Yes... the current search function is a nightmare!

Its definitely a pain but a decent band aid to work around it is to have 2 open windows.....one with the invoice module open and the other with item module open so you can toggle back and forth. You can do a search from the items page that is comprehensive based on a word or partial word

Strongly agree with the comments on this item. This is by far my biggest issue with Zoho invoicing and it seems so simple to fix, just search the whole name against all parts of the string the user types in.

We have about 7K different ITEMS. When trying to get to the item you want to quote it is very, very tedious, as you have to type the ITEM on the search box in exactly the order the item is named.
Instead, you should be able to type a few keywords and Bingo....the list shows all the item with these comomn keywords, then you select the one want, and you are done!

To compensate for this Zoho Books query search capability, now we have to rely on an external "Price List" implemented in Zoho Creator. There we have all 7K+ ITEM, we so a search in the Global Search Box, then we copy the ITEM name, then we move to ZOHO Books, and paste it on the ADD ITEM LINE. WHAT A PAIN IN TE NECK!

Bottom line, Zoho Books should have a better ITEM search capability, such we should be able to type a few keywords, and let the search engine present to you all the ITEMS with those keywords, then you select the one you want....very very easy.

I hope we are not the only one suffering from this Zoho Books shortcoming.

I find the item search to be unpredictable. I haven't documented my findings but it just seems like when searching for an item it is hit and miss.

Wow. Over a year and still not implemented. This is a major setback for us as well.We have over 1100 products, purchased Zoho and still have not implemented it do to this very reason.We tried barcoding in inventory module but that hasn't work either.

This is greatly needed by us as well. With over 1100 products, this is a deal breaker for us as it is too time consuming to scroll through that many products to find what your looking for.Kind of curious why this was made that way in the first place as it seems a standard comprehensive search would have been easier to implement for the entire field.

It would be so much easier to have a searchable item textbook.

Now when adding an item to an invoice, quote, etc.. you have to know EXACTLY what your item name is, otherwise the dropdownlist doesn't show it.

It would be a lot easier to have the dropdown list show all the item composed by the text we are typing in the text box.

While creating an Invoice, while searching the Item, we should be able to search it with any part of the words and not just the first four letters

This is important as it will make life easier for everyone.

and item name
not just start with, for example i have 50 products that have first 3 words the same, i loose a lot of time by scrolling

yes this is very very important......please transform you search box so that it is not just alphabetical but also a fraze or part of the word or part of the fraze

I do have 600 products and I promise you it is really a pain too.... Do we know if the actually read theses posts or not ?

I agree! Just moved across to Zoho yesterday, and thankfully saw this issue very quickly, so was able to structure the names of our products so staff will be able to find them easily.
An intelligent search box would have saved lots of time!

Totally agree!! we have more than 3000 different products so when we try to create an invoice we need to know how start the name to find it, because the system can't search portions of the name.

When making an estimate, invoice or bill, the textbox where you type the item name or number is not searchable !! That means if you do not know EXACTLY the name of your article (or at least what is strarts with), then you have to leave that page, go back to the items page, find the exact wording or the items you want, copy it then go back to your estimate and paste it.... That's a waste of time, especially when items name are long and complicated..