooks.
The difference are in the number of information fields available, for example, the Product Invoice which caters for business that sells products, has more columns than Service Invoice, which caters for business that only perform services.
Select your desired template according to your business. Note that the above screen shot is using Intuit product Invoice.
2. Customer:Job.
Enter your customer or job by clicking its drop down arrow. If you need to add a new customer or job, then select <Add New>.
Once it’s selected, notice that the right pane will be populated with the selected customer Summary, Recent Transactions, and Notes if any. For example, after Cioran,Jason is selected in the Customer:Job field, the right pane will show like below:
3. Class. Fill in the appropriate class in the Class field if you have one.
4. Date. Fill in the appropriate date of the invoice.
5. Invoice #.
You only need to fill in once i.e. the first time you create an invoice. You can use any number as a starting point and QuickBooks will automatically increment the invoice number the next time you use it.
6. Invoice To (or Bill To).
QuickBooks will populate information from your customer record.
7. Ship To.
QuickBooks will also populate information from your customer record. If you only sell services, you obviously don’t need this field.
8. P.O. Number.
If you have a purchase order from your customer, then enter it here.
9. Terms.
This field will be populated automatically with the term you defined in the customer record. You can change the term or you can leave it blank if you want to.
10. Ship. Enter the appropriate shipping date if you make any shipment.
11. Via. Enter shipping method from drop down list.
12. FOB (Free On Board) is used to indicate location at which the purchaser is responsible for the shipping cost beyond this point. Enter the location if you have not define it in the customer record, otherwise it will automatically filled in.
13. Quantity.
Enter the quantity of the products you sell in the Quantity field. You can leave it blank if you sell services only. Note that you cannot fill in quantity when you use a discount, subtotal, or sales tax item.
14. Item.
Enter your item in the Item field from its drop down menu. Depending on the information you entered when you created your item, QuickBooks will populate the Description field and Price Each field accordingly.
15. Description field will be populated automatically when you enter your Item field. You can change/add any detail if you want to.
16. Price Each (Rate) field will also automatically filled in, depending on the type of item you select.
17. Amount.
QuickBooks automatically multiply the value you enter in the Quantity field with the value in the Price Each (Rate) field to yield the value here. But you can also change the value in this Amount field.
18. Tax.
QuickBooks fills in Tax field with item’s taxable status you defined, and fills in the Tax box below the Amount column with the sales tax you defined in your customer record. It will automatically calculate the set tax amount.
19. Customer Message. Enter your defined customer message or select <Add New> to add a new message.
20. To be Printed & To be e-mailed check boxes. Select one or both according to your need.
21. Memo. Enter any text you which and remember that this text will not appear on the printed invoice, but does appear on statement.
22. Save & Close to save.