Can we please have a “set default” option for the Invoice summary field of invoices, just as there is already a “Set Default” option for the Notes field?
While I use the Notes field for payment instructions and “Thank you for your custom” notes, etc., I use the Invoice summary field for a generic description of what I issue invoices for: “Professional consulting services.” It would be nice not to have to type this every time. (It would be really nice to be able to set a different default Invoice summary for each customer, but I’d be happy with even a business-wide default.)
@Jon, there are situations where Manager uses the summary description line to auto-populate other fields, register lists, etc. A very thorough review would have to be conducted to assess the application-wide impact of your suggestion. I’m not saying this would be the case, but there might be unintended consequences that would make this idea undesirable. Personally, I think more flexibility to design invoices and other documents without being a coder would be a better solution. A custom field that could be positioned above the line item list, for example, would solve your problem. That has, of course, been hinted at.
The trouble with @Brucanna’s suggestion is that sales invoice item names no longer appear on the invoice–only the description does. The item name has been relegated more to its originally intended purpose, which was as a rapid search aid. My assumption in saying this is that @Jon probably needs to describe the actual work performed in some detail in the Description field, so putting his desired default annotation into Description field wouldn’t be very workable. He could, however, begin the Description field with that and edit it with details, although that could produce some very long entries.
@Brucanna: That’s a good idea, but it wouldn’t help me. My invoices are itemized by chunks of time and described as to each specific task (e.g., “Teleconference with client, 0.75 hrs”). All of my line items get entered via the Billable time workflow.
@Tut: Actually, that’s exactly the point. When I type “Professional consulting services” into the Invoice summary field, that’s what I see in the Description column of the Sales Invoices register, in the Description column of Customer Statements, and in the Accounts Receivable account of the General Ledger Transactions report. It’s very helpful. I don’t think that particular field pops up anywhere else. The whole idea here is that the Invoice summary a/k/a Description is very useful when it appears, and it would be nice to have a default so it can be consistent and not have to be typed each time. (I’d greatly prefer to go beyond that and have an item-list or an MRU drop-down menu for Invoice Summaries, but I think that suggestion has been nixed in the past.)
(On the consistency point, if I have to type it manually each time, the customer might get a statement showing one line for “Professional Consulting Services,” the next line for “Professional consulting services,” the next line for “COnsulting services,” and another line for “Porfessional cnsulotuniing services.” Not very professional, that.)
I was not expressing any disapproval of your idea, @Jon. I only meant to say it would be necessary to confirm all impacts of implementing it. The summary description pops up in places some users might not expect, so depending on what they put there, they might experience surprising results.
I also see why my idea about simply modifying the invoice format wouldn’t address your problem: you are actually depending on the uses Manager makes of the summary field. A custom field would be ignored for the other beneficial purposes.
Indeed. Also, I don’t think custom fields can be positioned above the line-item list (not yet, anyway) without resorting to custom templates. Can they?
@Jon, somewhere back in the grey matter archives I have a candle flickering about HOTKEYS. This was where a string such as your “PCS” could be assigned to a Function Key, then by either “Ctrll +Fn” or “Alt + Fn” or “Ctrl + Alt + Fn” or ???the string could be reproduced endlessly without the need to re-type. Perhaps modernisation has made this redundant