For accounting professionals who rely on QuickBooks, the invoice is arguably your most essential tool. QuickBooks’ modern invoice redesign represents one of the most significant overhauls in years, changing how you’ll create, send, and manage client billing.
In a recent episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, hosts Alicia Katz Pollock and Dan DeLong explore these new modern invoices, which have been in development for about a year. Alicia says, “They originally drove us crazy, and now I’ve actually become quite fond of them”—a journey many accountants can relate to when facing significant software changes.
Getting Started with Modern Invoices
If you haven’t switched to modern invoices yet, you’ll need to take that first step manually. When viewing a standard invoice, look for the “Update Layout” button in the upper right corner. Clicking this will convert the invoice to the modern experience.
The new interface might initially seem to take up more screen space (Alicia notes her screenshot size has doubled), but the extra real estate serves a purpose. Let’s explore what’s changed and why it matters to your practice.
Smarter Customer Insights Without Switching Screens
One of the biggest improvements is accessing client information without leaving your invoice. Next to the customer’s name, you’ll find a small Intuit Assist icon that provides valuable context with one click.
“It actually does have contextual information about the customer that’s there,” explains Dan. “So it’s nice to have it all in one place. And you don’t have to navigate and look in the customer section to see those types of insights.”
This panel shows:
- Payment history by method (credit card, bank transfer, PayPal)
- Number of open invoices
- Number of overdue invoices
- Customer relationship length
Alicia appreciates this feature: “I’m kind of used to having to have multiple tabs open where one I’m doing my invoicing and in one I’ve got the customers open… now I can see my customer information without having to navigate away.”
You can also edit customer information directly from the invoice screen by clicking the “edit customer” link. This allows you to update addresses and contact details without interrupting your workflow, a significant time saver.
Better Communication Tools for You and Your Clients
The modern invoice includes four different communication fields, each serving a specific purpose:
- Customer payment options: Instructions about how to pay that appear on the invoice
- Note to customer: General communication that appears on the invoice
- Internal customer notes (hidden): Team communications that clients can’t see
- Memo on statement: Text that appears only on customer statements
The internal notes feature is especially valuable for team collaboration. As Alicia explains, you can use it to record important details like “Customer got a PITA discount”—information your team needs but clients shouldn’t see.
Sales Tax Management Made Easier
According to Alicia, address management in the modern invoice is “mission critical” for those working in states with complex sales tax rules.
The system now clearly shows whether sales tax is calculated based on your business location or the customer’s location. By toggling the “add shipping info” link, you control which address determines the tax calculation:
- When shipping information is collapsed, tax is calculated based on your business location
- When shipping information is shown, tax is calculated based on the ship-to-address
“For those of you who are having trouble with sales tax calculating incorrectly, this is your game changer,” emphasizes Alicia. “Pay attention to the bill to, the ship to, and the ship from boxes and make sure that you have the right addresses in the right places.”
Expanded Payment Options and Strategic Fee Management
The modern invoice significantly expands payment options through QuickBooks Payments. Beyond standard credit cards, your clients can now use:
- Apple Pay
- Bank transfers (ACH/EFT)
- PayPal
- Venmo
What makes this integration powerful is that all these payment methods work through QuickBooks Payments—no separate PayPal or Venmo business accounts are required. This means all payments are processed with the same automatic recording, fee allocation, and deposit reconciliation that QuickBooks Payments provides.
“All of the automagic things that QuickBooks payments does—like recording the payments, recording the deposits, allocating the fees, making the deposit reconciled in the bank feed—all of those things are done for you,” explains Dan.
Perhaps most interesting is the new option to have customers pay the processing fees. By turning off all standard payment methods, you’ll see a new option labeled “your customer pays the fees.” When selected, this gives clients the option to pay via ACH while covering the associated costs.
Alicia shared a practical application: When clients’ credit cards expired, she sent invoices with the “customer pays fees” option enabled. In her email, she wrote: “You’re welcome to pay this yourself. If you want to save on the fees, give us a call with your new payment information so that we can update our systems. And then you won’t have to pay the fees; we’ll pay the fees.”
The result? Three phone calls with updated card information—problem solved.
