What would be the best way to invoice for a 50% deposit? I'm trying to use the new feature but it also changes the quantity by 50% and not just the total amount due.

Hello maxcharron,

I can tell you're hard at work in QuickBooks Online today, and I'd be happy to go over how to record deposits for your customers in the program so that you can keep both the transaction and your books in balance.

Knowing which feature you're looking at that's reducing the quantity of your items by 50% would be helpful in guiding you with the steps you're taking with that. It sounds like you may be using a feature called Progress Invoicing, which gives you the opportunity to create an estimate and then create invoices, even only a portion of it, from the estimate. If you're using that and saying you want 50% of the estimate created, that's why it's also reducing the quantity of items as well. This method isn't quite effective for deposits, and I can highlight the way to handle deposits on invoices.

In QuickBooks Online's settings, there are a few fields you can toggle for sales forms, including Deposits. This feature works by adding an extra field where you can indicate a dollar amount of what the customer is paying you, which reduces the amount owed on the invoice without impacting the line items and quantities. Here's how you can toggle that option.

1. Select the Gear icon.
2. Choose Account and Settings.
3. Click the Sales tab.
4. Click the Sales form content section.
5. Toggle the Deposits option.
6. Click Save.

When you go back to or create new invoices now, you'll see that field in the subtotal section under the sales tax calculated. Here's a visual of what that looks like.

If you're looking to record a retainer or some other kind of deposit instead, I'd like to point you to the following article, which outlines steps you can take to do that: Record a retainer or deposit

I hope this has been helpful. Feel free to reply with further insight into your situation if I'm not quite landing on what you're looking for.

Enjoy your day.

Thank you very much for the quick response. 

I've used that "Deposit" function in the past but it also records as received payment which is not quite true as we haven't received it yet.  Is there a way around that? 

Thank you. 

Hi there @maxcharron,

It sounds to me like you're looking to send your customer an Invoice in the amount of half of their total, to act as a deposit. Since you haven't received the payment yet, I can see how adding the Deposit field to the Invoice isn't quite what you're looking for. I believe the steps that'll help you out most can be found in the article that was shared above by @LauraAB. Let me give you a hand.

The article goes over how to Record a retainer or deposit and highlights how you can set up set up a deposit that's treated as a liability. This shows that your business is holding the money and that it doesn't yet belong to you until it's been used to pay for services. It breaks down how to invoice customers for these deposits and how to turn the liability into income. 

The article will have you set up a Liability account at first and then an item to act as your Deposit or Retainer. Step 4 gives you the options to record either a Sales Receipt or an Invoice for these Deposits. In your case, I believe entering an Invoice is the correct process. Step 5 breaks down how you can turn your deposits into credits so that when you've received payment towards them you can record it like a payment in the system. I won't go through all the steps here because it's all laid out very clearly and with thorough steps in the article that's linked above. Please give that a read through and test it out to see if it'll work for what your business needs.

I'm here if you have follow-up questions on this. Have a great day!

Hello @maxcharron ,

Please see an older post here in which I describe in detail the correct way to handle a customer deposit.  There are other things that I pointed out that were a response to the OP in that thread and which may not apply directly to you, but the basic principles of the deposit and how to record it are the same.

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-ca/sales-customers/invoices-to-be-billed-at-later-dat...

Good luck!

You are completely missing the point of his question and since i have the same question let me try to explain the problem:

You have provided the customer with a quote for services, your company requires a 50% deposit to order materials and lock in a place on your schedule.  When you are dealing with residential customers they will usually just write you a check for the 50% and not ask for an invoice.  However when you are dealing with Condo Associations, Corporate Plazas, Country Clubs, Municipalities, or similar businesses they want you to provide an invoice for the 50% deposit.  Since Quickbooks (in our case Enterprise 22) does not have any deposit request templates or the like you have to create an Invoice. (This will of course infuriate your accounts since now you will need to pay sales taxes on services that have not actually been performed.)

So you say to your self, hmm  i could make a progress invoice.  Which is what it appears he was doing, so when you make the progress invoice it cuts the quantities in half.  I'm sure the folks at QB think this is what should happen, but oh no when you do that and are dealing with the common person this creates mayhem - almost every time no matter how many ways you explain it one of two things happens 1) the customer then thinks that they should send in a check for 50% of that amount so you end up with a deposit of 25%  or 2) the person pays the 50% deposit but then when you go to invoice them for remaining 50% they think you are trying to pull a fast one and double bill them and refuse to pay because the quantities shown on both invoices are the same.  Resulting in much wasted time on phone calls and e-mail trying to explain why the need to pay.

How could quickbooks solve this problem?  Very simply add a deposit request feature  - this would look like an invoice for the full amount with all quantities showing, with two major exceptions 1) after the Subtotal/Taxes/Total lines at the bottom a new line "Deposit Request for ___% = $          "    where you can tell QB what percent to calculate and it does the math.  2) this is does not get recorded as an invoice, its a new category similar to estimates. You would record the deposit when it arrives and after the work is completed the deposit is then applied to the invoice. 

