Overview of importing custom fields into QuickBooks desktop

In QuickBooks desktop custom fields are user specified data fields (data extensions) that can be attached to lists (ie Customer, Items, Accounts or Employees or to transactions. You can import custom fields on lists into QuickBooks from Text files or Excel spreadsheets directly using the Zed Axis software.

Steps to import Custom Fields

Follow these steps:

Open your QuickBooks company file as Administrator and open Zed Axis
Select your text file or spreadsheet which contains the custom fields that you want to import.
Set up the a Mapping of the columns in your custom fields import file to the corresponding fields in QuickBooks
Click Import and your custom fields will be directly added to your QuickBooks company file:

More help?

For more information about importing custom fields into QuickBooks, search the Knowledge Base, watch the movies in the Learning Centre, or raise a ticket with Zed Support.
Sample Custom Field Import File

Watch a demonstration on how to import custom fields into lists

Where the fields appear

Import custom fields into QuickBooks

Detailed description of the fields

QuickBooks field	Format	Description
Data Ext Name	Str 31	Name or label for the custom field (please note: must match case used in QuickBooks ie Capital and lowercase characters)
List Data Ext Type	Enum	The type of list must be either (Account, Customer, Employee, Item, OtherName, Vendor)
Full Name	Str 159	The list full name or item ie account name, customer name, employee name etc..
Data Ext Value	Str 255	The custom field value (max 255)

Troubleshooting common errors:

Error: DataExtName... already exists - Please check to make sure that the name of the custom field matches the case-sensitive spelling in QuickBooks ie letters are upper case or lower case respectively

Error Custom Field Values data format errors - Custom field data can be set to a specific format like Text, Numbers only, Dates, Multiple-choice list, Telephone formats. If you import data to the custom field that is not in the correct data format then you will get an error. You can check the required format for the custom data field by editing the field definitions in QuickBooks

Error (no detail description provided) - When setting the DataExtName or the label for the custom field please make sure the name uses the same capitalization (ie case sensitive) that you see on Define Fields area in QuickBooks.

Article ID: 156, Created: 10/21/2011 at 6:37 AM, Modified: 11/1/2021 at 10:39 PM

Feedback

Can you clarify the ListDataExtType? You say examples like Item, Customer etc.. but on the screen shot it's Inventory Part. Does it want Inventory, Non-Inventory, or just Item?
Chris Kennedy (6/18/2016 at 4:01 PM)

Just Item
Steve (8/4/2016 at 11:48 PM)