Why are some of my Sales invoices being posted to a 'sub' Accounts Receivable account

Hi SEBEssex.

Having all your entries go into the right accounts is the cornerstone of good bookkeeping. I'd be happy to help go over why some of your sales invoices are going into a sub account.

Sub accounts are not something that QuickBooks creates or assigns transactions to automatically. If you're sales invoices are being posted to a sub account it could be due to the items on that invoice being assigned to the sub account. I recommend checking the items on the invoice to see what accounts they are set to post to by going to Sales>Products and Services.

If you have any questions let us know and we'd be happy to help.

I am having the same issue. You choose the revenue account when you set up a product or service but not the AR account so that's not the solution.  When I run an AR Detail Report and include the Split Account you can see two invoices with the same Service, same revenue account (because that's assigned to the Service) but in the Split Account column one is posting to the correct AR account and one is posting to the wrong AR account. Where is that account (the debit side) pulling from? I've read and watched several QBO tutorials and everyone keeps saying Invoices can only post to one AR account but that's not true.  The person who setup this business created several AR accounts and when they enter 50 invoices with the same Service they post to 4 different AR accounts.  I will so very thankful for any insight you can provide.  

I appreciate your time joining this thread about the invoices in QuickBooks posting to a different Accounts Receivables account.

QuickBooks Online will only use a default A/R account, per currency, to post invoices. However, you can still add sub-accounts and other receivable accounts if needed. 

See this link to learn more about special and default accounts in QBO: Manage default and special accounts in your QuickBooks Online chart of accounts.

For now I want to know more about the problem. Can you please send us a screenshot of the report showing the split account? Also, did the business ever imported invoices or accounts? This issue is unusual and any details will help me find a resolution for you.

I'll be waiting for your reply here. Mention me in you posts to notify me of your response.

Hello Jen. Thank you so much for responding. The first blue highlighted lines in the attached file are a good example of invoices that are posting to different AR accounts.  Everything other than the description she typed in is exactly the same for the two invoices (2 different customers) EXCEPT the AR account the invoice debited.  (The orange highlighted cells are a few of the different AR accounts invoices are posting to.) I'm not sure how it's happening but the AR is a mess and nobody has time to do journal entries (and choose customers) for every invoice that has posted to the wrong AR account.  The bad news is it will continue to get worse until we can figure out what is determining the account that gets debited when she is entering invoices.  As you can see, it doesn't appear there are any parent or sub-accounts set up so I don't think that's the issue but clearly you can post to more than one AR account.   

Hi B3House,

Thanks for getting back to us here.  QuickBooks Online provides options for recording the transactions to save valuable time.  In addition to the information provided above, I'd be happy to chime in with other options.

The first section to review is your products and services and check the associated default account that's been selected.  In addition, when transactions are going to the incorrect account, I suggest taking a look to see if any Bank rules have been created, causing the transactions to be categorized automatically based on a bank rule.  You may need to edit a rule so the transactions are logged in the correct account.  For existing transactions, you can reach out to your accountant to reclassify them as a batch.

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Honestly, I think your QB AI system needs work.  

did you get an answer to that?

I migrated from QB Desktop to QBO and I have the same problems. Same items but different customers and AR receivable is different... Did not find anywhere to modify the A/R and never created different AR from the get go. Seems the import from QB desktop did it on its own... this is quite annoying and would appreicate a solution

Hi, @bertrand3. What do you mean by "Same items but different customers, and A/R receivable is different"? Do you mean that transactions have been changed to different customers? Or only the specific A/R balance is different? And do you have multiple A/R accounts in QBDT?

When transitioning from QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) to QuickBooks Online (QBO), you may notice some differences in your financial reports. Reports based on accrual accounting in QBO will align with those in QBDT. However, cash-basis reports might not match, as the Desktop and online versions handle the recognition of paid transactions differently.

Accounts receivable in a cash-basis company depend on the payment dates or when the amount is received, which affects the bank. You need to correct the dates since they will also affect the data displayed on the report.

If you want to learn more about the steps you should take after moving from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online, you can read this article: Learn what to do after moving from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online. (Though this article is for the U.S. region, it still works in your region.)

Feel free to reach out whenever you need assistance with managing accounts receivable or running reports.