QuickBooks 2011: The Missing Manual

Receiving Payments for Invoiced Income

How you record an invoice payment depends on the type of payment. Most of the time, you’ll click Receive Payments on the Home page, but you can also choose Customers→Receive Payments. Either way, you’ll see the Receive Payments window, which handles full and partial payments, early payment discounts, credits, and downloaded online payments.

The Receive Payments window works for most payments, but you record some types of payments in other places. Here are the windows that can record payments and when to use them:

• Receive Payments. When your customers send you money, on the Home page, click Receive Payments to record them (Receiving Payments for Invoiced Income). This window is for full or partial payments that you receive after you’ve made a sale. Here you can apply early payment discounts, credits for returns, and downloaded online payments. (See Receiving Payments for Invoiced Income to find out how to record the deposits for any type of payments.)

• Create Invoices. As explained in the box on Different Ways to Apply Payments, this is where you record a partial payment that you receive before you prepare an invoice. These payments appear on the next invoice you create and reduce its balance.

• Enter Sales Receipts. When your customers pay in full at the time of sale (with cash, check, or credit card), record payments in this window (Creating Sales Receipts). If your customer makes a down payment or prepays an invoice, use this window to create credit ...