Community Discussion: Increase more lines for message to customers in invoice and have a special character in invoice num

Feb 07, 2021 Last reply: 5 years ago 2 Replies

Increase more lines for message to customers in invoice and have a special character in invoice num



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Quicken does not prevent the use of special characters, per se, in invoice numbers. But Quicken does reserve certain non-alphanumeric characters for specific purposes in a few Quicken fields.



In the invoice number field, a plus (+) sign is reserved to increment the invoice number and a minus (-) to decrement the invoice number.



The original poster wants to use an underscore (_) in the invoice number field, and for some unknown reason, Quicken wants to treat the underscore (_) as a minus (-) sign. So when the user tries to key D L 2 5 6 _ in the invoice number field, Quicken stops when it sees the underscore (_) and changes (decrements) the invoice number to the next lower numeric value available.



I find nothing in Quicken Help that mentions using the underscore as a keyboard shortcut. On these grounds, I believe the op would be better off creating an IDEA discussion requesting that Quicken free-up the underscore to be used as a valid invoice number character - I would characterize that as fixing a bug.



However, the restriction the op is experiencing only applies when entering individual characters in the invoice number field. If the op creates the complete invoice number desired in something like notepad, then uses copy/paste to put that invoice number in the Quicken invoice number field, Quicken will accept it. I tested using both a minus (-) and an underscore (_), and Quicken accepted either when pasted into the invoice field as part of a larger invoice number (such as DL256_1 or DL256-1).



As to using "special characters" (or punctuation) in invoice numbers; in general Quicken does not object. I tested with the pipe (|), a greater-than (>), and a colon (:) and Quicken allowed me to key them directly in the invoice number field along with other characters (such as DL256|1 or DL256:1).



Regarding adding more lines to the Quicken invoice "customer message"; I seriously doubt that will happen.



Intuit, and now Quicken, have shown little interest in "improving" the business features of Quicken; I suspect that is because there are too few Quicken business users to make most business "improvements" cost effective. If adding lines to the customer message turns out to be trivially easy, perhaps Quicken will do it.


What are the options for small businesses and very small businesses? Q is not all that impressive.

I'm not sure there is any useful answer to your question; or if there is, whether I have one.

I think the economics rule and there's really nothing Quicken or users can do about that. And I doubt there are many Quicken Business users who find the software "impressive" for their business needs; I suspect "adequate" would be one likely term for those who are not seriously frustrated. I assume there is software that is much more "business friendly" than Quicken, but also more expensive: Quickbooks comes to mind, and I have heard of (but never used) one called (I believe) Peachtree.

Also it's not necessarily just the size of the business that matters, though that likely plays a role.

I think perceived problems also have to do with the way individual users want to run their business. When a user - even a small business user - wants greater sophistication than Quicken, Inc. believes is cost effective, that user is going to be out of luck. But that is true for any software: some users will want more than the software company can afford to offer. Everyone would like to pay less and get more - but that is simply not a reliable strategy. Quicken "business" users should remember that Quicken, Inc. is also a business ... with cost constraints, just like every other business, big or small.

When it gets down to problem details: it doesn't usually pay to take a hard line about how to accomplish a particular goal. No product can completely satisfy all its existing, and potential, customers.

To get the most out of the software, it helps not to jump to conclusions, and to be ready to make some compromises. It seems to me the op in the linked Community discussion was too resistant to looking for alternatives when wanting to use an underscore, apparently being unwilling to look for a different character or a different approach.

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