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Use this page when a client keeps information QuickBooks Online has no standard field for: a job site on every invoice, a PO number from the customer, a region on each customer. Your assistant reads the client’s custom fields, fills them in as part of the work it prepares, and can add or change the fields themselves. As with everything else, nothing changes in QuickBooks Online until someone at the firm approves the plan.

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Two kinds of custom field

QuickBooks Online keeps two kinds, and Zeno works with both.
  • Sales form fields. Up to three text fields on invoices, estimates, sales receipts, credit memos and refund receipts, set up in QuickBooks Online under Settings > Account and settings > Sales.
  • Custom fields. Fields made in QuickBooks Online’s custom fields settings. They can be text, a number, a date or a list of options. Where they can go depends on the client’s plan:
    • Essentials: 3 fields, on sales forms.
    • Plus: 4 fields, on sales forms and purchase orders.
    • Advanced: 12 fields, also on expense forms, customers and vendors.

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Before you start

  • The client company is connected (see Connect a client).
  • To read and add custom fields, Zeno needs QuickBooks Online’s permission for them. If a company was connected before Zeno asked for it, the Clients page shows Reconnect to read custom fields on its row. Pick the company on Intuit’s screen and its books stay as they are. Sales form fields work without it.

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See which fields a client has

Ask your assistant:
“Which custom fields does Ridgeline have, and where is each one?”
Your assistant lists each field with its type, its options if it is a list, and the forms, customers or vendors it is on. If it says it could read only the sales form fields, reconnect the company as described above.

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Fill in values as part of the work

Ask for the values with the rest of the job:
“Enter this week’s Ridgeline invoices from the inbox and put the job site from each PDF in the Job site field.”
“Set the Region field to North on every Ridgeline customer in the attached list.”
The plan shows each value beside its document or name. Zeno checks every value before you see it:
  • The field exists and is active.
  • It is on that kind of form or name.
  • A number field gets a number.
  • A date gets a date.
  • A list field gets one of its options.
  • A sales form field gets at most 31 characters.
Anything that fails is held with the reason.

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Change values on documents already posted

“On Ridgeline’s September invoices for Elm Street, change Job site to Willow Street.”
This is a bulk correction (see Bulk corrections). The table shows each document’s value before and after. The document’s other custom-field values stay as they are.

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Add, rename or retire a field

“Add a list field called Crew to Ridgeline’s invoices and estimates, with the options Day and Night.”
The plan shows the new field, its type and where it goes. Zeno can add a field to invoices, estimates, purchase orders, customers or vendors. Add one to any other form in QuickBooks Online, and Zeno reads it from then on. You can also:
  • Rename a field.
  • Change a list field’s options. An option you drop stops being offered, and documents that already carry it keep it.
  • Deactivate a field, which takes it off its forms.
  • Reactivate a field.
A sales form field is changed in QuickBooks Online’s Sales settings, not through a plan. Plan the field first. Once it is approved and applied, ask for the values: a plan cannot fill in a field it is creating.

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Check the result and undo

The run lists what changed. If a field was edited in QuickBooks Online after the plan was made, that line is skipped rather than overwriting the newer version; plan it again. To undo, reverse the run.
  • A field the run added is deactivated. QuickBooks Online cannot delete a field, and values already on documents stay.
  • A renamed field gets its old name back.
  • A list’s options go back to how they were.
  • A deactivated field is reactivated.
  • Values the run set on documents and names go back to what they were.