Of course, always blame the user when something does not work right in QuickBooks. You cannot tell that they changed their list to Flat View. What you can tell by the screenshot is that the list IS in Flat View. Likely, this list reverted to flat view because I have experienced this happening to me repeatedly and without my ever changing the list view. I personally do not like flat view at all. If that option did not exist I would not miss it or ever have a reason to view anything in Flat View.

I happened to come across this thread because once again, QuickBooks reverting to Flat View is a daily occurrence and annoyance. My Customer List has been reverting to flat view all on its own since about the 2022 release. Apparently, Flat View is a hidden default within QuickBooks that constantly overrides hierarchical view. Since it began happening, I have been able to get Hierarchical View to stick for a little while with some tinkering, but after every update I would need to go through this process again because without fail my list will revert to Flat View. A view that is highly inconvenient for a contractor that has customers with multiple jobs under their main account. To have it stick I would have to go through the process of changing the customer list back to Hierarchical View, resort the list, then I would double check that my other lists (Item List and Chart of Accounts) were still in Hierarchical View. Then I would go to preferences, save the current desktop, close QuickBooks then reopen it. Until recently, my Item List and Chart of Accounts would stay in Hierarchical View, however since an update or two ago my Item List also reverts to Flat View, but my Chart of Accounts remains in Hierarchical View.

I have used QuickBooks for years without any issue with my Customer List reverting to Flat View. This is either a bug created during an earlier release, and it has not been repaired or the developers in their infinite wisdom have decided for me how I should view my Customer List. If you give the user a choice to view a list certain way, it should be something that sticks and does not require your users to create workarounds to get it to work and only a brief period at that.