Hi
I often have trouble finding the estimates and invoices that I know are in the system somewhere. Quite often I will want to find an estimate that contains a particular line item and so I will enter the customer name in the ‘Client Name’ field and then an item that I know is in the estimate in the ‘Description’ field.
Taking a current one an example:
I enter Johnson in the client name
I enter Apple in the description
I hit search and it returns records from September but not from October that I know are there and that I can find if I scroll through all of them manually.
If I enter Apple in the item name search field box, the estimate I am looking for from October is returned, but a lot of older ones are not.
I guess it would be helpful to know exactly what ‘Item Name’ and ‘Description’ fields are searching for. I thought it was obvious and it sounds like a silly question, but 99% of my estimates and invoices do not contain anything in the ‘Item’ (the first line item field on an invoice or estimate) field, yet searching on this field returns lots of results. Equally, I’m not sure what the ‘Estimate Name’ heading actually is, what purpose it really serves and if it’s useful to be able to search by this identifier?
Additionally, and on the subject of search, I sometimes find it difficult to search for estimates and invoices from some of our customers who have one invoice address but multiple satellite offices. For example, a customer of ours has one main address where their finance department is based and where all invoices must be sent to. But they have seven satellite offices and we are sometimes issuing a dozen invoices a month to different offices in the group. When trying to search for a quote or invoice that relates to one particular branch office, it can be a nightmare as there is no way to search by ‘Recipient Name’, which is where in an estimate or invoice we enter the branch office contact name and even the name of the branch itself, e.g ‘John Smith / Enfield Office’.
If we were able to search by recipient name that would be fantastic. If there’s a better way to do this, I am all ears and willing to change!
Finally (I promise), I might sometimes try to search for a term by entering only something in the ‘Item Name’ field and hitting submit search. The results that are returned seem random and most of the results that are displayed don’t actually contain the term I have entered, not even a partial match. What and how is this searching and why is it seemingly returning incorrect results?
Many thanks!