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Show Bundles on Invoices and Estimates

I use bundles in QuickBooks. How do I get my invoices and estimates to show them the way I want?

Every bundle prints as its own line, followed by a line for each item in it. A few filters on your line item placeholders decide how those lines look: indent the items, hide the bundle's total, hide the items' prices, or leave the items off altogether. Each one is shown below with an example.

What you need

  • Microsoft Word, to edit your template.
  • A template with a line item table, like the one in Templates.

The estimate in these examples

Every example on this page uses the same estimate. In QuickBooks it has one bundle, Spring Cleanup, made up of two items, and one regular item:

Line What it is Quantity Rate Amount
Spring Cleanup Bundle 1 375.00
Mulch Item in the Spring Cleanup 3 45.00 135.00
Labor Item in the Spring Cleanup 4 60.00 240.00
Haul-Away Fee Regular item 1 50.00 50.00

The estimate's subtotal is 425.00: the bundle's 375.00 plus the haul-away fee. The bundle's 375.00 is the total of its two items, so QuickBooks doesn't count it twice. A bundle has no rate in QuickBooks, so its rate is always blank.

With no filters

A line item row with no filters:

Item Quantity Rate Amount
${LINE_NAME} ${LINE_QUANTITY} ${LINE_RATE} ${LINE_AMOUNT}

Prints every line as it comes from QuickBooks:

Item Quantity Rate Amount
Spring Cleanup 1 375.00
Mulch 3 45.00 135.00
Labor 4 60.00 240.00
Haul-Away Fee 1 50.00 50.00

The bundle's total and its items' amounts both appear, so the amount column adds up to more than the subtotal. The filters below change that.

Each filter

Indent the items

Add |indent_bundle_items to the item name, with the number of spaces to indent:

Item Quantity Rate Amount
${LINE_NAME|indent_bundle_items:4} ${LINE_QUANTITY} ${LINE_RATE} ${LINE_AMOUNT}

The items in the bundle move in, so it's clear which lines belong to it:

Item Quantity Rate Amount
Spring Cleanup 1 375.00
    Mulch 3 45.00 135.00
    Labor 4 60.00 240.00
Haul-Away Fee 1 50.00 50.00

Hide a value on the bundle line

Add |hide_bundle_line to any placeholder you want left blank on the bundle line. Here it's on the amount:

Item Quantity Rate Amount
${LINE_NAME} ${LINE_QUANTITY} ${LINE_RATE} ${LINE_AMOUNT|hide_bundle_line}

The bundle line keeps its name and quantity but drops its total, so the amount column adds up to the subtotal:

Item Quantity Rate Amount
Spring Cleanup 1
Mulch 3 45.00 135.00
Labor 4 60.00 240.00
Haul-Away Fee 1 50.00 50.00

Hide a value on the items

Add |hide_bundle_items to any placeholder you want left blank on the items in a bundle. Here it's on the rate and the amount:

Item Quantity Rate Amount
${LINE_NAME} ${LINE_QUANTITY} ${LINE_RATE|hide_bundle_items} ${LINE_AMOUNT|hide_bundle_items}

The items are still listed, but only the bundle shows a price:

Item Quantity Rate Amount
Spring Cleanup 1 375.00
Mulch 3
Labor 4
Haul-Away Fee 1 50.00 50.00

Leave the items out

Add |skip_bundle_items to one placeholder in the row. It doesn't matter which one, because it removes whole lines:

Item Quantity Rate Amount
${LINE_NAME|skip_bundle_items} ${LINE_QUANTITY} ${LINE_RATE} ${LINE_AMOUNT}

Each bundle prints as one line with its total, and its items don't print at all:

Item Quantity Rate Amount
Spring Cleanup 1 375.00
Haul-Away Fee 1 50.00 50.00

This suits a customer copy of an estimate you built in detail for your own costing.

Putting filters together

Filters work best combined. These are the two most common layouts.

Prices on the items

Indent the items and hide the bundle's total:

Item Quantity Rate Amount
${LINE_NAME|indent_bundle_items:4} ${LINE_QUANTITY} ${LINE_RATE} ${LINE_AMOUNT|hide_bundle_line}
Item Quantity Rate Amount
Spring Cleanup 1
    Mulch 3 45.00 135.00
    Labor 4 60.00 240.00
Haul-Away Fee 1 50.00 50.00

One price per bundle

Indent the items and hide their prices:

Item Quantity Rate Amount
${LINE_NAME|indent_bundle_items:4} ${LINE_QUANTITY} ${LINE_RATE|hide_bundle_items} ${LINE_AMOUNT|hide_bundle_items}
Item Quantity Rate Amount
Spring Cleanup 1 375.00
    Mulch 3
    Labor 4
Haul-Away Fee 1 50.00 50.00

Adding filters to your template

  1. Open your template in Word.
  2. In your line item row, type the filter after the placeholder name, inside the braces, like ${LINE_AMOUNT|hide_bundle_line}.
  3. Save the file. In Templates, open the template, click Edit, then Replace document.

The bundle filters

Filter What it does
|indent_bundle_items:4 Adds 4 spaces in front of each item in a bundle. Use any number up to 20.
|hide_bundle_line Leaves this placeholder blank on the bundle line.
|hide_bundle_items Leaves this placeholder blank on each item in a bundle.
|skip_bundle_items Leaves out each item in a bundle, so its line doesn't print at all.

Regular items, the ones not in a bundle, are never changed by these filters.

Good to know

  • These filters only work on line item placeholders, the ones that start with LINE_.
  • You can use them on any line item placeholder. For example, ${LINE_DESCRIPTION|hide_bundle_items} leaves out the items' descriptions.
  • An indented name that is too long for its cell wraps back to the left edge on its second line.
  • ${LINE_ITEMS} builds a whole table for you and can't use filters, so it always prints every bundle line and item as they come from QuickBooks.
  • A template that prints one page or one label per line skips the bundle line and prints its items.
  • This works the same on invoices, estimates and credit memos.
  • If your company already had bundles when you connected QuickBooks, your starter invoice and estimate use the "Prices on the items" layout already. Without bundles on a document, they print just like any other.