For the 2010 version (QuickBooks 2010 and Enterprise Solutions 10.0), Intuit has increased the number of custom fields and provided for data validation in Enterprise Solutions. Compared to 2009, the number of custom fields for Names increased from 7 (out of 15) to 12 (out of 30), and for Items it increased from 5 to 15.
QuickBooks 2010 and Enterprise Solutions 10.0 support up to 30 total custom fields for Names which can be applied to a combination of Customers:Jobs, Vendors, or Employees, provided that no more than 12 custom fields apply to any 1 type of list.
In addition, QuickBooks 2010 and Enterprise Solutions 10.0 support up to 15 custom fields for Items.
Enterprise Solutions 10.0 extends data validation to custom fields by allowing you to specify the type of data a custom field should contain and whether the fields are required on Transactions and Lists. Data types include 1 generic text format, 3 number formats, 5 date formats, 2 phone number formats, and a multi-choice list, which allows you to create a pull-down list of entries.
In Enterprise Solutions 10.0, the Multi-choice List contains list elements you specify, and you can select whether the list can only contain these elements or user-entered text. In all cases, custom fields are subject to a 30 character limit.
QuickBooks 2009 and Enterprise Solutions 9.0 support up to 15 total custom fields for Names, which can be applied to a combination of Customers:Jobs, Vendors, or Employees, provided that no more than 7 custom fields apply to any 1 type of list (i. e., Customers:Jobs, Vendors, and Employees). For example, you could create 7 custom fields unique to Customers:Jobs and a different set of 7 unique custom fields for Vendors. Then, you’d have the ability to create 1 additional custom field which could be used only for Employees.
Custom fields are limited to 30 characters. You can’t control the amount of text entered in a screen form, but you can limit the amount that is printed on a printed form. Except in Enterprise Solutions 10.0, custom fields are text entry boxes that accept any character. You can’t control the data entered with pull-down lists or other data type restrictions. Because data entered into custom fields is essentially unrestricted, care must be taken during data entry if these fields are to be used for filtering data; an apparently small change in data recorded for a custom field could result in many records not being found when applying a filter.
Custom fields for Customers:Jobs can be used for data in the header or footer of forms such as invoices and receipts.
In addition, in the 2009 version, QuickBooks supports up to 5 custom fields for Items.
Custom fields for Items can be used for data in the section for line items (i. e., the columnar section below the header) on forms such as invoices and receipts.