Here is a question and answer to a frustrating problem that we are sure will help many of you.

Q: I am using QuickBooks Pro 2010—and trying to modify a “sales by customer” report. I put certain information into the memo line of each invoice. When I run a report of pending sales and select the memo line as part of QuickBooks sales reports, it shows up and contains the information we have entered, which is what I want. However, when I try to run an actual sales report and pull the same memo line in, it pulls the item description instead of the memo line. If I add the item description to the report, the line is blank.

Can you explain why it is doing this? As I say, on a pending QuickBooks sales reports it works, on an actual sales report it doesn’t.

A: The Item Description listed on the Actual Sales report populates from the Item List. Go to Lists >Item List to edit the item descriptions for sales transactions. The Memo listed on the report comes from the additions/changes to the item description on the transaction. There is no way to change how this report appears.

We do have a solution to your problem, though! Add a job under the customer. Open the Customer Center. Right-click on the Customer and click Add Job. When entering invoices, select Customer: Job. Your reports will be sorted by Job and will show the changes to the items. We hope this is helpful.