What is the purpose of the Open Balance column on the Sales by Product/Service Detail report?

Hi there, 

QuickBooks Online comes stocked with tons of awesome reports that help you better understand the inner workings of your business finances. I know how helpful it is to include additional columns and make custom changes to the way your report is displayed. I'll explain what the Open Balance column does in the Sales by Product/Service Detail Report. 

Since this report is centred around information pertaining to the products/services in QBO, the invoice balance is simply demonstrative of transactions that include each item. The "Open Balance" column won't apply to this specific report.

If you're looking for a more in-depth report that will display open balances for each of your customers, try running the Customer Balance Detail Report. This report shows you how much each customer owes you, and the corresponding individual invoices.

I hope this helps you gather all the information you need about your customers and their open balances. 

If you need any additional assistance, please reach out to our tech support team.

Cheers. 

Thanks for your response.  Unfortunately, while the Customer balance Detail report is helpful, I am looking for a report that shows outstanding balances as well as the products that were purchased on the particular invoice.  I have tried doing that on the Customer Balance Detail report, but unfortunately that report won't show any memo/description, so I assume that the purpose of the memo/description column in that report serves the same purpose as the Open Balance column in the Sales by Product Detail report i.e. none :(

That's correct. The Memo/Description field appears blank in this report, as it typically doesn't pertain to the information being extracted from the transaction. I can see how it would serve a useful purpose for your needs, and I'd recommend submitting feedback about this to our product development team so we can consider it for future updates. I'll be happy to pass along your feedback on my end as well.

Have a great day.

I am literally trying to get the same report.  I need to pull a report which shows the customer, the product/service (or even class) and balance remaining on their invoices.  Is there any way to do that?  It was very easy with Quickbooks Desktop.

Hey Kristi09. Thanks for joining the thread. It's so vital that you're able to review how much your customers owe on their invoices. The report that connects most accurately to your needs is the Customer Balance Detail Report. While there's a ton of other filter/column options, the ability to include the product/service/class isn't available here. In this case, I'd suggest submitting feedback by clicking the Gear icon > Feedback. We're always looking for ways to improve the product.

Would the customer balance reports be basically tied to an AR account? In other words, the report is breaking down what's sitting in AR?

Hi there. The Customer Balance report shows you how much each customer owes you. The reports shows you the individual invoices which affect your AR account. Feel free to ask other questions, I'm here to help.

Hi,

Did you figure it out?

I also need this report.

This is so Puzzling.  What is the purpose of the open balance if it doesn't reflect the correct balance on an invoice.

If you figured it out, please share!

Thanks,

Luz

Luz,

I didn't figure it out.  I now have to pull 2 separate reports for my needs, when in quickbooks desktop it was just one report.  And I can't even have the sales rep name on the report....hope QB will fix this issue!

Hi Kristi09, I can see how having a product/service filter for the Customer Balance Detail Report as well as custom fields' names displayed on reports would have been handier for your business. We are always looking for ways to improve the product, and I invite you to share your thoughts with our product development team by going to the Gear icon > Feedback in your account.

Feel free to stop by anytime if you have other questions.

Have a great day!

Hi James - 

To be more precise, should the Customer Balance Detail report as of given date (e.g., year end) tie to the Customer Balance per the A/R Aging report, and in total to the A/R Balance per the Balance sheet as of year end?  I'm finding that my A/R Aging report correctly ties to the Balance Sheet, however, the Customer Balance Detail report, while run as of the year end date, does not tie to the A/R Aging report. It appears to be net of all payments that have posted after year end, however, none of that detail is reflected in the report.  

Is this intended to be an open balance report for customer charges as of a certain date, net of all payments as of the day I generate the report?

Hi there chillen,

QuickBooks Online offers an extensive list of customizable reports for you to use as a resource when doing your books. Comparing these reports is a great way to get a more thorough snapshot of money movement and to make sure transactions are accounted for as expected. Let me explain what each of these reports will show.

The Customer Balance Summary and Customer Balance Detail reports both show you how much each customer owes you for the specified date range, as of the date that the report is run. The Customer Balance Detail will also give you a breakdown of individual invoices, outlining the total amount of the invoice, and the open balance. These will both reflect the same total amount owed.

Your Accounts Receivable Aging Summary shows the unpaid balances for each customer, grouped by dates past due. The Balance Sheet breaks down your assets, liabilities, and equity. As you indicated, the line for A/R in the Balance Sheet, matches the A/R Aging Summary. These amounts will also match the Customer Balance Detail/Summary as long as you have selected the same date range, and ensured that there are no specific customizations saved that could change the report's output.

I hope this clears things up. I'm here if you have any other questions! 

Found this in 2022 and it is still wonky but there's a workaround:

In the Sales by Product/Service Detail > Group by Customer > Filter by whichever products/services you're investigating. THEN under "Columns" add "A/R Paid". It won't show you the customer's open balance but it will at least show if the invoice containing those P/S has been paid.