Invoices and Accounts Receivable

I'm having a similar problem. I'm entering all my deposits under receive payment directly to the appropriate bank account (no invoice).  I have reconciled accounts yet when I look at profit and loss statements it is showing all my deposits in accounts receivable and as a negative number. How do I get them out of a/r without messing up my reconciled bank accounts.

You should never use Receive Payment with no open charges. That means you have no income and are creating generic AR credits. You have not charged anyone for anything, and are generically showing you are getting money. Reconciling the bank has nothing to do with income. You are confusing Cash Flow with Income; they are not the same. You need to create invoices listing what they are charged for and how much, then apply these payments to the invoices. Watch your dates , too. Sales need to happen before payments. This will not impact the bank, but will fix the income and clear AR.

So what is the best way to do this now that I have all these a/r out there ? Create a generic invoice for each of the deposits with the same date? Can I do a months worth of a/r on one invoice and date it at the beginning of the month?

Not one invoice, but once invoice per customer name, and not monthly but by how and when you got paid. You use Sales Receipts because the date of sale also is the date of payment. You use invoice because as of the date of sale, this sale is not paid. Payment will follow at a later date. That is the step you jumped to, directly. You bypassed all sales functionality, and you cannot Receive Payments and expect this to be meaningful for the bookkeeping. You didn't even go directly to the deposit screen, which would have made less of a mess. I'm sorry, but you really need to use the Help system and get someone to provide a bit of training or at least an overview of the program, or you will just be spinning your wheels. The functions and tools exist because you are doing more than managing a bank account balance.

fwiw, there's a great book called QuickBooks - the Hidden Manual that's 800+ pages of great, detailed info on how to do things right and how to diagnose mistakes.  It's not cheap but worth hours' worth of headaches.

Perhaps you mean "The Missing Manual?"

Doesn't work when you make 1 deposit with multiple invoices, QB's can't sort what the bank doesn't show and no way to do it. I am at my wits end with QB and AR.

@clay.thornton You are supposed to use Receive Payment, not Deposit entries posting to AR.

"QB's can't sort what the bank doesn't show"

It helps if you start your Own Topic.

@qbteachmt I did use receive d* payment and it still doesn't sort right and why create a new topic when this one shows up as active in Google?
I send invoice they pay via check I go deposit 5 checks to business account and use the split function and it puts EVERY deposit into AR no matter what and QB never captures the individual deposits even inside the split records it doesn't calculate the invoice number as being the payment I am entering. I have fought with this for 3+ years!

@uswebworx
"and why create a new topic when this one shows up as active in Google?"
Uh, because this is for How To Use QB for Mac 2014, posted from Feb 2014...

It won't apply to Anything Anyone is using, now.

"I send invoice they pay via check I go deposit 5 checks to business account and use the split function"

Stop Doing Deposit. You are skipping over Receive Payment. The First Step is to use Receive Payment, to show this pays specific invoices.

"and it puts EVERY deposit into AR"

You are confusing Data Flow with the Banking. Of Course this is Clearing the open AR balances. This is not Income to you. This is the banking that results from Making Sales. Your Invoices have created Income, already.

"no matter what and QB never captures the individual deposits even inside the split records it doesn't calculate the invoice number as being the payment I am entering. I have fought with this for 3+ years!"

Whatever you are doing is the Wrong place to start, then. You started with Invoices. Look at your Home Page and follow the Arrow to the Next Icon.