When I add a payment to an invoice and then create a receipt to send to a client, the transaction is doubled and creates a false income statement. How can I fix this?

Hello veermanacres,

Thanks for sharing a bit about what's going on when you're working with your customer payments and sending them receipts in QuickBooks Online. I know the accuracy of your numbers is integral to both you and your customer, and I can help you sort this out to make sure that the figures aren't doubled.

From what you're describing, I suspect you may be using both the Receive Payment and Sales Receipt feature for the same payment transaction. If that's the case, that's where the doubling is coming from as these are individual features that shouldn't be used for the same transaction. The Receive Payment is to record a payment against an invoice, whereas the Sales Receipt function is to record a single transaction where the product or service and funds were exchanged at the same time.

In this case, select one method or the other. When you're working with an invoice, the Receive Payment option is the way to go. Once you've filled out that form with the appropriate details, you can choose Save and send from the green button drop-down at the bottom of the window to send a receipt for that payment to the customer. This option won't double your numbers as it's just sending your customer a copy of the info you entered into Receive Payment.

If you have been entering sales receipts in addition to the Receive Payment transaction, I recommend going through and deleting those so that you don't have duplicate figures in your books. This article can help: Void or delete transactions in QuickBooks Online

For you reference, here's our Community article about invoices and sales receipts: Should I use an invoice or a sales receipt?

That should get you back on track, but don't hesitate if you have further questions. I'm here to help!

Thank you so much! I am using the mobile version app on my phone. I cannot find any option to send a receipt from the invoice. (There no menu at bottom) Can you direct me on how to do this please? 

If I’ve added payments on invoice and then a separate reciept with the add receipt button, do I need to go to my receipt list and delete every receipt I’ve ever made to have accurate balance? 

Knowing that you're using the mobile app to work with the program helps. Thanks for adding that detail! When creating an invoice payment in the app, the options will look a bit different. Instead of a Save and send, you might just have a Save (iOS app) or a Done (Android app) button. Once you hit Save, it should take you to the payment transaction review.

If you're using the iOS app, take note of the three dots at the top right of the Invoice Payment window after hitting Save. Click that and you should see the option to email it out. Similarly, in the Android app, once you hit Done, there's a three dot menu in the upper right of the Invoice Payment window, where you can also select Email.

When you do that, it'll open your mobile email provider for you to enter the details to email the payment receipt to the customer. In this case, it provides a basic summary in the body of the email rather than a more structured summary and an attachment of the invoice payment receipt as a PDF attachment like when it's sent through the browser or the QuickBooks Online app for Windows/Mac. Both ways work, of course, it's just a matter of how you want to present the information to the group.

As for the sales receipts you created for the same transactions as the invoice payment: yes, you can go ahead and delete those duplicate amounts. Don't delete the receipts that are truly standalone transactions, but to get rid of duplicate amounts, you'll want to delete the others. The article I shared in my original response notes how to do that via browser or the app for Windows/Mac, but the steps will be different for the mobile app. To delete those in the app, navigate to the Sales Receipt section of the app, select a receipt, then the three dot menu, where you'll find the option to Delete. Do this for each one.

Give me another shout if you have more questions!