The issue being discussed in this article is:
When creating items in QuickBooks Online (QBO) through SI, the following error message displays:
The parent item 'X' already exists as a QuickBooks item, which is not of type category. Parent items in QuickBooks Online must be of type category.
The following is the screenshot of the error:
Before v20, the following error was displayed:
A business validation error has occurred while processing your request. Business Validation Error: Not a valid product or service name. Names must have at least one character and cannot include tabs, newlines, or ':'.
The following is the screenshot of the error.
The following is the cause:
In SI, you have your item format for QuickBooks items set to use X characters of a field (usually Manufacturer), followed by X characters of another field (usually Model).
With this configuration, the model will be the manufacturer's subitem when created in QBO.
QBO requires that "parent" items must be a category. What is likely happening here is that you already have an item in QBO with the same name as the "parent" item you are trying to create, and it does not exist as a category in QBO.
The following is the resolution:
In QBO, create at least one category. Creating one category will "turn on" the Category feature in QBO, and you can now create the item from SI.
Check out QuickBooks Online documentation or Google for the latest QBO instructions for this, but as of this post, you will open "Products & services" and click More > Manage categories.
