Managing Invoice Numbers between QB and HWIT

Gary Hawton

Last Update 6 bulan yang lalu

QuickBooks Online released their "new" invoice experience screen. One of the issues with this screen is that it defaults a setting to On now that can cause issues when assigning invoice numbers.


There is a setting in QuickBooks called Custom Transaction Numbers, and this setting needs to be OFF for HWIT/Method to automatically assign invoice numbers. Below are instructions to make sure that this setting is OFF.


Home Watch IT provides a secondary way of numbering your invoices so that you have a choice. Essentially there are two options:


  1. Use sequential invoice numbers that remain in sequence between QB and HWIT no matter where you create your invoice (e.g. 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005…), or,
  2. A specially formatted invoice number for invoices generated in HWIT. This will be a different sequence and format from invoices created in QB (e.g. 1335, Smith:Aug, Smith-Aug-1335, 23-08-1335, 23-Aug-Smit). HWIT generated numbers will sync to QB and be visible there.

Option 1 - continuous sequential numbers between QB and HWIT

If you want Option #1, before generating any invoices in HWIT, you should make sure that the setting is OFF so that invoice numbers are assigned properly. If you generate invoices without checking this setting, you can assign invoice numbers in QuickBooks by going into each invoice and keying in a number.


First, make sure that you turn Custom Transaction Numbers OFF on your Sales settings. To do this, click the gear in the upper right corner of your QB screen, then go to Account/Settings, then click on Sales. You'll see Customer Transaction Numbers in the top third of the screen. Make sure that it is OFF.


Next, go into the Invoice Form and turn OFF the Custom Transaction Numbers. To do this, click the gear in the upper right corner of your QB screen, then go to Custom Form Styles. Then click Edit next to the form used for your Invoices (you may only have one called "Standard"). On the screen that appears, click Content at the top, then on the mocked-up invoice shown click on the top (header) section of the invoice. You'll then see the setting for Custom Transaction Numbers and can turn that off as in this screenshot.


Option #2 - custom formatted numbers from HWIT

If you want Option #2, you can use the enhanced invoice numbering in HWIT. When creating this enhancement, we also set it up to allow for formatted invoice numbers. You can generate invoice numbers that are just numeric, have the month (number and abbreviation) in them, the year in them, even the client's surname in them. You can also set the starting invoice number manually. Your invoice numbers can look like any of these: 1335, Smith:Aug, Smith-Aug-1335, 23-08-1335, 23-Aug-Smith, etc.   

To set up and use this feature, go to the Preferences screen (click the 3 dots on the Home Watch Admin tile on your dashboard. Open up the Accounting Section as shown in the screenshot above, and carefully fill out the following three fields:


Custom Invoice Numbers: by default the system will allow QuickBooks to assign sequential invoice numbers automatically, provided that you have the setting for “Custom Transaction Numbers” in QuickBooks turned OFF. However, if you wish for the HWIT system to assign invoice numbers, using a configuration much more flexible than QuickBook’s, you can use these settings. Turn On the setting here and set up your Invoice Number format using the following field.


Invoice # Format: defines how the Invoice Number will be configured. You can use the following “variables” to define the setup:

  • YY - insert the two-digit year
  • MM - insert the two-digit month number
  • MMM - insert the three-character month abbreviation
  • LASTNAME - insert the client’s last name
  • ### - (exactly 3 # characters) insert the next sequential invoice number (as defined in the following field)
  • ADDR - Inserts the street number from the property address (provided the number is the first few characters of the address line)

There are some detailed examples below.

Next Invoice #: allows you to assign the next sequential invoice number to be used in any of the above formats you create.


What will your invoice numbers look like? 

The below table will give you an idea of a format and what the resulting invoice number will look like.

Format Code is....Invoice Number will be...
YY-MM-###
23-08-1051
YY-MMM-LASTNAME23-Aug-Smith
###1051 (just a standard invoice number based on the number you assign on this screen)
HWIT-LASTNAME-MMM-YYHWIT-Smith-Aug-23 (Note that any text you enter that is not one of the 5 variables will just stay the same, such as the dashes or HWIT will create an invoice above) *Note* If the invoice number ends up greater than 21 characters, which is the QuickBooks maximum, the name will be truncated so that the total number of characters is 21.
HW-YY-MMMHW-23-Aug
HW-YY.MMM.###HW-23.Aug.1051
# #### 1051

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