I mistakenly recorded an invoice as paid. How do I change it back to unpaid?

Hello, 

It's so important to keep track of which invoices have been paid, and which one's haven't. The powerful invoicing tools in QuickBooks Online are really user-friendly, and mistakes can always be corrected. I'd be happy to help you remove the payment you recorded on your invoice. 

Here's what you'll do:

1. Click the Sales tab on the left navigation menu. 

2. Select Invoices at the top of the page.

3. Locate the invoice you accidentally marked as paid and click to open it.

4. In the top right corner you'll see the Payment Status as PAID. Click the small blue link that says, "1 payment made".

5. Click the blue date link to open the Payment.

6. Click More at the bottom of the page.

7. Select Delete. 

That's how to properly remove the payment from your invoice. Once you do so, your invoice status will once again ask you to "Receive Payment". If you'd like more information on invoicing in QuickBooks Online, check out this article: Invoicing.

Let me know if you have any other questions. 

Have a great day! 

I don't see a "MORE" at the bottom of my page so I can't delete. I see an uncheck the invoice or clear payment. Would either of those make the invoice payable again? 

Hey Azwell99-nsa,

One of the most powerful features available in QuickBooks Online is the advanced tracking for your accounts receivable. By ensuring your invoices and payments are recorded correctly, you're making it easy to always know how much you're owed by your customers. I'll be happy to help you sort this out.

Typically if the More option is not visible, it's because the transaction hasn't been saved yet. As long as the invoice isn't checked on any payment, there should be no problem recording a new payment on it. If you're having trouble removing the payment, I think you might benefit from some real time assistance with an agent. They'll be able to see exactly what's going on to determine the best way to approach this. Choose from the options below to get in touch. 

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Don't hesitate to reach out! I want to make sure your accounts receivable are balanced.

If I follow these instructions will I be deleting the invoice?! Or just the payment status. I am too afraid to click delete without this information. Tks.

Hi kellysl. It's great to have you chime in on this thread. I'll be happy to share more information about invoices in QuickBooks. By following the steps provided by colleague Addie, if you delete the payment on an invoice that won't delete the entire invoice. You'll still be able to view the invoice and add another payment to it. In case you delete something by mistake, QuickBooks makes it easy to retrieve the info using the Audit log. The Audit Log tracks user login/logout activity, changes to settings, customers, suppliers, and employees. In order to find the deleted transactions, follow the steps below: 

1. Go to Settings ⚙ and select Audit Log.
2. Select Filter.
3. Use the fields on the Filter panel to choose the appropriate User, Date, or Events filter to narrow the results.
4. If you've recently created these transactions, locate them on the Audit log screen, click on the blue link to open the transaction in question and if you need to delete unwanted entries, you can easily do that from here. 
5. Select Apply.  

Let me know if this info helps. I'll be here in case you need anything else. 

it didn't delete the paid aspect, it deleted the invoice! a window popped up asking if I wanted to continue, so trusting instruction on your page I did..and it didn't delete paid, it deleted the invoice..how do I recover this.

it didn't delete the paid aspect, it deleted the invoice! a window popped up asking if I wanted to continue, so trusting instruction on your page I did..and it didn't delete paid, it deleted the invoice..can you tell me how do I reinstate  this invoice.

Hi IBWET. It's vital you're able to recover a deleted invoice and I'd be glad to give you a hand. QuickBooks is the go-to program for business owners looking to elevate their business and get ahead with their work. Based on what you've described, I encourage you to take advantage of the powerful Audit log feature which I've described above. With the Audit log, you can locate deleted transactions, and here's an article that walks you through how to use the Audit log to recover transactions. 

Give this a try and let me know how you make out. I'll be one message away. :) 

Hi I follow these instructions and I deleted the whole invoice completely. Sigh how can I recover the deleted invoice now ? 

maybe mentioning at the beginning of the instructions that this will delete the invoices and not just transaction would help a whole lot.. got people panicked. 

Hello Maria209,

Thanks for joining in on this thread about undoing the paid status on an invoice by deleting the related invoice payment transaction in QuickBooks Online. Reading through, I see that you and a few other users have run into the trouble of this deleting the entire invoice transaction alongside the payment, which isn't the end goal with these steps at all. I'd like to make sure that the correct steps are outlined and can explain how to recover your invoice.

I'll start with recovering the invoice since that's the point in the process you're at now. In QuickBooks Online, there isn't a way to undo a deleted transaction, so the way to get it back is to recreate it. If you're not sure of the details on the invoice, you can use the Audit Log feature like my colleague mentioned above to filter for the deleted transaction and see the related details. This article can help with that process: Use the audit log in QuickBooks Online. Once you have the details you need to recreate the invoice, you can take the usual steps to do so. If you'd like, however, here's an article that can help with creating invoices as well: Create invoices in QuickBooks Online

As for the steps shared by my colleague originally for deleting the invoice payment, the invoice shouldn't be deleted alongside the payment. The steps take you through the invoice to get to the payment transaction only, and when you go through to delete it, that's the transaction that's being deleted. I recommend reviewing the steps given to ensure that you followed each one.

Another way you can go about deleting payments is by finding the payment transaction in the All Sales or Customers sections of the Sales tab. For the All Sales section, you should simply see the payment among the other transactions; for the Customers section, you'll first have to select a customer. In both cases, you can click the individual payment transaction, then More at the bottom of the Receive Payment window, then Delete to get rid of it.

I hope this has helped clear up this process. Don't hesitate if you do have further questions about it though. I want to make sure the steps are as clear as possible so you don't run into this trouble again.

Take care.