Recurring Payments Without PCI Compliance Concerns
The modern invoice also introduces an improved approach to recurring payments that addresses security concerns. Instead of storing client credit card information (which creates potential PCI compliance issues), the system now allows clients to approve automatic future payments while maintaining control of their payment details.
“This is really replacing scheduled sales receipts,” explains Alicia. “Now you can make a recurring invoice, and the customer approves it to auto pay it in the future. So it’s kind of the best of both worlds.”
Dan adds that the system “automatically checks the auto-pay functionality so that they don’t have to find it. You don’t have to tell them where it is. It’s just preselecting that option.”
Customizing Your Invoice Experience
Nearly all customization options for the modern invoice are found in the Manage panel and can be accessed via the gear icon at the top right. These settings allow you to control what appears on your invoice without changing default settings for all clients.
Through this panel, you can:
- Turn specific fields on or off (shipping information, service date, SKU column)
- Manage custom fields
- Configure payment options and tips functionality
- Add discounts (percentage or dollar amount)
- Control whether discounts apply before or after sales tax
- Set up recurring invoices or payments
- Access client reports directly from the invoice
For those who want to see exactly what clients experience, three view options are available after selecting the “modern” template:
- Email View: How the email appears in a client’s inbox
- Payer View: What clients see in the payment portal
- PDF View: How the invoice looks when printed
“Rather than sending a CC or BCC to yourself to see what the customer sees, it’s nice to see it all in one place,” notes Dan.
Current Limitations and Future Development
While the modern invoice offers many improvements, some limitations exist in the current version:
- Design customization is limited to colors and fonts when using the modern template. To access all the modern features, you must use the standard modern layout rather than your custom templates. Intuit has indicated enhanced customization is on their roadmap.
- Reminders cannot be set on an invoice-by-invoice basis yet. Both hosts expressed a strong desire for this feature: “Intuit, if you’re listening, we desperately want reminders to be set up on an invoice by invoice basis. Desperately.”
- The Intuit Assist autofill feature is still in beta. This feature aims to create invoices automatically from files, images, or text, but accuracy varies, especially with line items. The hosts encourage users to try it despite limitations, as user feedback will help improve it.
Why These Changes Matter for Your Practice
These invoice improvements represent more than just interface changes—they’re part of a complete rewrite of QuickBooks Online’s underlying code.
“One of the things that’s really happening is they’re actually rewriting the entire code base underpinning all of QuickBooks Online because it originally started back almost 20 years ago,” explains Alicia. “The code that it was written on 20 years ago was modern back then. But things have changed on the programming side.”
This approach sometimes requires what Dan calls a “take a step back to move forward type of thing,” where short-term limitations enable long-term improvements. “They’re basically recreating the foundation so that new and cool features can actually take place,” he notes.
For accounting professionals, these changes deliver practical benefits:
- Time savings from not switching between screens
- Improved client experience with flexible payment options
- Better security compliance through modern payment handling
- Real-time visibility into invoice status, from creation through payment
- Strategic tools for managing fees and client relationships
Most importantly, Intuit is actively seeking feedback. A prominent feedback link appears on each invoice, providing a direct channel to the development team.
“If you have a good idea, please go up to feedback and flood that feedback and let them know what you want to change,” encourages Alicia. “They are actively listening.”
Dan confirms: “Now they can act on the flood of feedback that has been coming in. They’ve been taking care of some of the more mission-critical issues. Now they’ll be able to further enhance this experience.”
Next Steps: Making the Most of Modern Invoices
To maximize the benefits of these changes, consider these practical steps:
- Explore the Manage panel thoroughly to understand all available customization options
- Try the Intuit Assist features even while in beta
- Review your sales tax settings in light of the new address field controls
- Use the view options to understand your clients’ experience
- Provide feedback to help shape future development
By mastering these new capabilities, you can transform what might initially seem like disruptive changes into meaningful practice advantages—delivering better client experiences while saving valuable time.
For a comprehensive demonstration of all these features, listen to Episode 80 of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, “Everything You Need to Know About Modern Invoices.”
Alicia Katz Pollock’s Royalwise OWLS (On-Demand Web-based Learning Solutions) is the industry’s premier portal for top-notch QuickBooks Online training with CPE for accounting firms, bookkeepers, and small business owners. Visit Royalwise OWLS, where learning QBO is a HOOT!