Unable to perform direct list editing on item list; notice appears: Please select an item type before enabling editing.

Navigate to Lists > Accounting > Items.

Instead of seeing the capability to DLE items it shows this message:

Please select an item type before enabling editing

To resolve the problem perform the following steps:

1. At the lower left hand corner of the same page look for the Type field
2. From the drop down select a specific item type. For example: Inventory Item.

Notice that the Inline Editing button to switch it on and off becomes available.  Press On to use DLE.

You can refer to the field level help available on the page for further details.