QuickBooks Desktop Sync Issue: Names in this list cannot contain a colon

A Customer or Contract fails to sync when its QuickBooks name contains a colon. QuickBooks Desktop rejects the record with this error:

Example: Names in this list cannot contain a colon (:).

Why QuickBooks Desktop blocks colons in names

Maxio guards against this on the Customer side before it ever reaches QuickBooks Desktop: a Customer's QuickBooks Name and Company Name fields both reject a colon at save time. A Contract's QuickBooks name, the one on its QuickBooks Job Profile, has no equivalent check in Maxio, so a colon there can pass Maxio's own validation and still get rejected once the Contract syncs to QuickBooks Desktop. The reason QuickBooks Desktop itself disallows the colon character is a detail of QuickBooks Desktop, not something Maxio's codebase can confirm.

Removing the colon from the QuickBooks name field

The fix happens in Maxio, not in QuickBooks Desktop. To remove the colon:

1. Open the Customer or Contract named in the sync error and edit it.
2. Find the QuickBooks Information section on a Customer, or the QuickBooks Job Profile section on a Contract, and locate the Name field, or the Company Name field if that one has the colon.
3. Remove the colon from the name, then select Save.
4. Sync again. The record should now sync to QuickBooks Desktop.

Avoiding this error

Leave colons out of a Customer's or Contract's QuickBooks name going forward. Maxio only blocks the colon automatically on a Customer's Name and Company Name fields, so check a Contract's QuickBooks name for colons too before its first sync, since Maxio does not stop you from saving one there.

Related information

For the full list of QuickBooks Desktop sync failures and what causes each one, see QuickBooks Desktop Sync Issues.

If your sync is instead failing because a name matches one already in use, see QuickBooks Desktop Sync Issue: The name of the list element is already in use.