Unless i have missed in in my 20+ years of using quickbooks there is not a way to currently do this.

Hello @eivc1 ,

There is a way to do this if your client absolutely must have an invoice.  Normally, as you alluded to in your post, a client will just give you a lump sum for a deposit, and you would use a Receive Payment to that client's A/R account, and leave it sitting there as an unapplied payment until such time as you invoice the client.  The A/R balance will update to the current balance owing.

However, if they must have an invoice, you can do it this way:

1. Create a current liability account called Customer Deposits (if you don't have one already).
2. Create a new item with type Other Charge.  Call it Deposit Received and link it to the account you created in step one (Tax Code would be E for Exempt).
3. When you receive a deposit from a customer, create an invoice.  Use the item you just created in Step 2, entering something to the effect of Down Payment for goods/services not yet rendered.  Do not add any taxes! It is not necessary, as you are not creating a sale yet; you are simply creating a liability that you owe that client the $ value of the deposit in either goods, services or cash.
4. Use Receive Payment like you would for any other A/R.  The invoice you created in Step 3 will show up in the list to apply the payment against.
5. When you are ready to bill your client for the full amount of goods and/or services plus taxes, create your A/R invoice as you normally would.  If there is more than one line on the invoice, use a sub-total at the end of the list of items you are charging for.
6. On another line of the invoice, enter the Deposit Received item you created in Step 2.  Enter a negative qty of 1, and the amount of the deposit.  The extended amount will be a negative.  The invoice total will be the difference owing to you, and takes care of clearing the liablity as well.  You can also enter no Qty at all, and just enter the negative amount of the deposit.

That's it.  Works like a charm.  Hope it helps :)

Square has this feature! But I wish QuickBooks had it so I could just do everything in one place! It’s 2022. They haven’t gotten around to it yet? I need it! I’m a catering service that requires a 50% to hold a day. I usually just send an invoice from square and it lets you send the whole invoice but they have the link to only pay 50% and the rest of the payment you can schedule it to be automatically charged the day of the event. It’s the best! Please QuickBooks!! Help! 

Hello there, @atxcatering.

Thanks for sharing your insights here in the QuickBooks Community. I want you to know that the changes in the program are released based on certain several factors. We're unable to provide the turnaround time on when new features are released in QuickBooks, since this is handled by the Developers Team.

Please know that you can share your suggestion within the program through sending a product feedback. Follow the steps below in a web browser:

1. Click the Gear icon and choose Feedback.
2. Enter your suggestion for our engineers on the Feedback box.
3. Once done, press Next to send it.

In the meantime, here's what you can do in QUickBooks. If there is no invoice created yet for a customer, the way you record partial payment in QuickBooks is through a retainer deposit. Using this method, you can apply it as a payment at a later time. Here are the steps to do that:

Step 1: Create a trust liability bank account: (optional)

1. Go to the Gear Icon then pick Chart of Accounts.
2. At the top of the screen, click New.
3. Use Bank Account for the Category Type.
4. Select Trust account under Detail Type.
5. Enter the name you want. Example: Trust Liability Bank Account, or leave the account name as is.

Step 2: Create a trust liability account:

1. Choose the Gear Icon then Chart of Accounts.
2. At the top, press New.
3. Select Other Current Liabilities under Catergory Type.
4. Use Trust Accounts – Liabilities under Detail Type.
5. Enter the name you want the hit Save.

Step 3: Create a product or service item that uses the trust liability account

1. Tap the Gear Icon then Products and Services.
2. Click the New button.
3. In the Name field, enter a description for the product or service item. Example: Retainer.
4. Click the Income Account drop-down and select a Trust Liability account.
5. Press Save.

To get more information about this, see this article: Record a retainer or deposit.

For existing invoices, you may apply the deposit as a partial payment. All you need to do is adjust the amount when receiving them in QuickBooks.

Here's how:

1. Click the + New icon then Receive Payment.
2. Fill in the customer name and mark the invoice to be paid under Outstanding Transactions.
3. On the Payment column, enter the deposit amount (see screenshot).
   
4. Click Save and close.

If you need further help with applying payments in QBO, please let me know in the comment below. I'll be right here to share some more information about QuickBooks tasks. Have a nice day!

So ridiculous that it touches the quantity field at all. Otherwise the feature of being able to control by line what the deposit is required is something that is much needed. Everything else is a workaround and not a proper business process flow. May as well go back to using excel.

I am so confused. 

Hi ksteg55,

Thanks for joining us here!  It's essential that you have complete understanding when it comes to recording a deposit accurately in QuickBooks Online.  I see that valuable information has been added to this thread to walk you through the process.  I suggest reaching out to your accountant for their expertise if you're uncertain about the steps provided here.  If you don't have an accountant, we can help you locate a ProAdvisor in your local area.  If you'd like to contact us, we'd have the pleasure to work with you independently and navigate through the process to ensure you're able to establish your QuickBooks goals in a timely fashion.

Feel free to reach back out if you have other questions.  We'd love to help!  

Afaik, QB Payment doesn't yet offer such feature You need to explore a 3rd party merchant service to do so.