How to Create and Send Invoices in QuickBooks Desktop
Last reviewed 2026-07-17
Creating an invoice in QuickBooks Desktop is a fundamental task for recording customer sales and tracking payments. While the process is generally straightforward, file corruption can sometimes prevent you from saving, emailing, or printing completed invoices. Here is how to properly generate an invoice and what to do if your company file resists the process.
Creating a Standard Invoice
To generate a new invoice for a customer, open your QuickBooks company file and navigate to the main dashboard. From the Home screen, click the Customers menu at the top of the window and select Create Invoices.
In the invoice template window, select the appropriate Customer:Job from the drop-down list. QuickBooks will automatically populate the billing address and terms based on the customer's profile. Next, choose the correct date for the invoice and the due date. In the line-item grid below, select the appropriate Item code—such as services, labor, or inventory parts—and enter the quantity or hours billed. Verify the tax status, review the total, and click Save & Close or Save & New if you have multiple invoices to enter.
Emailing and Printing
Once the invoice is saved, you can deliver it to your customer directly from the invoice window. Click the Email dropdown to send the invoice as a PDF attachment through your connected email client, or click Print to generate a hard copy. If you frequently batch your billing, you can select File > Send Forms to email multiple unsent invoices at once.
When Invoices Fail to Save or Send
If QuickBooks freezes when you click "Save," or if the application crashes when you attempt to email an invoice, your company file may be suffering from list damage or structural corruption. Damaged templates are a frequent culprit. Test this by opening a new, blank invoice and switching the template at the top of the window to the standard "Intuit Service Invoice." If the standard template saves and sends perfectly, your custom invoice template is corrupted and needs to be rebuilt.
If the invoice fails to save regardless of the template used, the underlying transaction lists in your database are likely damaged. Running the built-in Verify and Rebuild Data utility from the File menu is the first line of defense. If the rebuild fails or you receive a specific error code (such as a C= series error or an unrecoverable error code), the file requires deeper structural repair before you can resume normal billing operations.