How to Email Invoices and Sales Orders From QuickBooks Desktop

Before you start

• Choose how QuickBooks sends email: Outlook, Web Mail or QuickBooks email. Intuit describes QuickBooks email as a subscription-based service.
• For Outlook, Intuit asks for Outlook 2010 or newer with an Outlook email profile.
• For webmail, turn on two-step verification in your email account. Check the server and port settings with your provider.
• Check each customer's email address: open the customer from the Customer Center and look on the Address Info tab.
• These steps are for QuickBooks Desktop for Windows. Sales orders are only in Premier and Enterprise.
• QuickBooks Desktop 2023 can no longer email forms or reports. Intuit discontinued that version after May 31, 2026.

Step 1: Set up email in Send Forms

Outlook

1. 1In QuickBooks, go to Edit > Preferences.
2. 2Select Send Forms, then the My Preferences tab.
3. 3Select Outlook, then OK.

Web Mail

1. 1Go to Edit > Preferences and select Send Forms.
2. 2On the My Preferences tab, select Web Mail, then Add.
3. 3Fill in the Add Email Info window and select OK. QuickBooks fills in server details for some common providers.
4. 4Select OK to save your preferences.
5. 5When your provider's sign-in page opens, sign in and grant Intuit access.

Intuit doesn't support providers that use STARTTLS encryption. If port 465 doesn't work, try 587, with SSL turned on for both. If your QuickBooks is hosted, you may still have to sign in to webmail when you send.

QuickBooks email is the third option in Send Forms. Intuit's setup article covers only Outlook and Web Mail.

Step 2: Email one invoice

1. 1Go to Customers > Customer Center and double-click the invoice to open it. To start a new one, use the New Transaction dropdown.
2. 2Select Email. QuickBooks picks the email template for that form, and you can edit it.
3. 3In the To dropdown, choose the contacts to send to. Select Add New for someone who isn't listed.
4. 4Edit the Subject and the message as needed.
5. 5Select Send.

QuickBooks remembers the address you last used for each transaction type. To set a default recipient, open the customer in the Customer Center and go to the Contacts tab. Select the contact, check the transaction type, then select Save and Close.

Step 3: Send a batch of invoices

1. 1On each invoice, select Email Later before you save it.
2. 2When you're ready, go to File > Send Forms.
3. 3Review the list and clear the forms you don't want to send yet.
4. 4In the preview, choose a different template or edit the email text if needed.
5. 5To send several forms to one customer in one email, select them and check Combine forms to a recipient in one email.
6. 6Select Send Now.

In QuickBooks Desktop Plus and Enterprise, you can add or clear contacts on a batch email with the To dropdown, or type a new address in the Add field. Removing an address from the batch only removes the email. The invoice stays in QuickBooks.

Step 4: Set up email templates

1. 1Sign in as the admin, or as a user allowed to edit company preferences. Switch to single-user mode from the File menu.
2. 2Go to Edit > Preferences > Send Forms, then the Company Preferences tab.
3. 3Set Delivery Method Default to Email.
4. 4In Email Templates, choose the transaction type, then select Add Template.
5. 5Name the template and write the subject and body. Use Insert Field to add live data, such as the customer name or due date.
6. 6Select Save, then OK on the Company Preferences tab.

To make a template the default, choose the transaction type and select Set Default next to the template. In a batch, pick a template from the Template dropdown in File > Send Forms. The look of the invoice itself is set separately; see how to customize an invoice or sales order template.

Step 5: Check what was sent

• On an invoice, select See History. Intuit describes this for QuickBooks 2019, with the statuses Sent, Viewed, Paid and Deposited. Viewed needs an internet connection and may not appear if the customer's email blocks images.
• From the invoice, open the Reports tab and select Transaction History. Check Sent Date and Send Method.
• If there's no status, the invoice may still be waiting under Email Later. Check File > Send Forms.
• The Sent Email tab on the customer in the Customer Center lists forms sent through QuickBooks email or Web Mail. With Outlook or webmail, your Sent folder keeps a copy.
• With QuickBooks email, add your own address in the BCC field on the Company Preferences tab of Send Forms to get a copy of each form.

What about sales orders?

Intuit's emailing article covers sales forms in general, opened from the Customer Center. It doesn't list each form type or give separate steps for sales orders, so this guide follows the invoice steps Intuit documents. Sales orders need Premier or Enterprise. Billing an order is covered in how to turn a sales order into an invoice.

Common email errors and what Intuit suggests

Where QuickBooks Desktop leaves the work to you

• Someone has to queue each invoice, run Send Forms and confirm the batch went out.
• Someone has to check that each customer's email address is right.
• When email stops working, someone has to work through Intuit's troubleshooting steps.
• Payment reminders, if you use them, still wait for someone to review and send them.

To send customers a summary of what they owe, see how to create and send customer statements.