Drop down menu's for line Items and default headings

[Rugerjim]

Hi Team,
Q1: I need to have “date” as a drop down box for individual line items in the sales invoice. We created a line called “date” but we invoice weekly and MUST have each date work was done individually labelled. Annoying I know, but is there any functionality for this. At this point line items don’t seem able to do this, it would be a neat addition.

Q2: Also, I need to ask about the headings of the sales invoice. It says Qty but I need the default to say “hours” and still calculate the costs at the end. It’s a simple re-labelling of the default invoice line, Is this possible to edit the default sales invoice text?
Thanks.

[Tut]

We created a line called “date”

Created where? This statement is not clear.

we … MUST have each date work was done individually labelled.

It sounds like you are billing for time. If so, read these Guides:
https://www.manager.io/guides/6935
https://www.manager.io/guides/5502

I need the default to say “hours” and still calculate the costs at the end

If you use the Billable Time tab, the quantities will be labeled as hours.

[Rugerjim]

Hi Tut and thanks.
Problem with billable time is that I have to invoice for specific categories which billable time does not have the functionality for. For example, the invoice MUST contain the category to which I’m invoicing. For instance “General Assistance.” I notice that even if the custom field has “Show on printed documents” and “Show in column” is both selected in billable time, when I send it to an invoice none of this data is shown on the invoice.

It seems it would be a lot easier if I could simply change Qty to Hours.

The ultimate for me is if I could set the line items in the invoice to drop down menus so I could select the category I must invoice for easily, and simply change Qty to say Hours.

[Davide]

I think that he is talking about custom fields in line items. I support the requirement that they should have all the personalisations of the other custom fields.

[sharpdrivetek]

The ultimate for me is if I could set the line items in the invoice to drop down menus so I could select the category I must invoice for easily, and simply change Qty to say Hours.

if by selecting category you mean selecting something under the column Item, you may create these as non-inventory items under settings where you can set the Unit for the same (in your case, Hours). if all the line items have the same unit, Manager will automatically display the column heading as Hours instead of Qty.
read this guide https://www.manager.io/guides/7344

[Rugerjim]

Awesome! So using non-inventory items looks like its going to be the way here, this is getting me very, very close to what I need. Is there any way to disable “Description” and “Account” on the invoice lines by the way?

I do wonder also, I have several customers that have specific line items that they need invoiced. For example, Customer 1 needs to be invoiced at a rate X,Y,Z but customer 2 is invoiced at a rate of A,B,C. I’m wondering if its best to have multiple seperate “businesses” that I load for each customer. Because there is no function to set different rates or invoice lines based on customers is there? Just a question? Then consolidate them all at the end of the year?

[sharpdrivetek]

Because there is no function to set different rates or invoice lines based on customers is there?

create separate items for each customer and set their rate.
now when you select those items, the rate will automatically appear.

[Tut]

Is there any way to disable “Description” and “Account” on the invoice lines by the way?

You cannot disable the Description column. Why would any customer pay an invoice for something you have not described?

The Account field does not appear on the completed invoice. And you cannot disable it on the entry screen, because the transaction must be posted to some account. That is just fundamental accounting.

I notice that even if the custom field has “Show on printed documents” and “Show in column” is both selected in billable time, when I send it to an invoice none of this data is shown on the invoice.

You are correct that custom fields for billable time do not show on completed invoices. That is because they are defined for the billable time entry itself, not for sales invoices. Custom fields are unique to the transaction form for which they were defined. If you View a billable time transaction, you will see the custom fields at the bottom of that form.

However, you can define a line item custom field for sales invoices. When a sales invoice is generated from billable time in the Customers tab, you can then Edit that invoice. You will see there is a new column for the custom field. You can specify your category line by line. See https://www.manager.io/guides/10411.

[Rugerjim]

Thanks for the replies Tut.
Only reason I wanted to disable the description is its now in the “Item” I created for that value, and shows up as a desription, and hours are displayed, Perfect!

I think for now this will work for us.
Thank you everyone for your help!

[Tut]

Only reason I wanted to disable the description is its now in the “Item” I created for that value

I don’t understand what you mean by this. Which “descriptions” are you referring to? The summary-level Description for an entire transaction form? If so, just leave it blank and it will not appear. The Description column in the body of the form? This is identical to the description you enter when creating a non-inventory item, an inventory item, or invoicing billable time from the Customers tab. All those are sources for populating the same field on a transaction form, depending on the context.