Custom Fields

Modified on Sun, 26 Jul at 3:34 AM

Overview

QuickBooks supports custom fields for two broad record types:

Entities: Customers, vendors, and employees.
Items: Inventory, assembly, non-inventory, service, other charge, discount, and payment items.

QQube supports the custom-field limits available in each QuickBooks Desktop edition.

QuickBooks Edition	Entity Custom Fields	Item Custom Fields
Pro and Premier	15 total, with a maximum of 7 for each entity type.	5 total.
Enterprise	30 total, with a maximum of 12 for each entity type.	15 total.

How QuickBooks Stores and Extracts Custom Fields

Important Custom-Field Behavior

All custom-field values are stored as text strings. QuickBooks Enterprise can validate entry as a date, number, or text value, but the stored custom-field value remains a string.
The Intuit Software Development Kit extracts custom fields alphabetically by field name. Renaming a custom field can therefore change its extraction position.

Why QQube Uses Generic Field Names

QQube assigns generic names such as SalesTxn Entity Custom Field 01 and SalesTxn Line Item Custom Field 01.

This design:

Supports multiple QuickBooks company files whose custom-field names may differ.
Prevents reports from having to be rewritten whenever a custom field is renamed in QuickBooks.

In the example below, B-Day is Custom Field 01, Contract # is Custom Field 02, and Spouse's Name is Custom Field 03. Although Contract # appears first on the QuickBooks screen, B-Day is extracted first because the Intuit SDK orders the names alphabetically.

QuickBooks custom fields displayed in a different order from their alphabetical extraction order

How QQube Organizes Custom Fields

QQube organizes custom fields into seven categories.

Category	Source	Example QQube Field
Customer	QuickBooks customer list.	Customer Custom Field 01
Job	QuickBooks customer and job list.	Job Custom Field 01
Employee	QuickBooks employee list.	Employee Custom Field 01
Vendor	QuickBooks vendor list.	Vendor Custom Field 01
Item	QuickBooks item list.	Item Custom Field 01
Transaction Entity	Customer, job, employee, or vendor custom-field values recorded on a transaction.	SalesTxn Entity Custom Field 01
Transaction Item	Item custom-field values recorded on transaction lines.	SalesTxn Line Item Custom Field 01

Why Some Data Models Have 12 or 24 Transaction Entity Fields

A data model may contain either 12 or 24 transaction-based entity custom fields.

12 fields: The data model contains transactions from one side of the business. Sales uses customer and job custom fields. Purchases uses vendor custom fields. Payroll uses employee custom fields.
24 fields: The data model contains transactions from both the customer side and the vendor side. The first 12 fields represent possible customer or job custom fields. The second 12 represent possible vendor custom fields, such as those used on purchase orders.

Find the QuickBooks Name for a QQube Custom Field

The QQube Excel Add-In includes a Custom Fields Listing that maps each QuickBooks custom-field name to its generic QQube field name. The QuickBooks Company Setup subject is included in the manual refresh area by default and loads the required lists and custom-field definitions.

1. Open the Custom Fields Listing

Open Excel and invoke the Select Assistant from the QQube Excel Add-In. Locate and select Custom Fields Listing.

Custom Fields Listing in the QQube Excel Select Assistant

2. Review the Custom-Field Mapping

The resulting list shows the custom-field name used in QuickBooks and the corresponding QQube naming convention.

In the example below, the QuickBooks custom field Birthday is mapped to Customer Custom Field 02 in the QQube Customer folder. When used in Job Cost Details, the same field is represented as JobTxn Entity Custom Field 02.

QQube Custom Fields Listing mapping QuickBooks names to generic QQube field names

Best Practice: Prefix Custom-Field Names

Preserve the Extraction Order

Prefix each QuickBooks custom-field name with its intended QQube position:

01-Custom Field 01
02-Custom Field 02

Keep the numeric prefix whenever the descriptive name changes. This preserves the alphabetical extraction order, helps prevent a complete data reload, and avoids unnecessary report changes when custom fields are renamed or added later.